One of my favorite parts about working at Seer is having the opportunity to build relationships with our clients. In fact, it’s what led me to recently start a new hybrid role on both our SEO and Client Engagement teams. In my 5+ years at Seer, I’ve always appreciated the value Seer puts on building excellent relationships with our clients.…
The post 5 Ways to Build and Maintain a Successful Client Relationship appeared first on Seer Interactive.
WebProNews
Apple Buys Dark Sky Weather App
Apple has purchased popular weather app Dark Sky, according to Dark Sky’s blog.
Dark Sky quickly made a name for itself as “the most accurate source of hyperlocal weather information.” The app is loved by customers for giving “down-to the-minute forecasts…right where you’re standing,” giving it a significant advantage over many other apps on the market.
“Today we have some important and exciting news to share: Dark Sky has joined Apple,” writes Adam Grossman on the company’s blog.
“Our goal has always been to provide the world with the best weather information possible, to help as many people as we can stay dry and safe, and to do so in a way that respects your privacy.
“There is no better place to accomplish these goals than at Apple. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to reach far more people, with far more impact, than we ever could alone.”
As part of the deal, the iOS version of the app will continue to be available on the App Store, while the Android and Wear OS apps are no longer available and will shut down for existing users after July 1, 2020. Similarly, the API will continue to function through the end of 2021 but, in the meantime, the company is not accepting new signups.
Apple will likely use the acquisition to help improve its own weather app, which was originally powered by Yahoo and then more recently by The Weather Channel. Dark Sky should give the company a competitive advantage in weather apps, and will make a nice addition to the iOS ecosystem.
Apple Buys Dark Sky Weather App
Matt Milano
You might have looked at your Behavior > New vs Returning users report in Google Analytics (GA) at some point and noticed some odd discrepancies in the numbers (see visual below).
Some immediate questions come to mind here:
The post Misunderstood Metrics: New Users vs New Visitors in Google Analytics appeared first on Seer Interactive.
WebProNews
FBI Warns of ‘Zoom-Bombing’ As Videoconferencing Soars
The FBI is warning of ‘Zoom-bombing,’ where videoconferencing meetings are being hijacked by unwelcome participants.
Zoom has quickly become one of the most popular videoconferencing platforms as millions of individuals self-isolate and work from home. The software is being used by companies, schools and individuals looking to continue some semblance of normalcy.
Unfortunately, bad actors have been taking advantage of the platform and hijacking meetings. These disruptions have ranged from shouting profanities at the participants, to screen sharing pornography to the group. As a result, the FBI is recommending that Zoom users enable a number of settings to limit the risk, including:
- Do not make meetings or classrooms public. In Zoom, there are two options to make a meeting private: require a meeting password or use the waiting room feature and control the admittance of guests.
- Do not share a link to a teleconference or classroom on an unrestricted publicly available social media post. Provide the link directly to specific people.
- Manage screensharing options. In Zoom, change screensharing to “Host Only.”
- Ensure users are using the updated version of remote access/meeting applications. In January 2020, Zoom updated their software. In their security update, the teleconference software provider added passwords by default for meetings and disabled the ability to randomly scan for meetings to join.
- Lastly, ensure that your organization’s telework policy or guide addresses requirements for physical and information security.
These are excellent suggestions that everyone using Zoom should put into practice immediately.
FBI Warns of ‘Zoom-Bombing’ As Videoconferencing Soars
Matt Milano
Our mission since 2005 is to publish articles, podcasts, and webinars to help ecommerce merchants. What follows are the 10 most popular articles that we published in March 2020. Articles ...
The post March 2020 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts appeared first on Practical Ecommerce.
WebProNews
Huawei Warns of Fallout If U.S. Cuts Off Chip Supplies
Huawei is warning that Pandora’s box would be opened if the U.S. proceeds with its plans to cut the company off from its chip supplies.
U.S. officials decided last week to move forward with alterations to the Foreign Direct Product Rule in an effort to keep Huawei from purchasing chips from companies such as Taiwanese firm TSMC. Under the rule, some foreign goods that are based, at least in part, on U.S. technology can be subjected to U.S. regulations and export rules. Officials hope to use the rule to enforce a stranglehold on Huawei.
Huawei, however, is warning that such a move would have disastrous and far-reaching consequences. According to Bloomberg, Chairman Eric Xu told reporters:
“If the Pandora’s box were to be opened, we’ll probably see catastrophic damage to the global supply chain — and it won’t just be one company, Huawei, destroyed. I don’t think the Chinese government will just watch and let Huawei be slaughtered on a chopping board. I believe the Chinese government will also take some countermeasures.”
Given the number of companies that rely on China as a source of manufacturing, as well as their largest growing market, such a retaliation could have devastating consequences for many American firms.
Huawei Warns of Fallout If U.S. Cuts Off Chip Supplies
Matt Milano
We are currently in the middle of an unprecedented crisis. Face masks, alcohol, hand sanitizers, and toilet paper are all gone, and those who thought that the COVID-19 is “just like the flu” are all facing that fact that staying at home is best for everyone. For a company like WebDevStudios where everyone is 100% remote, it’s just business as usual. But a lot of us have kids, and with school out, work is disrupted because you are now faced with keeping a child or two engaged in something just so you can continue to work. This is where I come in. My family is a homeschooling family. We’ve been homeschooling for nine years now and both my hubby and I have been working from home for over a decade. We have learned a lot over the years, and I’d love to share some valuable information and resources with everyone who is struggling to work remotely with kids at home.
