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11 Phrases to Eliminate from Your Writing

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By Rachael Hope

Edit away un-necessary words

I spent 9 years off and on doing ghostwriting work for a company that provides blog posts and articles for online marketing to its customers. I learned a lot during that time both about how writing for online sources differs from other types of writing, and about writing in general. When you need to catch someone’s attention in the first sentence to compel them to keep reading, you get good at making those words count.

Conditioning myself to edit out un-necessary words has made a huge improvement in my personal writing. In ghostwriting, we had specific word counts to be followed, so if our articles were too long we’d have to really examine if all of the words we’d put down needed to be there. Eliminating filler words, or phrases that don’t actually add anything to the piece of writing, is the number one way to do that.

I now spend most of my free time writing for myself on a variety of subjects. After I “finish” writing a piece, I spend a good amount of time reading and re-reading it, refining sentences, and deleting these extraneous words. It’s not that they don’t make sense where they are, but they take up space and more importantly, they use up some of my reader’s limited attention span.

Editing allows you to the opportunity to make your writing more relatable, more personal, more interesting, and more engaging. Eliminating these 11 words and phrases is an easy place to start.

Had/Has

Before: I had learned to prepare the dumplings from my grandmother.

After: My grandmother taught me how to prepare the dumplings, her arms encircling mine as she showed me how to fold the delicate wrappers.

‘Had learned’ or ‘has learned’ are both examples of passive fillers. When you’re writing to connect and engage with people, writing in the active voice is almost always better than writing passively. Use the opportunity to draw someone in to your story, to paint a picture with your words rather than just describing the situation.

One of

Before: One of the best things about writing on Medium is that you can connect with the community.

After: Connecting with writers who share the same passions is one of my favorite things about Medium.

Almost everything is ‘one of’ some other number of things. When you’re trying to capture someone’s attention, a sentence beginning with filler words is never going to be your friend. Especially when writing to publish online, you’ve got a very limited amount of time to draw a reader in and you have to work to keep their attention. In the second sentence, you get straight to the meat of it: connection. In this case, the edit also allows you to offer something personal about yourself rather than telling the person what they can do, which can be a great way to relate to your reader.

Truth be told

Before: Truth be told, I really hate black licorice.

After: Black licorice is nauseating.

I’m not sure how this phrase got so popular, but it only serves to make writing sound outdated. Unless the things you wrote up to the point of usage were lies, there’s really no reason to point out that you believe what you’re writing is the truth. Most writers are writing their truths. Additionally, you’ve got another case of beginning a sentence in passivity. Putting the black licorice at the front gives you the opportunity to use more interesting, active language at the end of the sentence.

While

Before: While growing up, I lived in a shack.

After: Growing up, I lived in a small shack on the edge of the woods.

‘While’ or ‘while I was’ are both phrases that can be re-worked to be more active and eye-catching for your reader. Even if all you do is remove the word and make the second word the beginning of your sentence, it will do more to engage your reader and draw them in to what you’re sharing.

I think

Before: I think we could all learn something from Bill Nye, the Science Guy.

After: The lessons I’ve learned from Bill Nye, the Science Guy have changed my life.

Everything you write is full of things you think. Sometimes it feels good to put an ‘I think’ in front of something, because it acts as a bit of a buffer, making it clear that this is an opinion and not a truth. Be bold with your writing! Instead of using the words ‘I think,’ paint a picture of what you’re talking about, and why you feel the way you do.

In the end

Before: In the end, I decided that quitting my job was the right choice.

After: Quitting my job wasn’t easy, but I’ve never looked back.

‘In the end’ is just another filler phrase that doesn’t serve much purpose. Maybe it’s a throwback to our grade school days when we were taught that every piece of writing needed a beginning, a middle, and an end. I know that sometimes when I’m writing and nearing the end of a piece, I have an urge to wrap it up nicely. Doing that with ‘in the end,’ is just lazy writing.

When all’s said and done

Before: When all’s said and done, baking cookies is super fun.

After: Baking cookies is a fun hobby, with the added bonus that people love you.

Another un-necessary set of words that writers use to wrap something up. Look how much more active and playful you can make a sentence by removing that language and focusing on the fun of the hobby.

There are

Before: There are a thousand different ways to practice polyamory.

After: Polyamory comes in almost endless iterations.

‘There are’ was one of the very first phrases I learned to avoid when I started writing for online audiences. If your goal is to capture your reader’s attention, ‘are’ is a passive verb at best. Changing it up allows you to highlight your subject and make a sentence more active and compelling to your reader.

Starting to / Begin to

Before: I’m starting to think there’s more to the story than he’s letting on.

Before: I began to wonder if there was more to the story than he was letting on.

After: Something felt off, my gut told me that he wasn’t giving me the whole story.

‘Starting’ or ‘beginning’ are passive words. Why talk about beginning to wonder when you can just talk about wondering? Removing the passive voice creates the opportunity to instead highlight how or why something felt a certain way, or why you were thinking it.

Sometimes

Before: Sometimes, especially in the beginning, it can be…

After: Especially in the beginning, it can be…

‘Sometimes’ is another good example of a word that doesn’t need to be written because it’s almost always implied. Unless you’ve written something beforehand that makes it necessary to specify that this isn’t something that happens all the time, people will generally assume that you’re talking about sometimes.

