Leadership stands out as a crucial component of an organization’s existence and success. With the current situation, the need for effective leaders becomes even more apparent. A shift within the workforce is occurring globally with 10,000 baby boomers retiring each day. About 48% of the workforce now comprises of millennials, including leadership roles. Now, more than ever, it is critical to engage in effective leadership development. This is the best opportunity for you to step up and lead your organization. Your starting point is in discovering your leadership style. The following leadership styles can act as a model for you to use. Take note of them while looking for something that suits you and your organization. 1. AUTHORITATIVE LEADERSHIP To start, we will look at a leadership style that stands out with the words “follow me”. The authoritative leadership style inspires, bringing others to follow leaders promptings and decisions. This method also puts a degree of certainty in crucial situations. This is important training for when team members are in moments where they would be in a fog of indecisiveness. This leadership style works great for confident people. It prompts them to take initiative. Leaders that use this style have the charisma and skill to lead. In action, such leaders know more than most of the members. They would use that knowledge to guide their employees. Such leaders also have inspiring air around them. There is a similar leadership style that comes with the phrase “do as I say”. This is the autocratic leadership style. This is a rather forceful approach to leadership as it seems too coercive. For an authoritative leadership style, they put the reason behind the decision. It is not about simply issuing orders. It also puts the reason behind the order or decision, providing a transparent view to the team members. 2. DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP Another leadership style that you can try and model stands by the words “what do you think?”. This is a democratic leadership style. In it, team members act together with the leader. How it works is that employees share information together. They also provide feedback due to how the leader provides a means for it. After which, the leader takes on a final decision. With this method, you see the emphasis on member or employee input. It works great as a leadership style as it also helps in building trust. It also emphasises employee recognition of value and opinion. This is a good leadership style when opting for a synergistic approach. It also promotes team spirit and an easier flow of creativity for your team. If you want an easy way to bring the team in a united front, go for this leadership style. 3. LAISSEZ-FAIRE LEADERSHIP When comparing this leadership type with the autocratic or authoritative style, you would immediately notice how loose this style is with oversight and supervision. An autocratic leader goes for a hard stance. Meanwhile, a laissez-faire leader lets his members take action by their intuition. This leadership style lends well to leaders who have highly-skilled team members that can take the initiative and are self-starters. This allows them to trust and rely on their judgment and skill to accomplish their tasks. With this style, your employees can spread their wings. If taken towards the extreme, it would end up with the leader appearing too aloof and distant. The other risk is in the lack of direction caused by this style. Up to the point that would end up with team members steering in the wrong direction. To remedy this, make sure to offer regular feedback and monitor the team’s performance. This can help address the direction and empathy points of the leadership style. Before we continue, know that leadership styles also depend on the leader’s personality. You can read about the connection between personality and leadership styles here. 4. COACHING-STYLE LEADERSHIP This particular leadership style has a premise where it suggests and guides the employee or member towards improvement. It takes on the words “consider this” when leading and providing input. This is a more nurturing approach to leadership, where it aims to build up the members serving in the team. It is a style perfect for empathic leaders. It opens up trust and communication while aiming for development. Another good thing about this approach is that it takes on a mentoring spin to leading people. 5. PACESETTING LEADERSHIP This leadership style takes on the words “do as I do” when leading the team. It is a good fit for energetic leaders, more so when working with like-minded members. It allows you to bring the team to push towards the goal with ample motivation, bringing in results as they go. It has a downside, however, as it can exert a lot of stress on its members in the long run. This would be a great style to use when pushing towards deadlines and goals. For this method to remain effective, you also need to put in some lull times to avoid burnout. 6. SERVANT LEADERSHIP This leadership style fits with the words “leading by example”. A servant leader prioritizes the team, meeting their needs, and incorporating a positive work culture. Servant leaders have high integrity and they lead by generosity. This is an approach that ensures high amounts of morale among members. This setup also in organisations and groups where integrity and values are in high demand. Servant leadership is also an influential approach when you look at how it can impact members that they also follow due to integrity. This style might not be a good fit in a competitive environment when results are on the top priority. In such situations, leaders will have to make difficult decisions to push their team to perform well. DISCOVER YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLES These leadership styles are a model to start with. These can guide you towards a leadership style that suits your personality and work ethics. From there, you can lead your team towards success. From Article City: Originally Posted On: http://2020exchange.com.au/2020/12/29/these-6-leadership-styles-spell-success-in-the-21st-century/