Disclaimer: IT IS NOT EASY. You will need a LOT of PATIENCE and TRY to remember that they’re your kids and you LOVE them.
The younger the kid, the harder it is. My kids were four and five years old when we first started homeschooling them. They did not know how to read and write. They’re teens now and it did get easier, but then again, teens have their own sets of challenges, too.
Below, I have outlined resources that you can use (most can be used for all ages) to keep your kids educated and entertained. We’ve either personally used them or tried them out or have read and/or considered using them. But before we get into these resources designed to help you work remotely with kids at home, the first thing you need to do is to make sure that your children understand what we are currently facing and why they must stay at home. Do not hide information from them. You’ll be amazed at their ability to adapt once you open doors for them. They have these amazing minds that just gobble up information. So, help them choose the right resources for understanding COVID-19.
Now that your offspring know why they must stay at home and wash their hands thoroughly, let’s look at some resources that will help keep them remain engaged and help parents successfully work remotely with kids at home.
Cells at Work (Hataraku Saibō) is a Japanese anime that you can watch on Netflix. Turn the subtitles on, and I guarantee you will learn your kids will learn a lot about the human body and how it works.
Want to be a part of a company that knows how to support team members working remotely with kids at home? Join WebDevStudios. We’re hiring! Head on to our Careers page to learn more and apply today.
The post How to Work Remotely with Kids at Home appeared first on WebDevStudios.
With COVID-19 posing challenges we never imagined, the future may feel uncertain right now. But that doesn’t mean you need to put your dreams on hold.
Whether you’re looking to grow or launch your online business, now’s the perfect time to set yourself up for success.
Make the most of this extra time at home by following these 4 steps:
You don’t need a website to begin collecting email subscribers. With AWeber’s new Landing Page Builder, you can easily create a landing page that gets your business online fast.
When creating your landing page, use a lead magnet to convince more visitors to subscribe to your content.
Related: This Zumba Instructor Increased Profitability by 200% with Landing Pages
Bonus tip: Tag subscribers who complete your landing page sign up form so you can identify which subscribers filled out each landing page. You’ll also be able to send personalized, automated emails to subscribers based on the tags they have. (We’ll get to that in step 4.)
A consistent brand look and feel in your emails creates a sense of familiarity. Your subscribers will quickly know who sent the email — allowing them to focus on your email content.
Include your brand colors, fonts, and logo. Consider using call-to-action buttons and bold featured images to make emails more scannable and appealing to the eye.
Bonus tip: Email template design doesn’t have to be complicated. Try out the AWeber Smart Designer. It will create branded email templates for you in seconds using your website or social media profiles.
A welcome email is your chance to leave an awesome first impression on your new subscribers. Introduce yourself, and make sure you deliver whatever you promised subscribers on your landing page — like your lead magnet or incentive.
Bonus tip: Writing your welcome email is simple. We put together a checklist to help you get started.
With an automated email series, you can deliver customized messages to the right people at the right time. Plus, you can save time in the long run.
Bonus tip: Trigger an automated campaign when a new subscriber joins your list or when a tag is applied to your subscribers. For instance, if you tagged subscribers that joined your list via the landing page form in step 1, set up an automated campaign that delivers content that’s relevant to your landing page or lead magnet.
Take advantage of any extra downtime you may have right now and build your online presence.
Start your free trial of AWeber and get access to AWeber’s Landing Page Builder, unlimited emails, automated campaigns and 24/7 customer solutions.
The post The 4-Step Marketing Plan to Start Your Online Business appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.
In a continued effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, local and state governments have issued orders for nonessential businesses and establishments to close their doors. These orders, combined with the lack of consumers making their way into physical stores, have had a major impact on small businesses across the country. Many brick-and-mortar small businesses have determined the only way to stay open and serve customers is to transition operations to online ecommerce business, which is something several businesses will do for the first time.
For brick-and-mortar businesses suddenly struggling to figure out how to bring their stores online during this unprecedented time, there are several key considerations. Here are six steps that can be taken to quickly establish an ecommerce business presence and continue reaching customers.
The first step for any business owner considering ecommerce is to research the platforms available to determine which best fits the needs of your business and your budget. There are a number of cost-efficient ecommerce providers that allow small businesses to get up and running in a matter of minutes. You can check out a full list of the ecommerce providers Avalara works with.
When evaluating ecommerce platforms, there are a number of factors to consider, including multiplatform operations, shipping and fulfillment features, security measures, and compliance capabilities. If your business is transitioning to online for the first time, simplicity in functionality both on the back end and customer-facing features will likely be top of mind. Most ecommerce platform providers have several different plans designed to best fit your business. A good rule of thumb when deciding which plan is best for you is to keep in mind the following:
Note that during this time, your business may not have the luxury of conducting extensive research on multiple platforms, and instead may need to rely on something that works now. Fortunately, there are providers that offer out-of-the-box functionality that will enable you to get your basic store up and running quickly.
“For business owners who have invested their energy into building lasting physical storefronts, the process of moving online doesn’t have to be intimidating, even when the future of your brand relies on your ability to launch and drive online sales. Ecommerce platforms, like BigCommerce, are designed with out-of-the-box functionality and application integrations to ensure that even the most novice sellers can get their stores online quickly, and offer the tools to help their business grow now and for years to come. In these uncertain times, having an online presence is an essential way to stay connected to your customers and continue driving revenue. While it may feel overwhelming to move online so quickly, this an easy business decision that will pay long-lasting dividends.”