Almost every phrase I’ve listed here is empty filler. Every time you find it in your writing is an opportunity to replace it with something more active, more descriptive, and more engaging. The more you work this angle, the easier it will get to spot them and re-work the words into something even better.

All rules have exceptions, but paying attention to whether the words you’re using really need to be there will give you better insight into your writing. It will force you to become a more active and intentional writer who always strives for improvement.

Feature Image Credit: By Anne Karakash from Pixabay

By Rachael Hope

Sourced from The Writing Cooperative

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I got mansplained and it changed my marketing

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We need to think seriously about imagery, messaging and team roles in how we communicate with customers, coworkers and vendors. Here are three ways to start that process.

This column will be tough for me to write because, after 20 years of being in marketing, something happened to me that changed the way I see our industry.

It gave me new insight into situations that women face every day. I’ve heard them talk about it, but I didn’t understand it until it happened to me.

I got mansplained.

Merriam-Webster defines it like this: “When a man talks condescendingly to someone (especially a woman) about something he has incomplete knowledge of, with the mistaken assumption that he knows more about it than the person he’s talking to does.”

Stick with me while I explain what happened and why it made me rethink marketing.

How it happened

I’ve been looking for a service to transcribe calls and online meetings so I can listen more intently to what my clients and co-workers are saying instead of trying to take notes and multitask.

I signed up with one service for a trial. A few days later, I got the expected follow-up email saying, “Thanks for signing up; if you’d like to learn more, I’d love to give you a demo.”

As an entrepreneur and tech-industry investor for years, I’m always open to the opportunity to talk with a company about their business and their tech in this space, what their challenges and struggles are and how they market their services.

So, I scheduled a time. The account exec and I chatted briefly via email about my company and service requirements. So far, so good.

Then, I got the email that shook my world. Here’s what he said:

“I see you’re the co-founder of your org. You also might be looking to test this tool to maybe roll out to others on your team. That’s awesome and you’re obviously one of the top main decision makers, but just to be candid you’re better off delegating the testing/validating aspect to someone else on your team. I’ve been working with CEO’s/Founders of many different orgs for months and 90% of them are too busy and don’t have the bandwidth to incorporate a new piece of tech into their routine yet. [Brand] does need a ramp up time to learn about ones business.  [Brand] is not a silver bullet out the gate, therefore please let others do the testing/validating. You’re definitely the right level, but not the right one to do the testing.“ (Emphasis is mine.)

My reaction? “How dare you tell me what my business is and what my skill level should dictate?!”

Now, I have seen some bad sales emails in my time. My inbox is full of them. And I don’t have the patience for people who don’t take the time to communicate well.

So, I fired off a reply: “This is probably the worst email asking for other members to be involved in the process. I could think of a few hundred ways to say ‘hey, do you want to have your tech guys on the call to discuss with them also?’ I will decline the meeting and move on to another technology partner.”

The awakening

After I settled down, I told a friend what happened. The first words out of her mouth?

“You just got mansplained!”

Yes! Yes, I was mansplained. And, suddenly, I understood how insulting and how crass that can be, how frustrating for anyone, especially women who get this all the time.

At that moment, I began to see marketing differently.

Maybe you’re chuckling, too. A man mansplaining another man? Yep, it happened. And what I hope you take away from this incident and my reaction is that you open your eyes to how you communicate with your customers, coworkers, peers, vendors, clients and prospects.

3 ways to overcome bias in marketing

We need to think seriously about imagery, messaging and team roles and responsibilities to change the conversation and not inadvertently offend or belittle the people we work with. Here are three ways to start that process.

1. Review the images you use in your marketing collateral and other materials.

Shortly after this experience, I put together a presentation on a marketing approach for different personas within the dental industry. I had pictures to illustrate job roles such as dentists, hygienists, nurses, receptionists and technology staff.

Then I saw what I had done. I had chosen photos of a male dentist, a female hygienist and a female receptionist. Why did the dentist have to be male and the hygienist female? My own dental office has female dentists. But I subconsciously perpetuated the stereotype.

Look at your sales collateral and marketing emails. Review your personas, copy examples and artwork. See how you communicate to your customers and coworkers with imagery that perpetuates gender stereotypes.

2. Audit the language and content your salespeople use with prospective customers for potentially offensive language and concepts.

Whether you participate in or lead your company’s marketing team, your role is to control how your brand’s voice, message and equity is communicated by your workers.

In B2B, your salespeople and your marketing collateral (presentations, printed slicks, email and web content) are the primary drivers that shape your brand.

In B2C, it happens through your messaging via email, your website, social media, texting and other channels as well as personal interactions in stores and other physical locations.

When was the last time you audited what your salespeople are saying? Have you looked for potential mansplaining in the language you use to describe your product mix? Do you over-explain your value proposition because of gender bias?

How often do you look at what your salespeople say to prospects or your copywriters are writing in white papers, marketing collateral and other customer-facing content?

Speaking of which, here’s a follow-up on my communication with the transcription-company account exec. About 20 minutes after I sent my reply, I got an email that was contrite and apologetic. Did I end up agreeing to a demo after all?

No. Because I suspected he tried to spin this as a funny story to his boss, and the boss said, “You blew it.”

3. Examine the roles and responsibilities of your marketing team.

I have been lucky enough in my career to work with phenomenal women. In the last ten years, more than 75% of my team members have been women. But I also know companies that relegate women to stereotypical jobs. If men lead the group, more often, women are assigned to positions based on gender.

