Want to Convert Leads to Clients?
Be Productive Even When It’s So Nice Out 3 Ways to Discourage Summer Distraction
Every business owner knows that a confident writing voice can take them far. Not everyone will meet you face to face, and you want your written prose — whether it’s an email to a customer or a message to your team — to represent your ability and professionalism as much as possible. However, improving your writing can seem like an overwhelming task. Where do you start? ‘On Writing Well’ Why You Need This 45-Year-Old Writing According to a 2013 Salesforce white paper, a mind-blowing 79% of marketing leads are never converted to clients. That means on average, small businesses are only making 21% of the sales they could be. If your business fits that trend and your average client is worth $500, then for every 100 leads, you’re leaving $39,500 on the table. Are you cringing yet? If you’ve noticed leads falling through the cracks at your company (or just want to boost an already strong conversion rate), one of the best things you can do is build or revamp your sales funnel. A sales funnel is a classic marketing tool that thousands of companies, including Newsletter Pro, use to great effect. If you’ve never heard of it, the name pretty much says it all: Leads enter in at the “top” of the funnel and are gradually guided down to the bottom, where they enter your company as clients. Building a sales funnel can seem intimidating if you’ve never tried it. So to help you get started, we put together a simple five-step guide!
There’s nothing more distracting than being at
work, looking out the window, and seeing sunshine and a clear
blue sky. Suddenly, work takes a back seat to thinking of all the things you’d rather be doing in that beautiful weather. If it happens to you, you can be sure it happens to every single one of your employees. So, how can you keep productivity up while thoughts of that upcoming vacation run rampant? Here are a few things to consider. PUT GREATER EMPHASIS ON SMALLER GOALS. During the summer, put big-picture goals or projects in the background. Instead, replace them with smaller or shorter projects — projects your team can complete with shorter deadlines. This helps stimulate a greater sense of urgency within the workplace, which can often be lost during the summer and when employees are working on projects with longer timelines. Return to those projects toward the end of summer. OFFER REMOTE WORK (PARTIAL OR FULL) . Give team members the option to work out of the office, if you haven’t done so already. You can go part time or full. Maybe offer a rotating schedule out of the office: a few days in, a few days out. This gives employees the opportunity to work where they want, how they want. Just be sure you have key performance indicators (KPIs) in place to track their work and accountability. VARY THE WORK SCHEDULE. This is something a lot of businesses do during the summer. Instead of the traditional work hours, they shift things around or scale back. For example, you might do alternating Fridays off or close up early on Fridays at 1 p.m. instead of 5. Find a schedule the team likes the best and give it a try. The research is already clear on shorter work weeks: Productivity goes up and there’s a greater sense of urgency.
If you want a writing guide that is still a contemporary favorite nearly 45 years after publication, pick up “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser. The book is a product of Zinsser’s work as a professor at Yale University. He gives concise, warm guidance on how to improve all aspects of nonfiction writing, such as crafting interviews, travel articles, memoirs, scientific and technical writing, business writing, sports writing, criticism, and humor. Most writing guides fail to fully explain the mindset behind good writing. Writing may feel like it overexposes you at times, and maybe you’re self- conscious about the way you jump from point to point. However, “On Writing Well” is famous because it’s a wonderful manual for becoming a better writer and explains why you should be motivated to do so. For example, some people think that writing only matters if
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