— Meghan Stabler, VP of Product Marketing and Communications, BigCommerce
Once you’ve identified a platform that works best for you, the next step is to register your domain name and get your account set up — all of which can be done from any connected device. Once you’re in, it’s time to start customizing the features of your website, which begins in step #2.
Given the necessary timeliness of your efforts to transition store functions to ecommerce, it’s important to prioritize which products you’ll be selling online, so your most profitable and in-demand products are available for purchase as you launch your website. It can feel like you need to have every product in your store available immediately, but by prioritizing the most popular products first, you can get your online operations up and running then begin fulfilling orders while adding additional inventory.
Setting up your accepted payment methods is a crucial part of converting a browser into a buyer. Consider which payment methods are the most commonly used and accommodate the largest number of customers. Fortunately, most ecommerce providers offer integrations with the most common payment methods like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Apple Pay, and more. If you’re still unsure of which payment methods you’ll need to accept, a good rule of thumb is to incorporate the same payment methods you offer through your in-store point-of-sale system.
Once you’ve outlined your products and set up payment methods, the next step is to ensure you can get products to customers. Shipping, fulfillment, and returns can be a major roadblock for many small businesses making the transition from brick-and-mortar to online. A key feature that should be included in your ecommerce platform capabilities is shipping options, including drop shipping, printable shipping labels, and pre-setup shipping providers.
If you’re fulfilling orders yourself, consider using a shipping app like ShipStation, which helps automate shipping for merchants of all sizes, and offers small businesses discounted shipping rates with USPS, UPS, and FedEx.
If you’re concerned about how to fulfill orders or that your current warehouse might be unable to fulfill orders, consider using an outsourced provider, like ShipBob, which processes orders for thousands of ecommerce brands. It’s also worth pointing out that your storefront can serve as a temporary fulfillment center during this time: It serves the dual benefit of getting the product to your customers quickly while simultaneously ensuring all that in-store inventory doesn’t go to waste. This is a model that works quite successfully for big-box retailers like Target.
Shipping costs are often something brick-and-mortar retailers haven’t had to consider when it comes to pricing, so be mindful of a product’s shipping cost and be sure it’s clearly displayed in the shopping cart. Be transparent about shipping costs throughout the shopping experience and avoid the risk of having customers abandon their cart if they discover a shipping cost “gotcha” at checkout.
Perhaps one of the most important steps in this transition is communicating how your business will now be selling. This is where social media posts and advertising come into play to be certain that customers are in the know about your online strategy. On the upside, most brick-and-mortar shops are already using social media to market to their customers. However, it’s critical that businesses over-communicate the change in operations to ensure regular customers are aware of the new selling channel, and to capitalize on the expanded customer audience you can now reach.
Social media can be used to promote your new online presence and as a platform to advocate for your business’s distinguishing factors and unique value-add. Use this opportunity to tell your story and highlight the characteristics that make your small business stand out to consumers. Not only are consumers turning to social media to learn where they can continue making regular purchases during this time, but they’re especially inclined to support small businesses.
Another option, when using social media, is to go beyond your marketing efforts and consider using social selling platforms as a complement to your newly formed online store. In today’s social network-driven society, social media platforms are no longer just an avenue to increase brand awareness, but an opportunity to connect with customers and make sales in the social threads customers are already sifting through.
Comment selling platforms, like CommentSold, are blending content and commerce to convert social media comments into sales and automatically invoice shoppers from their social media timelines. By leveraging this method of “headless commerce”, or separating the front end and back end of an ecommerce application, businesses can easily combine their social media marketing and online selling for quick sales conversions and limited friction throughout the browsing and shopping experience. Through social selling capabilities, businesses can save customers the time they would otherwise have to spend sifting through websites to find the items that best fit their wants and needs.
“Captivating shoppers online can be increasingly difficult as more businesses turn to online during this time, so reaching customers where they are is more important than ever before. Social selling platforms allow retailers to connect directly with customers via live video and product content on Facebook and Instagram. Creative tools, like instant comment purchasing and real-time live sales events, can help retailers grab and keep their online customers’ attention.”
— Andy Smith, COO, CommentSold
The final step to bringing your store online is to ensure every function of your site is operational. Double-check each function by asking yourself these questions:
At a time when more and more small businesses are at risk of closing their doors due to uncontrollable circumstances, ecommerce provides a viable alternative that, if executed on quickly and decisively, allows business owners to keep their operations up and running. Small businesses can take advantage of this unexpected time to explore new selling opportunities and ways to further serve their customers — something they might have otherwise not had the opportunity to do. Fortunately, the technology that exists today allows even the smallest of businesses to quickly ramp up online operations, reaching a broader audience, and incorporating all the necessary functions needed to provide a comprehensive, frictionless online shopping experience.
Content courtesy of Avalara.
Feel free to leave your questions and experiences in the comments section below.
The post Guide to get started with your ecommerce business appeared first on Search Engine Watch.
Too often, ecommerce companies consider Pinterest only as social media. But Pinterest is primarily a discovery engine with visual search. It has more in common with Google than, say, Instagram.
The post Optimizing Pinterest Titles and Descriptions for Clicks, Leads appeared first on Practical Ecommerce.
In Yoast SEO 9.0, we launched an innovative new way to analyze your English language text using word forms. In Yoast SEO 10.1, we added word form support for the German language. Today, we’re glad to announce word form support for Dutch. Here, you can read why this is such an awesome addition to Yoast SEO 13.4.