People like listicles because they like breaking things into categories and see differences between those categories. You can find all kinds of listicles on the Internet, ranging on all kinds of different topics. Buzzfeed invented the listicle and things were never the same again. When it comes to blog content, this article type reigns supreme. Here’s how to write one. What is a Listicle? Before you start writing a listicle, you should probably know what it is. Buzzfeed is the website that made the listicle popular, and really it’s just an article that makes a list of anything. It can be on all kinds of different topics and can be a list of any number of points. A lot of time there is media in the post as well, like photos, videos, and GIFs. To see an example of a well-written listicle, click here to learn more. There’s no right or wrong way to write a listicle, but there are different things to consider to help you get more people reading your listicles. Number Each Item Listicles are normally a number of different items, and it’s important that you give a number to each major header. This will help break up your article and allow people to scan your article quickly rather than having to read huge blocks of text. The numbered sections are great ways to summarize and categorize the information. Your goal is to make the information easily digestible for the reader. You want your article to look organized. You should also decide how many numbers you want. You should choose a number that will allow you to write about the project without having to leave out information or write fluff and filler content. This will be different based on each topic that you write about. And for the most part, it won’t matter which number you choose. A lot of listicles have smaller numbers to make it easier for its audience to read. But that’s not to say that large-numbered listicles don’t work as well. As a general rule of thumb, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 10, are common numbers for listicles. However, based on different research, it looks like odd numbered posts do better than even numbered ones. That may be something you want to consider when choosing a number. Expand on Each Item on the List After you make each numbered point, you should also go into a small explanation right underneath it. This is the place where you get to expand on your point. Most people will probably scan your listicle, and if they see a point that looks interesting or important, then they will continue on to read the information underneath it. Because of this, you should make your list as interesting and eye-catching as possible. Make Your Article At Least 1,000 Words The word count will also vary for different topics, but you may want to write at least 1,000 words. This will give you enough space to expand on your list. Some research has shown that now, longer content is more shared than shorter. How long an article needs to be is dependent on the topic and the audience, but some listicles could even be up to 10,000 words if you’re ready for a challenge. Make Your Listicle Easy to Scan As we said before, most people are going to read your article and just look at the highlights. They aren’t going to be delving into the information unless it’s something that actually catches their interest. People have short attention spans, and on the Internet, there is a lot of things competing for that attention. If someone opens an article and sees only giant blocks of texts, most people will probably decide not to read that. But if you have the same content broken up with headings, images, videos, GIFs, and lists, then you may convince people to stick around and hear what you have to say. You can also try breaking up your paragraphs so that there is no more than two to three sentences in your paragraph. If you want to draw attention to a particular piece of text, utilize your italics, bolding, and underlining. This can also help with the headings to highlight important, extra information. To help your reader out and make the listicle seem less daunting, you can also use bullet points and lists. This will add more white space to your page making the content seem more digestible. Think of a Catchy Title To get people to click on your listicle, you will need to think of a catchy or clever title. You also want to make sure that you pique people’s interest while also giving them some preview information on what they’re about to read. Avoid clickbait though. Clickbait is basically a title that promises something to readers that really isn’t possible. It is basically just trying to get you to click on their link. Users are becoming increasingly annoyed with clickbait, and you don’t want to lose your reader by misleading them. In addition to avoiding click bait, you also want to keep it short and sweet. Again, because our attention span is short, you need to figure out a way to capture someone’s attention even with a short title. If your title is too lengthy and describes too much, some people may not even finish reading it. Or they may feel like they have enough information as to where they don’t need to read your post. Before you post your listicle to the web, it is important to make sure that the number you put in your title also matches the number of items you have in your article. Readers will think you’re lazy and didn’t proofread your work if they catch a mistake like that. Add Media As we’ve been talking about, media is also helpful in a listicle. If you scroll through Facebook now, most posts are composed of photos or videos because that is what catches people’s attention. The type of media you include will depend on your topic, tone, and audience. But you can use GIFs, videos, pictures, and even audio files. Make sure that the media you choose is related to what you are talking about so that it doesn’t look like you are adding media for the fun of it. You can find the right media for you on Google, but make sure that