If we’re going to change the corporate landscape, we have to expand opportunities for women. We must look past gender bias in hiring and consideration of women for nontraditional roles.

What are you doing to create equal opportunities? Have you checked yourself, your practices and your communications? Maybe you over-explain in some cases and under-explain in others, such as in training new hires.

This goes beyond mansplaining, which assumes that the man doing the over-explaining is talking to a woman who is either his professional equal or has even more knowledge and experience than him, but it’s still relevant to my point.

A good leader wants the entire team to be as successful as possible and gives everyone the opportunity to do that. It’s not a question of women having to demand equality. The male population must stand up and advocate for it.

In the rapid-fire evolution of our industry, it doesn’t matter whether you’re in print, digital or any other channel. In marketing, we are all moving too fast, whether you’re at the specialist level or the CEO. Sometimes, you need an eye-opening moment, like the one I had with the transcription company, to realize we need to change our perspectives.

Wrapping up

While some might question or contest my experience and say it does not meet the technical definition of mansplaining, don’t discount my point. It’s all a communications problem that attempts to label someone as “not good enough.” This approach, while offensive, is pervasive in our culture and forced me to review how I use marketing and how I interact with others.

My point is this: Are you aligned with breaking gender stereotypes? Or, do you label or discount others because of their gender, role or position? And, ultimately, how does that unconscious bias affect your marketing?

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Strategic Growth Marketing Can Help Your Business Reach Three Goals

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By Haseeb Tariq

Often referred to as “growth hacking,” growth marketing is one of the latest marketing tactics that businesses are using to grow their customer base. The term sounds like a no-brainer — growth marketing means you just market your business to grow, right? Well, sure, but, as you can imagine, it’s more complicated than that.

Here’s everything you need to know about what growth marketing is, along with goals to set for your growth marketing campaigns so you can start measuring your success.

What is growth marketing?

Growth marketing is a type of marketing strategy that’s focused on retaining your customers rather than just attracting new customers. Instead of only focusing on the top and bottom of the sales funnel, as traditional marketing does, growth marketing follows the customer through the entire buying process.

Understanding the life cycle of the buyer helps you figure out where to reach your future customers. It also tells you how to retain your current customers and, most importantly, how to keep them coming back and referring you to their network.

Growth marketing isn’t a “set it and forget it” type of marketing. You’ll need to stay vigilant by running A/B tests, tracking analytics and monitoring trends. You’ll have to be flexible and ready to concede failure quickly when you discover that your marketing tactics aren’t working.

When it comes to growth marketing, businesses tend to have three main goals:

1. Customer Retention

A key difference between growth marketing and traditional marketing is that growth marketing focuses on existing customers first. People who have already bought your products or used your services are more likely to come back to you if they have had a great experience and if you continue to deliver products, services and information they find valuable.

Starting with a customer retention focus is also smart financially. As research has shown, acquiring a new customer can be anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than it is to retain an existing one.

2. Customer Acquisition

Customer acquisition comes second because you want to know how to keep customers before you go out and find new ones. When it comes to customer acquisition, the main goal here is to figure out where potential customers are located and how they’re going to find you. It could be through online marketing, offline marketing or referrals.

Drill down into these components even further, and focus your efforts where you have the highest potential. If your potential customers are on Instagram but not Twitter, focus on Instagram, and forget about Twitter.

3. Increased Profit And Revenue

Of course, at the end of the day, your business needs to make money. A poorly executed growth marketing strategy that relies too heavily on customer acquisition costs might help you increase profits but not revenue. A successful growth marketing strategy, on the other hand, will give you new revenue streams and lead to an increase in both revenue and profits for the long term.

No matter what stage your business is in, developing a growth marketing strategy will help you retain customers and find new ways to attract new customers so you can grow your business.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Haseeb Tariq

Haseeb is responsible for guiding the marketing automation vision for Fox (Film, TV and Sports). He also writes at HaseebTariq.com

Sourced from Forbes

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How Disruptive Marketing Trends Can Help Restricted Brands Reach a Wider Social Audience

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Social media is the cornerstone of most branded marketing strategies. But for certain companies and industries that don’t have the luxury of using the full slate of social promotion channels now available, putting to use disruptive marketing trends becomes a means for survival.

While any company can start its own Facebook Business Page, a number of regulated industries are barred from paying to advertise on social media. In other cases, social networks have their own restrictions on advertisers, independent from what federal and state law says. And some businesses and industries, while allowed to advertise on social media, must grapple with restrictions on targeting, messaging, and other criteria.

As a result, disruptive marketing trends can be a restricted company’s best friend when working around these paid advertising limitations on social media. Companies in the alcohol, pharmaceutical, cryptocurrency, cannabis, direct selling, tobacco, nutritional supplement, and gambling industries are just some of the victims of these social media restrictions—but that doesn’t mean marketers in these industries have to forgo a social strategy.

Here are some of the ways brands can work around all this red tape and use social media marketing as a means to generate ROI.

Harness the Power of Strategic Content Partnerships

Forming relationships with influencers and other companies can help your brand expand its social reach, without breaking the rules of any particular social network.

These strategic content partnerships could include collaborating on posts or articles, which are then shared by brands with more developed social networks. Or your team could work with influencers to generate brand awareness and visibility in a way that might function as paid advertising, but without directly violating a social platform’s marketing rules.