Back in the day, Yoast SEO used to be rather picky — sometimes it had a hard time detecting the focus keyphrase in your text. For instance, if your focus keyphrase was [vegan pancakes], the plugin wouldn’t recognise instances of the word [vegan pancake] or [pancakes for a vegan friend]. Today, however, the WordPress plugin is so much smarter.
Now, your focus keyphrase doesn’t even have to be in an identical order. The plugin finds all parts of the keyphrase even if the words are split over a sentence.
Yoast SEO Premium takes it one step further. Using the Premium analysis, something like [How to make the fluffiest pancake that even the most critical vegans love] would count as well.
One of the coolest parts of this is that Yoast SEO Premium recognises all word forms of your keyphrase: [vegan], [vegans], [veganism] and more. This way, you don’t have to keep trying to awkwardly fit your focus keyphrase in your text. Simply write naturally and let Yoast SEO take care of the rest. The goal? To write a better text, while spending less time optimizing!
The same goes that other epic feature in Yoast SEO Premium, the possibility to add synonyms and related keyphrases to your post analysis. This too, makes it easier to write a rich, high-quality post that covers all aspects of your subject.
As of Yoast SEO 13.4, users in the Dutch language can get in on the action too. For every language we add to the plugin, we need to adapt the analysis. Every language has its own sets of rules, you know? We have a team of linguists working on this and bringing you top notch language support.
How does this work in Dutch? Well, here’s Marieke explain it all for you — in Dutch this time!
Let’s take a look at an example! In the screenshot, you see the Premium analysis at work. The focus keyphrase for this example post is [spelen met katten]. If you look closely, Yoast SEO Premium won’t just find the exact match to that keyphrase, but also several variations.
If we look at the word [kat], or cat in Dutch, the plugin now recognises variants on that word as well. So this means, [katten], [kater] and [katjes], among other things, are correct instances of that keyphrase as well.
In the Premium analysis, you can add a number of related keyphrases to make the text analysis even richer. One of the outcomes of this, is that it helps to determine if you have distributed your keyphrases well across your text. All this helps you write the awesome your audience is looking for!
We’ve written quite a few articles on word forms support and text analysis in Yoast SEO. Find why you need this super smart analysis in your daily life. Learn how synonyms and related keyphrases help enrich your articles. Marieke wrote an article on why you should go beyond exact keyword matching. Keen to learn more about the technology behind this? Read up on keyword stemming!
To cap if off, here’s the Dutch version of our infographic that explains the differences between synonyms, word forms and related keyphrases.
Yoast SEO 13.4 brings a big feature for all you Dutchies: full word form support! This state of the art analysis helps you write better text with a lot less effort. Writing and editing a great piece of content has now become much more natural.
Writing in English or German? But not familiar with the Premium analysis yet? Try it and tell us what you think!
Thanks for using Yoast SEO.
The post Yoast SEO 13.4: Word form support for Dutch appeared first on Yoast.
WebProNews
The Best Tech To Help You Work Smarter, Not Harder
As you read this from behind a screen while sitting in your living room, imagine what things would be like if we weren’t working from home because of Coronavirus… You’d probably still be reading this in your living room working from home. In 2016, not too long ago but feels like ages, 85% of global business was done by virtual teams. The world was already gearing up to go virtual, the current situation merely expedited the transition.
In this age of digital communication, more than half of workers want processes that are always improving. We’re living in a fast-paced world, with instant messaging, instant transactions, and instant noodles. We need work processes, which greatly affect our performance, to keep up.
Half of all workers want collaborative workplaces, people want to feel important and like they’re contributing visibly. They also feel more connected to their team when working on projects together, and are looking for a culture of collaboration, with 91% wanting stronger team relationships with colleagues.
A sizable 43% of workers want access to the latest technology, because why not? If it measurably adds to or enhances our work why sit around waiting for everyone else to start upgrading? The earlier new tech is adopted the greater the gains and advantages over competitors.
Emphasis on openness is a must for 9 in 10 workers, people want transparency. Workers want employers that see them as valuable additions worthy of being in the know and that can be held accountable. They also want to know how their business makes decisions about processes. People don’t want to sign on with a megalomaniac who throws darts at a board to make decisions nor with someone who delegates writing and adjusting processes to someone who knows nothing about those whom it affects.
Communication within and without the workplace has evolved, so workers want changes that accommodate such alterations. 74% of workers prefer sending messages instead of in-person discussions. It’s more efficient, you can edit out mistakes, and you don’t have to deal with all the awkwardness that can arise when talking in-person. Almost 80% hope to have more tools for communication.
1 in 4 of people working remotely struggle with interacting solely through technology. Relying on tech alone could lead to:
How do we combat these crippling disadvantages? Be available, to answer questions, to help troubleshoot, and to keep everyone in the know with updates. Look smart, according to Photofeeler, profile pics of people wearing glasses appear more competent.
Use Grammarly to sound smart, which measures correctness, clarity, engagement, and delivery of your writing, as well as fixing spelling and grammar. With Shift, you can look smart, which connects all of your accounts, apps, email and tools to stay organized.
Communicate intelligently with Slack, which connects teams with organized spaces and channels to communicate clearly. Use InVision to collaborate well, editing digital media with real-time feedback and quick updates. Work smart with Sequel, using bots to communicate generally for you on Facebook, WhatsApp, Slack, Kik, and text, thereby increasing your availability.