you are allowed to use whatever media you find. Write a Great Conclusion The conclusion is the last thing the reader will read, and therefore it may be the thing they remember the most. Because of this, you want to make sure that your conclusion is strong. Most conclusions are just a summary of what was stated in the conclusion, but this can seem boring and redundant. Instead, there are different ways you can spice up your ending. Provide unique examples of what you talked about Have a call to action (buy a product, read a blog, book an appointment, etc.) Make different suggestions Insert your opinion Tie up your argument by adding more examples Conclusions can sometimes be the most difficult part of a listicle to write, but they are also one of the most important. Stand Out There are so many listicles available online, and Google can show you so many examples of them. Because of this, you need to figure out how to make yours stand out. If you want to write about 9 travel tips, your post may get lost among all of the other travel tips. Instead, you need to think about how you can give it your own unique spin. Do some brainstorming and reflecting, and think about how you can do that. You can try making it more specific. The smaller the niche is, the less of a chance there is that there will be a listicle just like yours out there. Instead of talking just about travel tips, talk about traveling to a certain country. Or traveling as a woman by yourself. Or 9 foods to eat in a certain country. Keep narrowing it down, and you will be able to write an article that is solely unique to you. Write The Perfect Listicle Today Writing the perfect listicle won’t be easy, and it may take some time and learning. It can be along process, but once you get the hang of it, it will get easier. With these tips, you can jump right on the trend of these types of blog posts. BY DALE HARRIS - Article City

In 2011, the number of smartphones in the US surpassed the number of people. More people are looking at their phones than reading print. Is the future of print ad campaigns dead and gone? If you own and operate a business, you’re always thinking about the future of advertising and marketing. You need to be able to keep up with the times if you expect to succeed in the business world. You may notice people these days talking a lot about digital marketing, SEO, and social media marketing. While these will likely continue to be important, what about print marketing? Continue reading about print advertising and find out if it still has a future. Print Advertising Isn’t Dead! Here’s a spoiler: print marketing will remain alive so long as there remains a physical customer presence. Many experts will tell you print marketing still holds incredible value alongside your digital marketing campaign. Even with the advent of computers, mobile phones, tablets, and virtual reality, even young people have an affinity for paper. The Permanent Nature of Print Digital content is fleeting. When you design your digital marketing campaign, you need to think about constant updates to your internet content. This is true for your blog and various social media platforms. Print on paper carries an inherent feel of permanence. In a digital world, it can feel like information comes and goes with a moment’s notice. Think about ancient collections of books. With proper care, print has the potential to last forever. While this is true of the digital, digital information is quickly lost beneath mountains of information. Entice Customers to an Online Experience So far as we can tell, the best way to think about print advertising is as a complement to your digital brand. For example, you might consider getting customized stickers with your social media links printed across it. You can use your print ads to encourage potential customers to interact with your brand on an online platform. Live in the Present Although the future of print and marketing are uncertain, you and your business should continue to live in the present. For now, print advertising remains a valuable asset in your marketing campaign. Print can be a great complement to your digital marketing campaign as you build your brand. Always stay up to date on the business world and find out what works and what doesn’t. To find more advice on marketing and business, visit our marketing section. BY DALE HARRIS - Article City

Creating a high performing team is crucial for every organization to carry out their work, bring out superior performance and build up a tremendous competitive advantage. A group of individuals with specialized yet complementary expertise and skills focused on common goals. As a team, they collaborate, innovate and produce consistently superior outputs. The group relentlessly strives to excel in performance through shared leadership, open communication, clear role responsibilities, team rules, and early conflict resolution. As a result, they possess a strong sense of mutual trust and accountability. All this contributes to being a high-performing team. Even though the outburst of the pandemic and the penetration of digital technology have transformed the workplace to extraordinary lengths, high performing teams still remain the backbone of contemporary organizational structure. From running a business organization, creating new products and services to delivering them to the customers requires a collaborative high-performance team. So, creating a high performing team is crucial for every organization to carry out their work, bring out superior performance and build up a tremendous competitive advantage. Let’s look at some of the significant characteristics of high-performance teams. Characteristics of High Performing Teams A high performing team is more than a group of workers simply following orders. They have some of these distinguishing characteristics. · A deep sense of purpose to the mission · Great mentors to consistently motivate the team. · They have work-life balance · They have courage to speak out their thoughts · Mutual commitment, interdependence, and