Influencer marketing has become a big boon for brands whose paid advertising is banned or restricted on social networks. According to Vox, pharmaceutical brands have been able to make a big splash with influencer marketing. They explain that brands creating prescription medications that treat conditions such as pregnancy nausea and psoriasis have been utilizing these partnerships to their advantage. Influencer-sponsored content like this can be a great way to get around advertising restrictions on social platforms without getting into hot water.

Also consider working with other brands to utilize non-social marketing channels, such as email and original published content, which can be used to promote your social accounts and build an organic following. Even though paid social ads may be off the table, there’s still value in building your social following, and leveraging the audiences of other brands is a great way to make that happen.

Employ Community-Centric Strategies

While hashtags aren’t exactly a new innovation in social media marketing, they remain a critical pillar of disruptive marketing strategies because of their potential to circumvent industry-specific restrictions on social ad content. These hashtags can be applied in two ways: To strengthen relationships with existing customers, advocates, and partners; and to expand a brand’s reach to a new audience.

In the first use case, brands can create their own hashtags that relate to a branded campaign, or they can simply create a social structure for their audience to easily engage with the company, its products, and its other followers. This has become a top point of emphasis for multi-level marketing companies, which are banned or restricted from paid advertising products on most social networks. As Jason Lee HQ points out, network marketing operations use branded hashtags not only to promote their products and support social selling efforts, but also to recruit new brand representatives and improve networking among existing reps and sales associates.

Rodan + Fields social post

At the same time, brands can leverage existing community-based hashtags that insert their brand into reels of social content unified around a common interest or theme. Cannabis brands in the United States, for example, can use hashtags like #cannabiscommunity to extend their brand’s reach to a new audience, even though federal law—which social networks tend to follow in their policymaking, as opposed to state-specific regulations—bans the advertisement of cannabis and cannabis-related products.

Brands also shouldn’t overlook the value of creating or joining Facebook Groups related to their area of business. As The Verge reports, Facebook’s redesign is shifting the user experience focus away from newsfeeds and toward Groups. These Groups are fair game for brands that want to extend their social reach but don’t have the luxury of paying for social ad exposure.

Backchannel Engagement and Chatbots

For brands shut out of the more conventional social ad strategies, dark social engagement needs to become a priority. One of the most valuable disruptive marketing trends is the rise of new tools to drive better backchannel engagement with an audience, particularly with private messaging channels on social media.

Green Entrepreneur points out that, even though social media advertising isn’t allowed, cannabis brands can use their social channels to drive organic means like influencer marketing and by creating brand ambassadors. Meanwhile, as Adweek reports, direct messaging on Instagram and through the Facebook Messenger app has become a hotbed of interaction for cannabis brands looking to reach prospective customers. In many cases, these brands have their Messenger chat box programmed to automatically pop up when visitors reach their business page through a desktop device. Chatbots are being used to automate responses and initial interactions with users, creating personalized interactions and engaging with an audience at scale.

The ability to use social media to start a dialogue can be very valuable for certain brands and industries, especially in cases where consumers are seeking more information and familiarity. Cannabis, as well as cryptocurrency, telehealth, and other emerging industries where social ad policies haven’t caught up to innovation, are well-positioned to use this backchannel engagement to increase awareness for their products, build a relationship with new customers, and activate a mainstream audience—even as paid social advertising remains out of reach.

While social media can be an excellent path to audiences, paid advertising there shouldn’t be the end-all and be-all in your marketing strategy. By employing a little disruption and some creative thinking, restricted brands can still use social platforms to promote their products and captivate audiences—no matter what stage of development they’re in.

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The Technology That’s Disrupting Social Media Advertising for Mobile Retail

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By Madeleine Streets

Are retailers hearing the call of mobile?

A recent report by Forrester found that smartphones were used in more than one-third of U.S. retail sales in 2018, from product research to checkout. For retailers looking to convert greater mobile sales, they might want to reevaluate their social media advertising.

According to a Think With Google survey, 51% of smartphone users purchased an item from a different company than originally intended, due to messaging appearing exactly when they needed it. That suggests social media advertising campaigns could attract new customers, if deployed strategically. Designed to help retailers capitalize on this opportunity, marketing platform SmarterHQ launched an Ad Personalization program on Tuesday morning.

In order for brands to acquire and retain valuable customers, they must have a personalized, cross-channel strategy that spans ad platforms,” said Michael Osborne, president & CEO at SmarterHQ. “But until now, targeting within these platforms hasn’t been comprehensive enough. Syncing first-party data to power highly relevant ads often requires extra manual work and IT resources, which has hindered these efforts.”

The program builds on SmarterHQ’s existing behavioral marketing offering, which centers on collecting omnichannel data to inform brand messaging. Through Ad Personalization, the same omnichannel analysis can be integrated with the user’s Facebook and Google advertising to create individualized and customized campaigns. These can then work in conjunction with email, web and mobile pushes that the user already coordinates through SmarterHQ.

But SmarterHQ isn’t the only company taking advantage of the growing emphasis on social advertising and the new data technology available. At Pattern89, an artificial intelligence (AI) platform for digital marketers, data from all of its customers is anonymized and run through the company’s algorithms. This turns more than 100 billion impressions into 2,900 dimensions of analysis that are available to all users.