Workers seem to know what’s up, with 65% of employees predicting work will only become more digital and more global. Covid-19 has made that forethought into a reality, so pandemic and after, Workplace tech is here to stay, so embrace it and make your work experience better.
Learn more about how to work smart here!
This story originally appeared on Kivo Daily
The Best Tech To Help You Work Smarter, Not Harder
Brian Wallace
WebProNews
Surviving The Sharp Pivot To Remote Work
More people are working from home these days, and why not? Better schedule, working environment, and commute (what could be better than rolling out of bed and immediately getting to work?). Oh, and avoiding the Coronavirus epidemic! Now everyone, even Gary (we don’t discriminate, insert name here) from accounting is working remotely. As annoying as Gary is on the company chat, there are a few other difficulties that you might encounter. But don’t worry, there are plenty of ways to survive this world crisis (and Gary), without having to kick off your bunny slippers.
While the novel coronavirus situation has 4 million people telecommuting, this exodus from the office is going to dramatically change the tools, support, and management styles necessary to succeed. Take for example, what employers were uncovering before casual Friday turned into casual Monday, Tuesday, etc.
A flexible work arrangement leads to:
Despite the many benefits, the transition to distance work may not be simple for many workplaces. If you didn’t already have remote working protocols in place, it can be difficult to establish them on the fly, and the learning curve can be extra steep during these trying times.
If you have already started making the transition, you’re likely to encounter some bumps along the way, from communication strain to internet bandwidth. Your coworkers might be blurring the lines between personal and professional communication right now, but give Gary a break, he might just be lonely. A 2016 study found among those working remotely, some feel increasingly isolated, disconnected, and uninformed. This is where innovative management can step in, using great platforms like Slack to keep teams connected and coordinate goals while helping to keep employees focused.
It’s adapt or else you’ll find that without oversight by others, routines, processes, and time management will suffer. The same study reported some employees felt happier, working more, and quitting less than coworkers stuck in the office. Just use discretion when identifying who needs the extra help staying on task, since there are superstars out there.
Make sure everybody has the tools to succeed, 5 or 6 GHz networks are highly recommended to support connecting to business applications, teleconferencing, streaming, or transferring large files. Check on internet providers, many are offering enhanced broadband service with so many working from home.
Communication is key in this new, often uncharted territory. As Greg Caplan, CEO and co-founder of Remote Year, says “Good remote workers understand the importance of communicating clearly with their team in any medium they’re using.”
Help your team acclimate to working remotely with real-time analytics and reporting applications like TimeToReply. The online platform supports and enables team production by measuring inboxes, reply times, and timed goals.
Now that Gary is taken care of, and since we all know what we’re doing, we can all rest a little easier. Covid-19 or not, remote work is here so make the most of it now!
Learn more about remote work in a Coronavirus economy here.
This story originally appeared on Kivo Daily
Surviving The Sharp Pivot To Remote Work
Brian Wallace
Lots of companies dismiss their About Us pages, pasting a boilerplate description and calling it a day. They forgo the benefits of doing it better. If your brand has fallen into that default mode, pivot now. Continue reading
The post How to Create a Persuasive About Us Page that Converts [Examples] appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.
WebProNews
Microsoft Teams Gets Personal
Microsoft Teams is one of the most popular platforms for professional communication, but now Microsoft is making it personal.
As more individuals are working from home, the lines between personal and work lives are increasingly blurred. While Teams has gained popularity as an app for work communication, Microsoft sees an opportunity to expand it to be a central communication tool for every aspect of life.
In a blog post, Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President, said: “At work, every day more than 44 million people use Microsoft Teams. People love Teams because it’s the only hub for teamwork that lets you chat, do video conferencing, make calls, and collaborate all in one place. And while Teams is great for work, we’re all struggling to manage responsibilities across work and life. We use multiple apps and disconnected tools such as calendars, email, messaging, and documents to manage it all.
“To provide one app to help manage work and life and deepen your connection with those who matter most, today we previewed new features coming to Microsoft Teams for your personal life.
“With these new features coming to Teams, you can connect, stay organized, and collaborate with family and friends. Create groups to plan trips with friends; organize a neighborhood gathering or your next book club meeting. You’ll be able to connect in a group chat, make video calls, collaborate over shared to-do lists and assign tasks to specific people, coordinate schedules, share photos and videos, all in one place. Teams gives to you the tools to seamlessly manage daily life; share grocery lists, organize across family calendars, store important information like Wi-Fi passwords and account info, and even see location updates when loved ones arrive home or at other locations like work or school.”
Microsoft’s announcement should come as no surprise. With Teams’ increasing popularity, Microsoft was bound to expand the app’s reach sooner rather than later.
Microsoft Teams Gets Personal
Matt Milano
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, IPOs for many start-ups with supposedly bright futures crashed when they entered the public market. Some didn’t even make it that far, canceling in 2019 their public offerings. A disturbing gap between the private and public valuations of venture-capital-funded start-ups has emerged. This divergence will likely continue as many start-ups are remaining private for longer periods of time.
The post VC Start-up Valuations Were Unrealistic Even before Covid-19 appeared first on Practical Ecommerce.
WebProNews
Google Donating $800 Million to Small Businesses Amid Crisis
With the fate of many small businesses on the line, Google is donating some $800 million to assist small businesses during the economic crisis.
As the global health crisis worsens, companies around the world are closing shop or drastically changing how they conduct business. Many are facing uncertain futures, leading governments and companies to take measures to assist. Google is one of the latest to step up, pledging some $800 million to the effort.