trust among team members · They have ambitious goals · A clear understanding of the team’s responsibilities and individual obligations. How to Build A High Performing Team? High performing teams are easy to spot, and writing down their characteristics is far easier. But creating high performing teams isn’t easy, but the benefits are definitely worth the effort. There are different ways towards building high performing teams, but here are a few key factors to focus on. 1. Open Communication Is A Priority Open communication is the cornerstone of a high-performance team and is taken for granted by average business teams. However, it will be a costly mistake if an organization fails to promote open communication, resulting in poor output, elusive targets, and ineffective employee engagement. For creating high performing teams, managers should focus on open communication that motivates the workforce and boosts the productivity and profitability of the organization. Managers should also transparently disseminate the company information. Of course, there are various barriers to open communication. Some of them are lack of listening, conflicting communication, and emotional distractions. However, you are on the way to successfully building a high-performance team if you overcome all these open communication barriers. There are several leading virtual employee engagement activities, online team-building games, and platforms to help you to beat these challenges. These digital tools enhance collaboration and open communication among team members as well. 2. Set Quantifiable Goals The things that can’t be measured cannot be achieved. So, high performing teams always set quantifiable goals and objectives. By doing so, the high performing teams know precisely what they are working for and how the output contributes to their productivity and the business's profitability. Online team building platforms help the team members to develop quantifiable goals and commit themselves to achieve them. 3. Promote Emotional Quotient (EQ) Emotional Quotient (EQ), popularly known as Emotional Intelligence (EI), is an individual's ability to balance emotions and thoughts. An emotionally intelligent individual can understand and control their own emotions while empathizing with other people's emotions and feelings. EQ is deeply ingrained in the DNA of a high performing team, and it is a powerful driver of teamwork. A group of emotionally intelligent people carries out open communication effectively. They naturally tend to foster loyalty and engagement. As a result, high performing teams fine-tune their collaborative skills to push towards more fulfilling success. 4. Stress on Continuous Learning In the current Information Age, continuous learning is an inevitable necessity. Apart from building high performing teams, it is essential to smoothly sail through skill gaps and different types of digital transformations. Technology, particularly emerging technologies, constantly changes. As a result, businesses stress faster learning and skill development among team members. Team members in a high-performance team help each other in learning and upgrade their learning ability through various digital training sources and tools. Businesses looking for creating a high performance team should make continuous learning their priority. Therefore, apart from virtual employee engagement activities and online games, they turn towards leading online learning platforms to provide interactive training to their employees in emerging technologies. These online programs are more likely to be effective than merely reading or watching video tutorials. 5. Leadership High performance teams are led by highly performing leaders. There is no doubt that leaders who focus on purpose, goals, relationships, and an unwavering commitment to results are behind all high-performing teams and every business organization. More than that, building high performing teams also requires essential leadership skills. Some of them are: · The ability to keep up with the relevance and meaning of the business purpose and goals. · The willingness to build commitment and confidence among employees. · Consistently motivates team members to enhance their skills. · Manage relationships without hindering team performance. · Courage to overcome challenges. · Openness to provide equal opportunities for everyone. · Finally, get to the bottom and do the real work. A Few Little Steps for Creating a High Performing Team To survive and thrive in today’s digitally transforming, highly competitive business world, every enterprise should be backed by high performing teams. And, building high performing teams doesn’t happen by chance. To develop such teams effectively, managers should identify the strengths and weaknesses of team members. Then group them in a manner in which they can collaborate well and complement each other with their varying talents, skills, and attributes. Ultimately, this holistic workforce will work consistently towards meeting business challenges and goals. In short, building a high-performance team seems like a daunting task. But towards this end, a number of online game platforms can offer some help. Online games equip team leaders and Human Resource (HR) managers with the right skillsets for creating high-performing teams. These short games help team members to get over boredom and get back to their work afresh. In addition, online games are tailored for business teams of every shape and size, satisfying their business needs. It also allows the HR department to organize online gaming tournaments for employees taking employee engagement to the next level. Source: Free Guest Posting Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