Pattern89 Computer screen
The Pattern89 platform is popular with e-commerce brands looking to roll out new campaigns every few days. This made possible by AI, which is able to process data and generate new recommendations daily.
CREDIT: Pattern89

“One footwear retailer wouldn’t see the results of another footwear retailer because the machine doesn’t look at the data in that way,” said RJ Talyor, CEO and founder of Pattern89. “Instead, it looks at all of the red shoes, or all of the ads that are targeting women between the ages of 17 and 23. It anonymizes all this data, runs the analysis and identifies where the biggest opportunities are for you.”

Users of the program are then presented with a daily to-do list to optimize advertising performance, which Talyor estimates can be completed in five minutes. A new feature introduced this week, Gemini, enables users to automate the daily to-do list by clicking a “do it for me” button. Then there is the Creative Planner program, which makes broader advertising strategy recommendations based on AI learnings.

Artificial intelligence is becoming more common in retail; Salesforce projects that the percentage of retail and consumer goods marketers that are leveraging some form of AI will increase to 70%, from 20%, in the next two years. It also found that, during the 2018 holiday season, AI-powered recommendations yielded 14% higher, on average, order value.

Nevertheless, many retailers are still resistant to AI findings. As Pattern89’s algorithm looks at data from across industries, users receive insights collected from unexpected places; the same customer might buy both a pair of shoes and a mattress, revealing trends that work across contexts. But these recommendations can seem counterintuitive or untrustworthy, such as when one woman’s brand was told it should target men in its advertising. The brand chose not to follow the suggestion, but Talyor believes that not trusting AI is a mistake.

“There’s no bias in the machine; it’s looking for the lowest opportunity,” said Talyor. “It requires humans to intervene — and sometimes humans are unwilling to part with their intuition and their experience. But others are and when they do, they find untapped pockets of opportunity.”

Want more?

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This Acquisition Means More Data and Actionable Insights for Retailers

Feature Image: Salesforce found that 87 percent of consumers begin their shopping journey with digital tools, such as smartphones.CREDIT: Glenn Hunt/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

 

Sourced from FN

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The Uberisation of Customer Service Will Kill Retail if we don’t Change

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It’s a weird thing to get used to. For years, it was accepted that if you want food delivered to your house then you can only buy certain kinds: pizza, Chinese food, or some other form of fast food or takeaway.

Your options were limited. Now, UberEats means you can order anything, anywhere. In a new city? No problem: it’s like having all those old, paper menus from the door knob right in your pocket.

I don’t think we quite understand how much this has changed customers’ expectations — not just of food, but with anything. One in 10 Australians aged over 14+ have used an on-demand food delivery service.

It’s only a matter of time before those customers bring those same expectations for quick, trackable delivery to other items.

Like retail.

If consumers can order a cheeseburger through an app and have it delivered to their mouth within 30 minutes, why is it still such a massive headache for retailers to deliver a pair of shoes the same way?

Of course, there are plenty of reasons why. The existing retail and delivery network is a mess; retail chains aren’t logistically or financially set up to support that type of cost structure. The list goes on, but ultimately those excuses don’t matter. If consumers want it, they’ll flock to those who offer it. Which means retailers need to make some tough choices.

A decade ago, we started talking about how online retail would dominate everything — now more than half of all online shopping experiences in the United States begin at Amazon. Now, the next step is happening. If retail wants to stay relevant, it has to offer same-day delivery. And not just same-day delivery. It has to offer same-day delivery with the same type of rapid deployment and tracking that anyone can get in an UberEats’ app.

This is really the last true pain point that’s holding retailers back. A study  conducted in 2018 found only 3 per cent of retailers with both a physical and online presence offering same-day shipping. Just consider these statistics from Roy Morgan:

  1. Nearly 2 million Australians use delivery services of any three-month period
  2. The average waiting time is 32 minutes
  3. 97 per cent of Gen Z shoppers abandon their online shopping cart if they aren’t happy with delivery

It’s that last one that should have you worried.

The good news is that this isn’t as expensive a venture as it once was. True, same-day shipping can be achieved; but it comes at the cost of rethinking some of your existing business practices.

Here’s what you need to change:

Turn your Stores into Fulfillment Centres

It isn’t enough to just consider how back-end inventory systems can be consolidated and connected. Instead, stores need to turn into fulfillment centres for modern delivery programs.

Shops need to fit differently into your cost structures, going forward. Think beyond normal profit and loss.

Offer more Shipping Options

The conversion rate for online shopping carts drops like a cliff as fewer shipping options are offered. Plug into as many networks and providers as you can.

Make Returns Transparent and Easy

Put this front and centre in your shopping experience — make returns easy. Give customers nothing to lose by buying from you.

Remember, this is an expectations’ game that you can’t afford to lose. Your customers are judging you against every piece of technology, not just in your industry. This is an attention and convenience game, and the more you can provide them what they want, the more often you’ll win.

Feature Image Credit: Pixabay 

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Co-Founder, Shippit

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8 Canvas Printing Tips

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Sourced from Photographytalks

I love a good canvas print. There’s just something about the texture that gives photos an added sense of depth and dimension that I really like.

But as I discovered in my canvas print secret shopper shootout, not all canvas is made alike (spoiler alert – CanvasHQ won that contest hands-down). Unfortunately, a lot of people find this out the hard way when they opt for a bargain-basement canvas that ends up looking like trash.

What’s more, there’s tons of things to consider before you even order a canvas print, like the image quality, where you’ll hang the print, and the shape of the print.