In a blog post, CEO Sundar Pichai said the company will be donating “$250 million in ad grants to help the World Health Organization (WHO) and more than 100 government agencies globally provide critical information.” This should help combat the spread of misinformation that is plaguing social media.
In addition, the company is also setting aside “a $200 million investment fund that will support NGOs and financial institutions around the world to help provide small businesses with access to capital. As one example, we’re working with the Opportunity Finance Network in the U.S. to help fill gaps in financing for people and communities underserved by mainstream financial institutions. This is in addition to the $15 million in cash grants Google.org is already providing to nonprofits to help bridge these gaps for SMBs.”
Google is also providing “$340 million in Google Ads credits available to all SMBs with active accounts over the past year. Credit notifications will appear in their Google Ads accounts and can be used at any point until the end of 2020 across our advertising platforms.” The company is also providing $20 million in Google Cloud credits that researchers can use to access Google’s computing resources.
Overall, this is a significant effort on the part of Google to stimulate small businesses and help them weather the storm. By making Google Ad credits available, it should provide a relatively risk-free way for small businesses to keep advertising, despite the economic challenges.
Google Donating $800 Million to Small Businesses Amid Crisis
Matt Milano
WebProNews
Slack CEO: We’ve Seen an Enormous Surge
“In the first 60th percent of this quarter added 9,000 new paid customers,” says Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield. “That’s a net number. This is compared to 5,000 for the previous quarter and 5,000 for the quarter before that. That’s an enormous surge. We’ve also seen the number of messages sent per user up 25 percent. Suddenly people are discovering a lot of techniques that were available to them before that suddenly become mandatory.”
Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Slack, discusses via Zoom on CNBC how the pandemic has doubled their pace of growth:
You think about what people hope to accomplish out of having a meeting. It’s often to get a decision made. It’s to update people on the status of projects. There’s a whole bunch of reasons to have a meeting. There’s an immediate obvious switch that goes off in people’s heads, hey we used to sit in the same room and now we’re at home, we need to have a videoconference. But the best way to support that work in getting the decision made, getting people on the same page, and knowing where you can ask the question is often better served by other methods. In the case of Slack, that’s channels.
In the first 60th percent of this quarter added 9,000 new paid customers. That’s a net number. This is compared to 5,000 for the previous quarter and 5,000 for the quarter before that. That’s an enormous surge. We’ve also seen the number of messages sent per user up 25 percent. Suddenly people are discovering a lot of techniques that were available to them before that suddenly become mandatory. When the only tools you have to get work done are meetings and email and meetings suddenly become a lot harder to pull off you begin to look for alternatives.
We look at what might happen on the small business side (on whether we will see sustained growth). There could be millions of bankruptcies and that will obviously affect us. We have a very healthy small business part of Slack. Enterprises can shut down spending. On the other hand, we’ve seen the surge in sign-ups so obviously people are seeing the need. We also see expansion in existing enterprise customers. It’s very hard to know how those two forces balance each other out.
There are other things to consider too. I’ve been talking to other software CEOs. What do you do when you’re not doing field marketing events to drive new customers? What do you do when your salespeople can’t travel? What do you do when your executive briefing centers are shut? How is that going to manifest in pipeline and growth in 3, 6, 9, 12 months? Right now it looks great for us but it’s impossible to say how this takes out over the year.
Slack CEO: We’ve Seen an Enormous Surge
Rich Ord
WebProNews
The Stress Of Undertaking Distance Learning Under Covid-19
Our lives are changing rapidly these days. The pandemic is threatening our mental health, businesses and jobs, and education. Fortunately, there is a technology that can help mitigate some of the strain.
For those still in disbelief as to the seriousness of the situation:
With no vaccine available for the foreseeable future, the only way to reduce casualties is to slow the spread of the virus. Inhibiting the spread will stagger the number of people infected at the same time, thus giving the healthcare providers a better chance to treat everyone.
To this goal, many have instituted stricter distancing procedures, such as closing public spaces, limiting gatherings, and closing schools. Few have not felt the effects of the pandemic, with virtually everyone’s life turned upside-down highlighted among them are the children.
School closures were one of the first attempts at slowing the spread of Covid-19. As of mid-March, 862 million children were affected. Educators scrambled to adapt to eLearning, but unfortunately, many institutions simply don’t have the infrastructure to support fully off-site learning.
While many are taken off balance, some teachers are addressing this by making use of established online platforms for lectures over mediums like Adobe Connect, BlackBoard, AnyMeeting, GoToMeeting, and MeetingBurner.
There is another glaring hurdle for educators to overcome. Close to 18% of children don’t have access to an internet connection at home, with 44% of low-income households not even owning a computer. In response to this crisis, Comp-U-Dopt, a charity in Housten, TX, provided low-income students with laptops. Internet providers like Spectrum and Comcast have also stepped up to provide free internet for such students.
Unfortunately, access to education isn’t the only thing being impaired by the Coronavirus. 30 million children rely on free or reduced-cost lunches provided in schools. That notwithstanding about 13 million kids deal with hunger in the U.S. adding up to a lot of vulnerable children. Thankfully this is not going unnoticed, a NY business went charity, Soulful Synergy has been working to provide thousands of meals a day to families in need, and the USDA also allowing some schools to continue providing meals for pick up.
There are many benefits to eLearning, with Coronavirus forcing educators to upgrade, perhaps there can be previously unattainable gains? Pandemics aside, 98% of teachers think the use of interactive video will be essential in the future because it enhances content consumption and increases retention rates. Interactive video is engaging and easily distributes content, like demos, explainers, and interviews.