How many newsletters do you receive in a given day, week or month? If you’re anything like me, it could be in the hundreds! But more importantly, how many do you actually click on to read? I bet that number is substantially less. Do you know why that is? Why are you skipping past those unopened emails or deleting them before you know what they contain? One of the big reasons is the subject line. So imagine the same thing happening to your newsletters. Do you want them to be ignored and deleted? If not, this article will help you better understand what gets your subscribers to open your newsletter. You can have the most incredible article written that will literally change people’s lives. But if they never open the email, they will never read or experience your life-altering writing. But to get you started, here are the top 5 reasons your emails are being ignored and what should be fixed in the subject line right away: 1.) Not relevant to the reader. Put yourself in your reader’s shoes – what would get them to want to read more? Are you leading them to an answer that they will find in your article? Are you triggering their curiosity enough to make them feel they are missing out if they don’t read further? At the end of the day, if what you are sending out is not what your readers want to receive from you, then you’ve lost them in the inbox. So be sure you clearly understand who your target audience is and why they became a subscriber in the first place. 2.) Too many characters long. When a subject line is too long, there’s a good chance it will get cut off in the preview window and won’t be read. This will reduce your chances greatly at compelling your reader to open the email. Best practices are to keep your subject line under 60 characters and that includes the use of emojis. 3.) Too clever or vague. Subject lines that perform the best are descriptive and clearly state the benefit the reader will have if they read it. Trying to be clever often leads to being too broad or vague where only you truly understand what it’s about but is lost on everyone else. A valuable rule of thumb is to never make assumptions that the reader will be able to get what you mean. Always be clear and straight to the point. 4.) Not personalized. According to Convince & Convert, emails that include the recipient’s first name see a higher click rate than those that don’t. Just doing this one thing, could boost your open rate by 50%. I don’t recommend you do this with every newsletter you send out, but make it a habit for many of them. 5.) Using spam triggering words and characters. 16% of all emails land in the junk folder often due to a poorly written subject line that contains spam-triggering words. So before sending out your next newsletter, check to make sure it’s not over-sensationalized, over-promising, and over-used words that typical spammers use. The next time you write your Newsletter, give twice as much thought to the subject line as you did writing the article itself and see if you get better open rates as a result. Here’s a great subject line evaluation tool to use with every send out: www.subjectline.com to see how it stands up to industry standards. Another good habit to get into is to check your stats after each newsletter – what is the open rate percentage? Are those stats improving or declining with each send out? Also, if your Newsletter provider allows it, try doing split-testing to see which subject line style is more effective with your list. If writing proper subject lines, let alone newsletters and blog articles, is overwhelming to you, then consider hiring marketing specialists who can do all of that tedious work for you! by: Susan Friesen

Over the years I’ve seen a lot of business owners who haven’t taken the time to learn how to define brand identity. Some of them feel like they don’t have the time, others are intimidated because they don’t know the first thing about branding, and some don’t even think it’s important at all. But the fact of the matter is when businesses are inconsistent in their branding or have yet to define their brand, it dilutes their ability to connect with potential customers and diminishes the impact of all their marketing materials. Even worse, these businesses don’t have anything to set them apart from the competition. In these situations, sometimes business owners will haphazardly slap together some marketing collateral and try to brand themselves using what their competitors are doing as a template. But this “me too” method of mimicking what competitors are doing is not effective. So, if you feel like you’ve tried everything to come up with a brand identity and you’re at your wit’s end, or you’re overwhelmed because you’ve yet to even begin, you need to keep reading. In this article, I’m going to give you a solid foundation for understanding what a visual brand is and how to build a strong brand online. Tips for How to Define Brand Identity Whether you’re creating a new brand or updating your existing one, your brand’s visual identity is the most important aspect of your marketing. Your brand is so much more than a website and a logo. It’s a user’s total experience and their perception of you and your business. Therefore, every touchpoint a prospect has with you should have one consistent look and theme. This includes your logo, website, stationery, social media, videos, brochures, business cards, and of course, your personal brand in terms of how you dress and present yourself to the world. A solid visual brand will promote professionalism and purpose and help people know exactly what to expect from you ? Visual branding adds real power to your marketing. It increases engagement with your customers, enhances their understanding of what you do, and makes you instantly recognizable to those who are familiar with your brand. Considering all the benefits of personal and professional branding, learning how to define brand identity is absolutely crucial. But you’ve got to be consistent, otherwise you’ll dilute your brand and confuse your customers. Keeping Your Branding Consistent When it comes to your marketing, there are a lot of things to keep track of. So how can you be certain all your marketing resonates with your brand identity? Well, one thing I’ve learned over the years is when you want to maintain consistency in your marketing, you’ve got to have a style guide. A comprehensive style guide will cover the following aspects: 1.) Headshot – A professional headshot goes a long way in terms of developing trust in your brand. 