Below, I dive deep into 8 canvas printing tips that will help you ensure you get the highest quality print possible.

Editor’s Note: I lean on my experiences as a customer of CanvasHQ to illustrate many of the points below because they have proven to be the best canvas printing company I’ve ever worked with. You’re certainly free to choose whatever canvas printing company you wish, but for me, no one beats these guys!

Canvas Printing Tip #1: Image Quality is Important

image

Obviously, when having a photo printed, it’s necessary to have a source file that has enough resolution to handle being printed, so the cell phone photo you took with your flip phone back in 2006 is probably not going to cut it in terms of resolution and image quality, unfortunately.

In fact, the larger the print, the greater the resolution the image needs to be.

Not all of us have high-end, professional cameras that capture 50-megapixel images. But you don’t need that much resolution to get a great-looking large canvas print.

Most DSLR and mirrorless cameras (and compact cameras, too) offer plenty of resolution to turn images into sizable prints.

Quick Tip: When selecting a printing company, be sure they offer insights into how large your image can be printed. For example, when you upload your image to CanvasHQ, they only show print sizes that are appropriate for a quality-looking print. Nice!

Learn More:

Canvas Printing Tip #2: Don’t Forget About Old Photos

canvas printing tips image photo by StockPlanets via iStock

While your ancient cell phone photos are probably not going to work for printing purposes, don’t forget that you might have some actual printed photos you might want to turn into a canvas print.

Whether it’s your parents’ wedding photo from the 1970s or your kid’s baby picture from the mid-90s, you can create a high-resolution scan of the print and use that to get a large canvas print made.

Sure, scanning old photos isn’t exactly a fun exercise, but if you have a special photo that you love from decades ago, the time and effort spent turning it into a digital file will be worth it when you see it hanging on the wall as a gorgeous canvas.

Quick Tip: Don’t just scan old photos – process them as well! A little work in Lightroom or Photoshop to remove blemishes on the print, alter colors, crop, and so forth, can go a long way in making it a better candidate for a canvas print.

Canvas Printing Tip #3: Be Wary of Silly Photos

canvas printing tips 2 image photo by Halfpoint via iStock

I have a “wall of shame” in my home office of photos of my loved ones that are truly terrible.

I find them amusing, and love to look at them and bask in the glory of how bad my family and friends look in these photos.

However, I would never have any of the images on my wall of shame turned into a huge canvas print…

The time and effort and cash spent to make a high-quality canvas print are better suited for photos that I want to display in common areas of my home. So while the photo of my little brother vomiting in front of a urinating horse is fine for my home office, it’s not something I’d want hanging in the entryway of my home.

Quick Tip: When selecting a photo to turn into a canvas print, ask yourself, “Is this something I want to look at for decades to come?” This is especially important for older portraits, as hairstyles and clothing can quickly become the butt of a joke rather than being the stylish selections they once were!

 

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Canvas Printing Tip #4: Ask Yourself Where the Print Will Hang

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This might seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many people order a huge print only to find that it’s too big for the space in which they intended to display it.

Knowing where you want to hang the print will determine all sorts of characteristics about the canvas, from its size and shape (more on that next) to the color scheme, canvas frame depth, and finish as well.

The location you wish to hang the canvas will also be a factor in which image you choose to have printed. While a photo of your daughter with her pony might be appropriate for her bedroom wall, it might not be the best option for the dining room.

Quick Tip: If the hanging location gets a lot of natural light, be sure you opt for a printing company that uses high-grade, UV-resistant inks that won’t fade.

Canvas Printing Tip #5: Consider the Size of the Print

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Building off the previous point, you not only need to consider where the print will go, but the size of the print as well.

The size of the wall space available for a print will dictate how big or small the print needs to be.

This can be the trickiest part of sizing your print because you don’t want it to be so large that it overwhelms the space, nor do you want it to be too small as it will look puny hanging on the wall surrounded by blank space.

Quick Tip: Bear in mind that the midpoint of the print should be between 58-60 inches above the floor and that you need a few inches of clearance above furniture. This will help you determine how large you can have your photo printed.

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Canvas Printing Tip #6: The Shape of the Print Matters Too

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Understand that some photos are best displayed in horizontal format while others are best displayed in vertical format.

Your family portrait will likely be in horizontal format, so not only should you choose to print it in that manner, but you should also select a spot to hang it that’s conducive to a horizontal-format print (i.e., above the fireplace).

Conversely, your favorite photo of your favorite waterfall is likely more appropriate for a vertical-format print that hangs on a very tall wall.

Many canvas printing companies offer square prints, too, so be sure to peruse their selection of sizes to ensure you’ve made the right choice regarding the shape of the print.

Quick Tip: Don’t be afraid to crop the original image when processing it to fit a different format. Many horizontal images can be turned into beautiful square or vertical images, and vice versa. Just be sure that when cropping that you avoid cutting off parts of the subject (i.e., like cropping out the top of a person’s head or omitting their hands or feet).

Canvas Printing Tip #7: Consider the Print Options

image Just a sampling of the different sizes, shapes, and print options of my canvas prints.