93% of teachers view predictive analytics as changing education, allowing the development of personalized learning and efficiency to support the diverse needs of all learners. With AI use in education expected to grow by 48% by 2022, educators can streamline the customization of learning pathways.
Not every educational institution was convinced of the benefits of eLearning, but now those that wouldn’t have, are gearing for distance learning. And with so many focused on online learning, the potentials for innovation and integration are promising. Hopefully, we can see the glass as half full during these difficult times.
Learn more about what can be done with Distance Learning here!
This story originally appeared on Kivo Daily
The Stress Of Undertaking Distance Learning Under Covid-19
Brian Wallace
Does this sound familiar? You can’t find anything in your cluttered office or cluttered computer filing system. That's bad enough, but if your customers can’t find anything in your disorganized or out of date online storefront, that's a huge problem.
Much like traditional brick-and-mortar stores, you wouldn't find it acceptable to have empty shelves, products in the wrong aisle or items hastily thrown on the floor, would you?
Spring has officially arrived, so it’s time to do some business cleaning and that means making an e-commerce sales chore chart.
Take a quick peek at Pinterest and you’ll see some amazingly creative chore charts and we’ve found them to be the perfect inspiration for getting any online store ready for the future.
Instead of parents making to-do lists for kids — teaching a little responsibility and offloading some chores — it’ll be you and your team building a schedule for regular maintenance and more.
Chore charts help keep things organized and thus make operations less stressful. And when business is running smoothly, you have a better chance of increasing that ROI. And this article will help you do that.
A chore list is the master list of activities you need to perform in a given time frame. Typically, for households, they’re broken down into:
While families often put them on a computer or print out a spreadsheet and stick it to the fridge, businesses should use a large whiteboard or a wall with space for lots of sticky notes – known as a kanban board, a workflow visualization system:
Space is key so people can to write down their tasks or snap a photo with their phone, and then get to work. When they’re done, they can move the sticky note to the “Done” column. Or, if there’s an issue, they can write on the board or attach more notes to ask for help.
Simple online versions of the kanban board include:
Use multiple columns to organize these items, such as: what's not started yet, what’s in progress, what's finished, what's on hold, etc.
The master chore list can also be broken down into individual lists or sections, so teams can tackle projects relevant to them as quickly as possible. If you’ve ever been part of a Lean or Agile development team, or a Scrum Sprint, then the list structure will look and feel familiar.
Here’s a Care.com list that will help you understand what we’re looking at and how granular you want to get:
That's the bullet-point version for a quick overview. Here's the same list (or part of the list), with a little bit more detail or instructions:
Examples are a wonderful help to get started. However, try not to look at too many business-focused examples because you’ll be tempted to copy what they do, and it can get in the way of thinking big about your business.
The chief takeaway for businesses is that you want to break down chores into smaller tasks so you can tackle things as a team.
No single person should have to go through your full catalog to verify prices or check links. Spread out the work and look for support tools so that your team stays alert and focused.
If there’s an affordable option to automate any of these repetitive processes, consider it. It can help you eliminate human error by a significant amount, such as a 55% reduction for data collection and entry.
While we’re going to focus largely on efforts you can take on your e-commerce site, you don’t have to limit the organizational tasks to just your online store. You might have other issues that you need to address, which means creating a separate chore chart for reviewing vendors or streamlining and documenting employee positions.
Look for things like a manufacturer, vendor or fulfillment company questionnaires to help you ask the right questions in order to make proper changes for your business in 2020.
Dive Deeper:
* 5 Common Marketing Workflows That Will Save You Time
* How to Use an Organized Workflow to Stay on Top of Content Marketing
* 7 E-commerce Marketing Tasks Every Store Owner Should Outsource
Checklist at bottom of section.
Instead of jumping right into a frenzied cleaning, you should give your team a recap of last year’s sales, promotions, policies, events, etc.
It's much easier to know where you need to go once you've gotten clear on where you're coming from.
Create a list of sale prices and standard prices, the promotions you were offering for a limited time, and anything else you deemed special or temporary. To clean up e-commerce sales, you’ll need to know how things should look when all is said and done.
When you have your list of promotions together, review your website and marketing materials. Check for what changes are needed, including any new pricing or policies. Review everything to ensure that your site doesn’t make a claim or offer you don’t want to honor.
You don’t want your e-commerce store to look like this (very real!) homepage:
This is also a great time to review sales metrics for 2019 to see if there were any offers that did especially well or failed to deliver a big enough return. The bad news here is that you’ll need to review every single page.
Split up the work and have everyone on your team help verify the right price, policy and requirements that are posted on all pages.
If you’re lucky, you might have an e-commerce platform that handles all display prices and other information from a database. In this case, make your changes in the database and then audit the site. You’ll need to check promotions and pricing on sales pages. Be sure to also check the prices displayed in other elements, like recommendation bars or in your ad campaigns.
Get rid of all the sales clutter, too. Remove banners and pop-ups for outdated or holiday campaigns. Reduce your ads and focus on what worked last year while you start planning for this year’s A/B testing.
Tools to Help Your Spring Checklist:
Now that sale season is done and you’ve changed a lot of pricing and pages, go through each one to ensure that they work on all the devices your customers use.