2.) Logo – Your logo is like the nucleus of your brand because everything else stems from it. This is why it’s so important to define the meaning of your logo and think about what it represents. 3.) Color Palette – One of the most crucial aspects of a style guide is its color palette. Make sure to choose colors that are meaningful to your brand and will resonate with your target market. 4.) Brand Message – This is part of the essence of what your business stands for, and it should include your slogan or a tagline explaining who you are, what you do, and how you deliver value. 5.) Fonts – Using the same one or two typefaces throughout all your written materials and graphics is another key aspect of maintaining a consistent brand identity. 6.) Design Elements – The use of consistent borders, lines, shadows, and filters will make you easily recognizable to those who are familiar with your visual brand. 7.) Tone – Set the tone of your business presence and stick to it – whether you want it to be serious, high-tech, sarcastic, or soulful, this is a big part of building a solid brand presence. 8.) Using Your Style Guide as a Road Map -Your style guide should act like a map that helps your team stay on track. Sharing your style guide with every member of your team will help you to maintain consistency and ensure: • Your graphic designer will stick to the fonts and colors your brand is known for. • Your copywriter and social media manager will understand how to write in your brand voice. • Your web designer can ensure your website and landing pages all have the same look and feel. This is especially important for companies with virtual employees spanning multiple geographic regions, as this kind of business model can make it more difficult to keep everyone on the same page. Having a style guide will make it easier for your team to access your logo, fonts, and templates, which allows you to protect your brand by keeping everything consistent. Still, it’s always a good idea to double-check that everything conforms to your brand guidelines whenever you’re reviewing new marketing collateral. So, now that you know what a style guide is, what it entails, and how important it is for creating consistency, let’s discuss how this relates to some of the most significant aspects of your marketing. Website In today’s world, your website is the biggest statement your brand can make, and it serves as a reference to make sure all the other elements of your brand are in alignment. This is why I am so against people using cookie-cutter template sites. They may look polished, but they lack the warmth, connection, and personality of a branded website. They’re also poorly built, and they tend to place limits on your website in terms of its design and functionality. When it comes to the images you use on your website, make sure they’re consistent with your brand identity, but also reflective of your ideal clients. In addition, you should also use language that will resonate with your target audience and create an about page to help visitors understand your backstory, your field of expertise, and why you’re passionate about what you do. Getting this stuff right is critical because the more your website looks and feels like you, the better it’s going to be for attracting your ideal customers. Make sure to use a Professional Headshot When I started my first business, I was very camera shy. So, when it came time to get some updated headshots, I dreaded it. But surprisingly enough, I feel like going through this process actually boosted my confidence. My new headshots are used as a personal and business branding tool that help me to be more recognized online. They’re on all my social media profiles and our website, and as a result, more people recognize me when I attend local networking events. I know it’s nerve-wracking, but Investing in new headshots can truly jump-start your brand and set you up for even greater success. Sharing Photos Sharing photos makes your marketing more personable and helps to showcase your personal brand. Like it or not, people love seeing the real person behind the business. So, when you’re working, or you find yourself in group situations, try to be mindful of how you can snap a few photos and show your followers what you’re up to. It might seem daunting, but it’s really quite easy, and you don’t need to have a professional photographer following you around 24 hours a day. Take a picture holding your new book, grab a shot with a new friend you met while networking, or show the resort you’re staying at for your business mastermind. Highlighting these moments takes minimal effort and it can help you establish a more meaningful connection with your audience, so while it might not be your cup of tea, it’s definitely worth it. Video Creating videos can help you to build a much larger and more loyal following online. But just like all your other marketing materials, you have to make sure your videos match your brand identity. You can do this with the graphics you’re using, and all the other digital elements of your video, but you can also reflect your brand identity in many other ways, as well, such as dressing in a manner that’s consistent with your brand. Also, wherever you decide to shoot your videos, whether it’s sitting at your desk, cooking in the kitchen, or standing in front of a green screen, you’ve got to do whatever you can to ensure everything remains consistent with your brand identity. Branded Images One of the ways to ensure marketing materials like blog articles and social media posts stay consistent with your brand identity is to use branded images. I know this might seem overwhelming, but there are loads of free tools to help you make graphic quotes, infographics, and other visuals, so you don’t have to be a graphic design wizard. That being said, whatever you choose to do, make sure your