There is a whole host of options you can select when having a canvas print made that will influence how it looks on your wall:

  • Frame depth – The thicker the frame depth, the more drama the print will have. For example, a two-inch frame will have more visual impact than a .75-inch frame. Likewise, deeper frames are needed if the print will hang on a heavily textured wall, like one covered with stone.
  • Border color – A white border gives a canvas print the appearance of floating on the wall while an image wrap border extends the print around the sides of the frame. There are other options as well, including a mirrored border and just about any color under the rainbow.
  • Canvas finish – If glare is a concern, a matte finish is ideal. If you want your print to have the look of an oil painting, a semi-gloss finish is more appropriate. There are other choices, too, including glossy, vintage, and iridescent.

Quick Tip: Not sure what type of finish to get or what border color or frame depth best suits your photo? Any canvas printing company worth their salt will help you make smart decisions so you get the best-looking print possible. If in doubt, just ask for help!

Canvas Printing Tip #8: Don’t Be Seduced by Cheap Prices

As I noted in the introduction, I think the biggest mistake made when getting a canvas print is being seduced by bargain-basement prices that seem too good to be true.

Often, the case is that the price is too good to be true and you end up with a print that looks like its low, low price.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to dump hundreds of dollars into a canvas print. Instead, you should look for a blend of affordability and quality.

image Needless to say, I have a ton of CanvasHQ prints in my house.

I mentioned earlier that CanvasHQ is my go-to canvas printer, and that’s because they are the perfect blend of pricing and quality.

I’ve tested dozens of printers over the years, and no one has been able to match the final product that I get from CanvasHQ.

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I appreciate the fact that the frames are handcrafted from kiln-dried wood, that way the print stays square and true for decades to come.

I also like that they use archival-grade canvas and high-quality inks that are fade-resistant and moisture-resistant too.

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The CanvasHQ team is just plain nice as well! They have top-notch customer service and will bend over backwards to ensure your print is exactly what you want.

Their prints come with a 100-percent satisfaction guarantee, so if something is amiss, just send it back and they’ll remake it or refund your money within 30 days.

I don’t mean to gush here, but these guys really are the real deal. If canvas prints are on your mind, do yourself a favor and see what CanvasHQ has to offer.

Sourced from Photographytalks

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Marketing Strategies to Boom in 2019

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By  Anuja Lath

Internet marketing is all set to undergo a tremendous change in 2019. It will completely change the way the businesses have been handling their marketing strategy and technique. The technological onslaught has redefined the whole marketing ecosystem. The expectations of customers have also changed as everyone not only wants the best product at the most competitive price but are not even ready to wait. There is no room for lags as there are many options available. 2019 will be a signature year in terms of marketing as businesses will have to continuously innovate to keep pace with the changing lifestyles and future marketing trends. Businesses will thus have to look deeper into their marketing strategies and reinvent themselves continuously to survive. Recent trends in marketing suggest that it will no more be an easy ball game as the world wide web is getting exhausted with more than 1,800,000,000 websites present and the number is growing by the day.

Best Digital Marketing Strategies to Make a Mark in 2019

  • Inbound Marketing: This typically focusses on your product which is able to add more value to the lives of your customers or audience. There is an obvious shift in the industry towards enhanced levels of personalized content. Content takes center-stage but it should not just offer the keywords used in searches, it should also be able to address the concern for which someone punched in that keyword. There is no dearth of content on Google, so the content has to offer an accurate and precise solution to the problem. Fresh and original content will remain a hot favourite for both Google and the audience. Content is thus here to stay as more and more businesses are increasing their budgetary allocations for producing more relevant content.
  • Video Marketing: No future marketing strategy can dare to ignore the scope of video marketing. Video and audio form of content is yet to reach its saturation level on the internet, unlike the text content. These forms also have a much more attractive and engaged audience. The prevalence of smart devices has made streaming of videos much more competitive. Marketers thus cannot afford to miss this trend as videos are more likely to result in conversions than plain text. Making a professional video is expensive but it presents a compelling case for businesses that they do not want to miss the chance. The extent of success can be gauged from the fact that more than 100 million hours of videos are being watched on Facebook every day!
  • Growth Hacking: This comprises a group of small and simple techniques which are highly helpful for the businesses for stimulating their growth and demand. Some of the strategies involved may not satisfy the ethical criteria but the results suggest that this cannot be missed. The people behind it, also known as growth hackers, are highly committed to taking your business to a new level as they see the whole idea of digital marketing as a battle which has to be won at all costs. These hackers play with data and creativity to give rise to revolutionary products. Growth hacking has emerged as one of the best marketing strategies of all time.
  • Chatbots: Chatbots are a recent strategy in the realm of Internet marketing but have come loaded with immense potential. These are bots which enter meaningful conversations in real-time with customers with the help of AI. Majority of the businesses around the world are looking at chatbots as the most promising future marketing strategy. Customers also prefer to speak to chatbots over humans due to their efficiency, quick response time, helpful in recalling the whole purchase history and are very cordial. One can instead focus on more important tasks as these help in automation of repetitive work.
  • Automation: Future marketing trends present a strong case for the automation of marketing. It comprises of software which aims to automate repetitive marketing tasks like email marketing, social media or website actions, etc. This has helped businesses to develop their relationships with prospective clients without having to spend any extra time on it. The technology which has developed in recent years has shown no sign of slowing and will stand pronounced in 2019 as one of the best digital marketing strategies.

Conclusion

2019 will be a defining year for the marketers as the latter will have to experiment and come up with new approaches and strategies to win the customers. Technology will continue to evolve and keeping pace with it will be the biggest challenge. It is going to drive you crazy and it is this craziness which will make you succeed. The best digital marketing strategies to rule 2019 will be marked by technologies like AI and machine learning. Chatbots and other automation techniques present a strong case along with video marketing. Content will still be valued provided it is original.

