Successful

It’s possible you’ve either used or experienced an answering service at some point in your life. As technology continues to move forward, answering services can benefit your company in many different ways.

Global Resources Consultants present the following five ways that an answering service can benefit your small business.

Collecting Leads

Lead collection is critical to linking potential customers with your product/service. We know how difficult it can be to keep up with the influx of phone calls that small businesses receive on a daily basis. With missed phone calls comes missed leads.

It’s known that nearly nine out of ten people will not call you back if you fail to answer the phone. Think of it this way: if you don’t value their time, why would they care to give you business?

With an answering service, you don’t have to do this all alone. The answering services of today capture information exactly as you need it and hand deliver it right to your inbox. This will for sure increase your success. The other great benefit: answering services are working 24/7, around the clock for you.

Processing Orders

As a small business owner, I’m sure you’ve been obligated to take orders in the evenings or even on the weekends. Rather than using all of your precious time, an answering service can handle those orders for you. Since over-the-phone is generally viewed as the quickest and most efficient way to place an order, sales will constantly be processed.

Answering services have ways of inputting orders using either their own custom software or your sales portal.

Brand Integration

Sure, we know you’ve avoided answering services because you think agents pull customers away from YOUR brand. Well, you’d be surprised at how seamless and effective agents of today sound over the phone. Most people will just assume that he/she is working in-house.

Scheduling Appointments 

With your busy schedule, you likely don’t have enough time to take calls and manage your own calendar. Answering services can handle the back-end logistical work for you, while you focus on scaling your business.

Reporting Calls

An answering service provides call reports that lay out all of the nitty gritty details of incoming calls. This report includes, but is not limited to, number of calls, duration, geographic location and any end result(s).

Recap

Answering services of today will not only save you time and money, they will also help you collect leads, process orders, schedule appointments and provide great caller insights. This time-saving tool will help you scale your business and earn more profits.

Promotional items are key to achieving the profitability of a business. They are perfect for attracting new clients, rewarding loyalty of current customers, increasing brand awareness, and offering a stable and unified image of a company.

A customer who receives a gift from a company feels valued by it: it is a way to build loyalty. In addition, word of mouth remains the most useful strategy. The most likely thing is that the client speaks well of the company that gave the gift. That is, brand awareness is increased, and it is possible to attract new customers through this form of marketing.

On the other hand, a company that has personalised uniforms, personalised writing materials and stationery, offers a strong and stable external image. It offers a coherent “corporate image”.

Here are just three promotional gifts that you should consider using for your business:

Personalised agendas

Personalised agendas are not just an accessory in which you can note important contact numbers or information. They are much more.

This promotional gift is especially useful but, in addition, it is very accessible for a company. It is an economic and practical gift that is always welcome.

On the other hand, one of the greatest advantages of personalised agendas is that they are not a static object. They usually travel where the owner goes. It is a perfect way for a company’s logo to impact third parties and, in this way, increase brand awareness.

Personalised pens

Personalised pens are a classic, but they are useful and functional. Customising this promotional item is a way to send a message.

One of the biggest advantages of personalised pens is their ability to adapt to a large number of situations, regardless of the client’s profile. That is, it is a gift that will be well received by any type of company or individual because it is always necessary.

On the other hand, it is a way of awakening interest on the part of the client. When making a gift, the receiver feels flattered, so (in many cases) they will want to “return the favour”.

Personalised bags and backpacks

Personalised bags and backpacks can be considered a mobile advertising item. Your company logo will travel wherever your personalised promotional items travel. Of course, it is not the same as an item which travels stored in a suitcase or bag, as a personalized bag or backpack travels in full view of everyone.

Like the bags of clothing stores, electronics stores, etc., the personalised backpack will extend brand awareness wherever it travels, as it is visible at all times.

Promotional merchandise is perfect for increasing the brand awareness of a company, to retain existing customers and attract new ones, but not all promotional items are adapted to any company. In many cases, the choice of the ideal item can be the catapult to achieve certain business objectives.

If you are planning to have a meeting with people interested in your company, you should follow the following tips.

Organising a corporate event can be a great challenge, especially if it is a project for a first-time entrepreneur who does not know all the details that should be taken into account. However, experts say that the key to making an event a success (whether it is with your employees, investors, potential clients or associates) is that it should be a great experience.