images remain consistent with your brand. One of the ways to do this, aside from aligning with the visual elements and values of your brand, is by adding your logo to each image, which makes it easier for people to recognize your content when they see it. Social Media Social media provides a plethora of opportunities for visual branding. From Facebook cover images, to profile pics, to graphics, there are endless opportunities for people to learn more about what you do. It’s vital to ensure the images you use evoke the feelings and emotions you want your brand to convey. The goal is for all your social media accounts to consistently helps users understand your unique vibe, and if they’re already familiar with your brand, to ensure they’ll immediately recognize you. Free Giveaways When you’re offering free reports, tools, and other goodies to visitors, make sure they have the same colors, logos, and visual feel as all your other materials. When it looks professional and makes a great impression, it builds credibility. Plus, it’s just one more piece of the brand puzzle that helps them understand what you do. Email Signature A graphic email signature can add visual impact to every message you send and help to familiarize potential customers with your brand identity. Services like WiseStamp make it easy to add your logo, picture, and social media links to your email signature, so don’t sweat it. Your eSignatures should match your brand identity, providing an effective way to enhance and promote your brand with every email you send. It’s also good for all your team members to set up a signature, as well, so you come across as a consistent and professional team. Are You a Wannabe or a Real Brand? After considering all the elements I’ve discussed above, it’s good to take a look at your brand as a whole and make sure everything is in alignment, and whether there are things you could do better. You should take some time to consider if your visual brand is: Clear Consistent Authentic Memorable It’s also good to regularly consider whether your branding is fully up to date with the nature of your business, your industry, and if it accurately reflects what you do and the customers whom you serve. Maybe you’ve become more specialized, maybe you have new product offerings, or perhaps you’re now the host of a new podcast. Whatever the case, it never hurts to take an honest look at your brand with the eyes of an outsider and ask yourself if what you see truly reflects who you are now as a company. by: SUSAN FRIESEN

by EDMUND BRUNETTI Getting the most out of digital marketing for local companies is often a challenging endeavor. With so many strategies and tactics available, it can be difficult to determine what actually works. Unfortunately, this leads some business owners to make costly mistakes that can derail their marketing efforts. ' Here are four ways businesses may unknowingly fail in their marketing strategies. 1. Not Tracking Metrics Businesses often create marketing campaigns and strategies without any measurable goals. Unfortunately, this can result in wasted resources, as it is impossible to determine if the efforts are successful. It is essential for businesses to monitor their marketing efforts carefully and track metrics such as website visits, conversions, ROI, etc. While employees can monitor these metrics, it is often best to hire professional online marketing services who can take a more in-depth approach to tracking metrics and adjusting marketing strategies accordingly. 2. Failing To Adapt To Change Marketing techniques are constantly evolving as technology advances. What may have worked five years ago may not be as effective today, so it is important for businesses to stay up-to-date on the newest trends and technologies. Businesses should also be willing to try out new tactics and strategies as they become available while paying attention to the results so that any ineffective efforts can be abandoned quickly. This will ensure that businesses always take advantage of the best marketing methods and get the most out of their efforts. 3. Ignoring Local SEO Search Engine Optimization is a powerful marketing tool essential for businesses that want to generate organic traffic from search engines. While SEO tactics are often centered around optimizing content, there has been an increasing focus on local optimization in online marketing services as well. Local SEO focuses on getting businesses visibility in the local market, so it is important for businesses to make sure they are targeting a local audience with their content. This can be done by optimizing for local search terms, creating geographical landing pages, and using localized content. The best way to help maximize the power of SEO for a nearby audience is to hire services that offer digital marketing for local companies. These services understand the unique challenges of local SEO and can use their expertise to get businesses higher rankings and more visibility in their local market. 4. Not Having an Online Presence Many businesses fail to understand the importance of having a strong online presence in today’s digital age. Consumers are increasingly using search engines, social media, and other platforms to find the products and services they need, so businesses must make sure that their online presence is optimized for these platforms. Businesses should have an up-to-date website, a comprehensive social media presence, and be active on relevant forums in order to reach potential customers. Additionally, businesses can use content marketing strategies such as blogging and video production to create engaging content that will attract potential customers. Make Your Online Marketing Strategy a Success by avoiding these common mistakes, businesses can set themselves up for success in their online marketing efforts. By tracking metrics and adapting to changes, optimising for local SEO, and having a comprehensive online presence, businesses can reach the right audience and get the most out of their online marketing efforts.