Your e-commerce platform may have some built-in testing tools you can use, such as compatibility tests and true test environments. In other cases, you may need a platform specifically designed for mobile and browser compatibility, like BrowserStack:
For a very quick review, jump over to Google and search “how to test if a site is mobile friendly.” At the top will be a feature where you can input your store URL and get a review from Google:
You can also go to Google’s Search Console mobile-friendly test (bookmark this page for easy access so you can regularly run this test):
Those two options are a great place to start just to get an overview of your compatibility. High-level checks will verify that your theme works on mobile devices or let you know when an error occurs. Address these issues first, then get ready for a deep clean.
Your chore chart is going to get specific here and start assigning duties, because you’ve got a lot to check. Using a test environment or other software, go through your entire site and the buyer’s journey on different devices. Test forms, pricing data, the checkout process, and everything else a customer does in order to buy from you.
While you’re checking compatibility, keep an eye out for anything difficult or repetitive. Tests help us streamline shopping carts and purchase requirements, which your customers will appreciate.
You might also find ways to minimize customer effort to find what they want. That can range from putting pictures and “buy” buttons higher up on the page for faster clicks or moving FAQ elements around so usual questions about shipping, taxes and returns are always at the top.
Tool to Help Your Campaign Checklist:
Dive Deeper: Top 10 Mobile Optimization Best Practices For E-commerce Sites
Every January we see ads — especially on social — of companies mentioning their holiday savings or using hashtags of the holiday season and year prior. These campaigns generally are spending down their last few dollars and someone either didn’t notice or didn’t have the time.
Things can slip through the cracks around the end of the year or any time you've ended an old campaign, and that’s okay. You might even get some lift if your audience is searching for things like after-Christmas sales! The danger here isn’t the notice; it’s having an outdated offer.
Here’s what you don’t want to show up on one of your pages in March:
If someone clicks through a promotion and then can’t find it or the coupon has expired, they may be inclined to leave. The exact impact isn’t clear, but Neil Patel suggests that:
10% of shoppers will leave if they can't find a place to redeem a coupon on your site.
So it’s likely that coupon hunting has an impact on sales. Losing out on a deal may be the last straw that pushes a fair chunk of your audience to leave your site without buying (or coming back).
Many clean-up lists will address your cart abandonment risks:
Avoid this by Spring cleaning your marketing and sales messages on your website as well as in ad campaign management tools. Do a quick search to see when campaigns and promotions started, as well as what’s currently live, and it should be a fairly quick cleanup.
For a long-term chore list, give someone the task of setting and reviewing end dates for all campaign elements. This should occur periodically as well as just before any big seasons, events, or other campaigns begin, and shortly after they end.
Tool Options to Help Your Weekly List:
Dive Deeper:
* 6 Tips to Combat Cart Abandonment on a Magento E-Commerce Store
* Top Marketing KPIs that Every B2B Company Needs to Track
* 5 E-commerce Trends You Can’t Ignore in 2020
Now that 2020 is in full swing, it’s time to review your site for SEO purposes. Optimize what you can, where you can, and fill in any missing elements. This is going to entail a lot of little tasks for your chore chart, so get the coffee ready!
Start by creating a list of SEO elements to cover, such as:
SEO can get its own spring-cleaning focus because there’s enough there to keep everyone busy for a while. If your team is small, break down tasks around pages and elements that are most important. You can also look for tools and services to give you a hand, like Wordtracker (more tools at the end of this section):
One of the more critical tools you should use is a broken link checker. There are many for specific e-commerce platforms as well as WordPress plugins. There are even Chrome browser extensions that’ll check your site and the pages you’re visiting.
Look for options that list broken links and make it easy to find locations — some can highlight them right on the page, which is nice when you’re working on big catalog pages.
If you aren’t sure what tools to look for or where to begin, make that the first chore in this list!
Tools to Help Your Monthly Checklist:
Dive Deeper:
Dive Deeper:
* SEO for E-commerce Sites (Beginner & Intermediate)
* The Easy Guide to Broken Link Building for SEO
* SEO Keyword Research Made Easy in 2020
While your team is busy with their chores, leadership needs its own to-do list.
The best place to start is with a thorough review of what worked and what didn’t in the past twelve months. This is big-picture job so you'll need analytics across sales, marketing and site performance. Consider tools like dashthis to customize reports from your analytics tools:
Make a list of your products or duplicate your catalog in a way that’s easy to manage. Then look at the touchpoints you’ve made for these products. Audit the site and pages as well as campaigns across all your channels. Highlight the best and worst performers in every category (products, ads, landing pages, etc.) and seek patterns.
You can look at overall campaign spend to understand your audience and what resonated. Market research tools and general reviews from firms can help you round out personas and audience building.
At the same time, you might find that certain product categories are doing differently than expected or that sales campaigns linking to some pages worked while other page links didn’t (and maybe you need to improve site navigation).
Create a lessons-learned document and share it with your team. This is your early guiding star for sales and marketing, what to promote, and how to talk with your customers. After you explain and discuss it with everyone, turn it into your chore list for Q2 and beyond.
Tools to Help Your Quarterly List:
Dive Deeper:
* How Correctly Used Pop-Ups Can Help Increase Leads
* Why Chatbots Are a Must-Have for Businesses (and How to Build One!)
* How to Run A/B Tests that Actually Increase Conversions
Here's a list of all the chores and tools we've included in this article in one place!
The Spring List:
The Campaign List:
The Weekly List:
The Monthly List:
List of SEO elements to cover:
The Quarterly Leadership List:
The post Your E-commerce Sales Chore Chart for a Profitable 2020 appeared first on Single Grain.