Beyond the corporate gift bags that you are going to give away, if you are going to use a corporate event to communicate something, you must make sure it is a memorable experience. To achieve this, as in almost everything in the business world, you must pay close attention to the details.

Here are the key elements that you must keep in mind so that those attending your event remember you forever.

1. Number of participants, age, and gender

It may seem obvious, but beyond knowing only the number of participants to determine the location and quantity of necessary inputs, the fact of taking into account age and gender is essential to adapt the activities to the public. If you take into account the target audience, you will achieve the full attention of your audience.

2. Objective of the event

This helps you to start planning it. It can be to reward the staff of your company, motivate the team, launch a product, celebrate an anniversary, or end of the year party. All events have an objective and the activities that take place must be aimed at achieving it.

3. Budget

No matter if you decide to organise the event yourself or hire a specialist company, you must take into account from the beginning the budget for the event to develop a proposal for activities and general development of the event. Always try to do more with less. It is important to have or develop agreements with suppliers to maximise resources.

4. Define the venue

Once you have defined the above details, you should look for a place to celebrate your event. You must take into account the schedules and ease of arrival to the location, or, if the place is not easily accessible, look for transportation options to offer attendees.

5. Agenda of the event

Having a schedule of specific activities helps the organisers to keep track of essential elements of the development of the event such as venue rental, catering hire, AV rental and other required services. Having a schedule also allows quick decisions in case, for some reason, one of the presentations or planned elements does not go as planned.

6. Planning schedule

Finally, it is important to remember that the realisation of a successful event, whatever it may be and with the objective that it is intended to achieve, should begin, if possible, at least three months in advance of the event to allow sufficient time to plan all the necessary elements, and to ensure you will be successful with your business event.

When we walk through the aisles of the supermarket, our eyes are invaded by an infinity of visual stimuli, with various brands fighting each other to get our attention. Thousands of products with different shapes, colours, smells and textures invade us with the sole purpose of being chosen to be part of our purchases.

When designing packaging, the strategy to follow is so important that it can mean the difference between the success and virtual invisibility of a product. For this reason, here are 7 key points that you must keep in mind so that the design of your product’s packaging is attractive and, above all, irresistible:

1. Aim at your target audience

First, if you have not done so previously, you must define who your target audience is. That is, what kind of person will be interested in acquiring your product. For example: women aged 30 to 50, over 30 with purchasing power, children or adolescents, etc.

2. Stay true to your brand

You must not deviate from your corporate colours, typography, style, approach, etc., unless a specific product or campaign is designed to breakout from this, for whatever reason. It is important that your product and brand is easily identifiable at a glance. For this it is essential to be faithful to your brand values.

3. The budget is no longer an excuse

Nowadays, you can make original and fresh designs with few resources, because the trends mark minimalist designs that require few inks and accessible materials for all kinds of budgets.

You can save on printing with monochrome or two-colour designs. Less is more, saturating the container with forms and texts sometimes plays against you.

4. Choose the right material

There are a variety of materials available to create your packaging: glass, metal, different types of plastic and a multitude of densities, etc. How do you know which materials are optimal? The tendencies of recent years in materials of packaging mark the use of natural or ecological materials such as kraft paper bags, containers made of recycled cardboard, corrugated paper, or cork, etc. In fact, more and more companies have chosen to return to glass containers, returning to the era before plastic and adding value to the product, denoting exclusivity and quality and also helping the environment. You can find out more about such packaging trends at pactivate.com.

5. Amuse the public

There is nothing better than getting a smile from the public to remember your brand. The interactivity in the packaging, the sensorial experiences, making the packaging a game is a trend already present that continues to gain strength. Fun containers that are original will not go unnoticed in the supermarket aisles.

6. Make the consumer’s life easier: intelligent packaging

It is about offering a solution to a problem that arises from the consumption or use of your product to make life easier for consumers and therefore show an advantage over the products of the competition:

• Use of colour to warn of the expiration of a product or ideal consumption temperature, for example, a thermochromic label which tells you when, for example, beer is at the ideal temperature for consumption.

7. Never forget ergonomics

It is essential when designing our packaging to take into account the ease of transport and the optimal convenience when using it.

• A shampoo that does not slip in the shower or a bottle that adapts well to the shape of the hand.
• Isotonic drink bottles for athletes, which in addition to having an organic, rounded shape that adapts to the hand, have a texture on the side that facilitates grip and prevents slipping while doing sports.