by MARSHALL THURLOW With new technologies, businesses can increase efficiency and reduce costs. Businesses will also have access to more opportunities to grow. Keeping up with the latest trends can help businesses stay competitive and provide better services than competitors. By staying up-to-date with technology trends, companies can ensure that they are well positioned to take advantage of the latest advancements in technology. Read on to find out more about the top tech trends that can help your business grow. 1. Process automation Process automation is a way of using technology to automate manual tasks that are repetitive. This type of automation can help streamline business operations, reduce your costs, and improve efficiency. Process automation can be used in any industry, from manufacturing to finance. It involves using software to automate processes such as data entry, document management, and even customer service. By automating these processes, companies can reduce the amount of time spent on certain repetitive tasks and focus instead on other things that need to be done such as business development. 2. 5G (super fast internet) 5G technology promises to change the way businesses operate. This new wireless standard offers a number of benefits for businesses including increased speed, improved network reliability and capacity, and the ability to connect more devices. These plans have unlimited data, compared to plans before with hard data caps where you would pay for additional data. This would often be a more expensive option, which isn’t practical for business or even personal use. 3. Employee monitoring software An employee monitoring software is a type of technology used to track and monitor employee activity in the workplace. This software can be used to record keystrokes, emails, internet usage, and other digital activities. It is used by business owners to ensure that employees are working productively. Employee monitoring software can also be used to monitor employee performance and productivity levels. It can provide valuable insights into how employees are performing, helping employers make better decisions about your workforce. 4. Software unification Software unification is the process of combining multiple software components into a unified system. This process involves integrating different software solutions to create a single, unified platform that is capable of handling all the tasks needed to achieve a specific business goal. According to Small Business Trends: “Imagine scanning an invoice using a mobile phone, sending the file to billing software that pings the client and processes the payment, automatically updating client notes within a CRM and collecting actionable data on each step of the process. A unified workflow ensures no information gets lost in translation.” By unifying software components, businesses can reduce cost while improving efficiency and productivity. Additionally, software unification can help your company better manage data and resources in order to gain better insights into your operations. To conclude… Tech trends provide businesses with the opportunity to make use of the latest technologies to enhance business operations and processes. It also allows business owners to take advantage of new opportunities that come from advances in technology. Moreover, tech trends enable companies to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in technology and adopt them quickly. This helps business owners like yourself to remain competitive in a rapidly changing business environment where staying ahead of the competition is necessary to succeed.

More and more business professionals are using LinkedIn, and its membership continues to grow at super speed. Getting attention on LinkedIn means more business opportunities from a new job, the perfect new hire, a new business partnership, and more. So what are you waiting for? Below are five key techniques to ramp up your LinkedIn Account: 1. Know Your Target Market Before you start promoting on LinkedIn, you should know who your target market is. You don’t want just anyone on your connections list. You want people that are interested in what you’re doing or who might know people that would be interested in what you’re doing. 2. Join Relevant Groups LinkedIn groups are a great place to get attention. You’ll find groups for almost any business interest, so keep looking until you find the group that you’ll want to spend some time providing value. The best way to get attention in these groups is to interact with people and be helpful. 3. Visit and Connect With Your Target Market Look for people that are 2nd -and 3rd-level connections that are within your target market. These people should be active, engaged, and care about their LinkedIn profile. You never know: you may reach out to connect, and the other person will be looking for or know someone who is looking for what you offer. Even if there isn’t a direct connection that creates a business transaction, you’ll increase your network when you connect with someone in your target market. 4. Create Thought Leadership Content LinkedIn has its own publishing platform where you can post articles. You can put your whole article there, or you can put a teaser article there and link to your full article on your blog. 5. Promote Your Content and Profile on Other Platforms Don’t only promote your content and profile on LinkedIn. Let people on Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms know you’re active on LinkedIn. That’s the fastest way to build a lot of connections on your LinkedIn account. Now get to it!