 

 

By  Anuja Lath

Anuja is India’s #7 LinkedIn Top Voice 2017. She is the Co-founder and CEO of RedAlkemi Online Pvt. Ltd., a digital marketing agency helping clients with their end to end online presence. Anuja has 30 years of work experience as a successful entrepreneur and has co-founded several ventures since 1986. She and her team are passionate about helping SMEs achieve measurable online success for their business. Anuja holds a Bachelors degree in Advertising from the Government College of Fine Arts, Chandigarh, India.

Sourced from BBN Times

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Success Is Hard Because You Overcomplicate It. Keep Your Strategy Simple With These 7 Questions

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By Marla Tabaka

Entrepreneurs who overthink their plan just get stuck. Success is not necessarily easy, but it’s probably simpler than you believe.

They had built a seven-figure business in less than three years. Three years ago, I asked these entrepreneurs, who happen to be my daughter and son-in-law, about their business plan. As they exchanged humoured looks, my son-in-law asked, “What plan?” I laughed because, of course, you have to have a plan. As I persisted, he finally shrugged his shoulders and drew their plan on a napkin. Here’s how it looked:

            $ + $$$ = $$$$$$$$

Translation: Make a little money, put it back into the business, make more money and get rich. Today, they are on their fifth self-funded business–all of them very successful, none of them with a complicated plan.

Why entrepreneurs tend to overcomplicate their strategy.

Conversely, many business owners come to me for help, expecting to develop a plan and strategy the size of Long Island. They need to believe that success is complicated, because if it isn’t, then why haven’t they achieved it already? For some, there’s a sort of security in documenting and analysing every little step before it’s taken. This tendency falls into the categories of procrastination and fear of failure. If you spend more time thinking about your business plan than you do acting on it, this may be your problem.

I’m not sure that everyone has the ability to grow a business from an abstract reference on a cocktail napkin, but I do know that small and midsize business owners who overthink their plan don’t succeed. Begin with these seven questions and stop overcomplicating things. Just get to work.

1. Who is my audience?

If you find yourself using phrases like anyone who, then you don’t know who your audience is. If you could sell to just one person, who would it be? That’s right, one person or industry. I once worked with a professional speaker who thought his audience was any company that had a sales force. He was barely supporting himself. We narrowed it down to the sales force within manufacturers and distributors in the medical supply industry. His business took off within months.

Here’s something that’s very important to know about niching: You don’t have to stick with only one. Start with one and when and if the time is right, create a second silo. Choosing a niche is not as restrictive as you’d believe.

2. How will I reach my audience?

Once you have a niche, you will have a better idea of where they hang out. What are the best social media platforms, the industry events, and associations they’re associated with, and which people in your network are closely associated with them?

3. What makes my product or service different?

This one is difficult for many entrepreneurs. You may believe that one business accounting firm may be just like the next, for instance. When one of my clients differentiated her firm by offering freelance CEO and CFO services, along with 30-minute quarterly meetings with her clients, her practice grew by 34 percent in one year. I call these touches white-glove service. What’s your white glove?

4. What are my costs and margins?

Once you find that amazing accountant, pay the money to have him or her calculate your cost of doing business, as well as your margins. You may be amazed at how many entrepreneurs have no idea where their money is going and what their margins are. I had a client who sold two different product types to two different industries but ran her numbers together. It wasn’t until we began working together that she came to realize that one of her product lines was sucking up profits from the other. It didn’t look that way on paper–until she separated the costs associated with running each side of the business. You may think you understand your numbers, but do you really?

5. How will I manage my company’s growth?

Here’s where entrepreneurs fall into a very problematic trap. They end up wearing the CEO hat, along with the other six or seven hats necessary to run their business. If you have the mind of an entrepreneur, it’s not likely that you will excel in performing every task needed to deliver your end product. When you’re entrenched in the day-to-day operations, you won’t have time or energy to grow the business. Perhaps you don’t need full-time employees, but you do need to outsource. If you try to do it all you will burn out and fail. It’s that simple.

6. What mindset do I need to maintain to become successful?

Do you have a lack mindset or a wealth mindset? If you are constantly worried about money, you fall into the lack category. If you believe with all of your heart that there will always be more than enough, you tend toward the abundant, wealth mindset. This is not to say that you don’t watch your money, but that you understand the need to spend money to make money and you spend it wisely.

Please know that determining and changing your mindset is not likely something you’ll do on your own. Find a coach who specializes in mindset and strategy and invest in yourself. It will be the best money you’ve ever spent.

7. What are my company’s values and how will I develop its culture?

Oblivious to how things must change once they begin to bring employees on board, some entrepreneurs neglect to develop processes and what I call an intentional culture. Before long, the business is a mess. This is a costly oversight.

I use this simple question to help entrepreneurs lay the foundation for a healthy culture: When employees and customers talk about your business, what exactly do you want them to say and how do you want them to feel? I always say that if an entrepreneur does not put effort into building culture, it will build itself–and you won’t like the results.

That’s it. Throw away those pages and pages of notes. Stop losing sleep in search of the magic bullet. If you focus on these seven areas and believe in yourself, you will go much further in life and business.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Marla Tabaka

Sourced from Inc.

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