If you still do not know how to approach the design of your packaging or the steps you must carry out to develop it, consult a specialist in packaging design to advise you on packaging and help you to make your products look better, get the attention of your potential customers and increase your sales.

If you’re wondering why it’s important to invest in making sure that your website or blog is optimized for SEO, simply continue reading to discover the importance of SEO.

4 Reasons why SEO is so important in our digital age:

1. Utilizing SEO techniques can drive considerable traffic to your blog or website

The aim of using posting content which is SEO optimized is to increase your blog or website’s search engine ranking so that when potential clients or readers search for a business or blog with certain keywords which are related to your niche, your blog or website will feature in the first few pages of Google results.

As it’s highly unlikely that a potential visitor to your website will click on the third page of search results as the vast majority of individuals will click on one of the first few search results, which they’re shown.

2. SEO is a far most cost-effective form of marketing than most forms of marketing

Whether you’re the owner of a small business or a personal blog, if you’re looking for an inexpensive yet effective method of marketing your business or blog, it’s well worth optimizing your website or blog for SEO. As in many cases optimizing your website or blog for SEO is completely free, unless you choose to pay a third party to create SEO dense posts for you. If you are interested in having help and looking for more reach you can find professional help from sites like, click.co.uk.

SEO has also been proven to drive a greater amount of traffic to websites, than creating social media accounts for your website or blog.

3. The vast majority of online shoppers, search for unbiased reviews before making a decision

Recent marketing studies, which study consumer behavior have reported that a minimum of 70% of online customers, search for reviews on online products and services, which they are interested in purchasing, before handing over their credit card details.

Which means that more shoppers end up purchasing products and services online as a result of positive reviews, than shoppers who search for online reviews and choose to make a purchase in a traditional brick and mortar store.

So if you want to capture a share of your market, which searches for online reviews, it’s well worth making sure that your business is SEO optimized so that if consumers choose to purchase a product or service which you offer, that they’ll end up finding your business’ details, instead of your competitors’ details.

4. If potential customers can’t find your website, they’ll be unlikely to deal with your business

If your potential customers are unable to find your business’ website, in the first pages of search results, they’ll lose faith in your business and will be more likely to do business with one of your competitors. As in today’s day and age, it’s seen as highly unusual if a business doesn’t have a professional web presence, which turns up in the first page of search results.

If you’re determined to drive traffic to your business or blog and are looking for effective ways to market your web presence in order to be successful, it’s well worth investing your time in increasing your SEO ranking.

You don’t need to just stick with traditional estate agents. There are advantages in hiring someone who is just your neighbour since he probably knows the market well. However, there are more options available online. These online estate agents are highly qualified and they also know a lot about the market. They could help you sell the property in no time. Here are some other reasons why you should hire online agents.

Potentially huge savings

Usually, online agents are fixed-fee estate agents. They operate by selling the property at a flat rate, which ensures that you are getting the best value for money. The fees for their services are way lower than the average fee for high street estate agents. They will also be there for you up until the property is sold. There are no hidden charges either. The cost will be lower by thousands of pounds. The said amount can actually go towards a deposit if you are buying a new house, or remodelling the bathroom in your old house to increase its value even more.

Bigger marketplace access

You don’t want to just stick with a limited market. You want to reach out to more people if possible. This is the problem with traditional agents. Their market is very limited. Yes, it is possible to have someone who lives in the area to actually buy the property, but there could be other interested buyers out there. Advertising online and using the right social media marketing techniques help a lot. There are even a lot of property listing sites online that rack up millions of views on a daily basis. Having your property posted there could increase its chances of getting sold right away.

They can work like traditional agents – and more

Everything that a traditional agent does can also be done by online agents. They also have the same credentials or even better. They have the same amount of experience in working with different properties over the years. The best part is that you need not worry about paying them upfront. Some of them only collect fees once the property has been sold.

There are online agents working for firms. You can contact the firm just like those at www.beresfordsgroup.co.uk and they will help you achieve your goals. They have several agents working for them. If the agent partnered with you fails, you can always request for someone else to do the job for you. The same thing can happen if you are not comfortable with your agent or you have communication issues.

It takes time to sell a property given that there are other properties out there that are also for sale, but with a hard working agent, your goals can be achieved and it can be done.