MARKETING
These Tools Will Make You More Productive For Small Business Owners
Small business owners have a lot on their plate. Juggling the day-to-day tasks of running a business with long-term goals and planning can be difficult. But it’s not impossible. There are plenty of tools and tactics out there to help small business owners be more productive. Here are eight of the best.
Even if you don’t have much time, there are ways to be more productive. Here are eight of the best tips for small business owners who want to get more done in less time.
Project Management Software
Many small business owners are overwhelmed by the number of tasks that need to be completed in order to run a successful business. Project management software is a great tool to help break down tasks into manageable chunks and track progress. This type of software also allows you to prioritize tasks, assign them to team members and create timelines for completion. With project management software, you can easily keep track of the progress of various projects, ensuring that nothing gets missed and tasks are completed on time. Additionally, project management software helps to increase collaboration between team members by providing a central location for communication and sharing files. With the help of this tool, project deadlines can be met more easily while also saving precious time and energy.
Time Tracking Software
The ability to accurately track time spent on projects is essential for small business owners. Time tracking software helps you to track the amount of time that each team member spends working on individual tasks or projects, which can help you identify areas where productivity could be improved. This type of software also makes it easier to generate detailed invoices and calculate employee wages, so you can be sure that all of your finances are in order. Time tracking software also helps to ensure that projects remain on schedule by providing a clear indication of which tasks have been completed and when.
Automation for Sales Operations
Automating sales operations can be a great way to increase productivity for small business owners. With automation, businesses can streamline their processes and ensure that key tasks are completed on time. Automation can also help businesses save money by reducing manual labor costs and freeing up resources. There are many tools available for automating sales operations such as customer relationship management (CRM) software, automated lead scoring systems, email marketing tools, and eCommerce platforms. By using these tools to automate tasks such as prospecting, follow-up emails, order management and tracking, businesses can save time and resources that would otherwise be spent on manual labor.
Marketing Automation Softwares
Marketing automation software is a powerful tool for small business owners. It’s an efficient way to automate marketing processes, such as email campaigns and social media management, in order to save time, increase efficiency and gain better insights into customer behavior. Marketing automation can also be used to create personalized content tailored specifically to the needs of each individual customer or segment. With fewer resources needed, it’s a great way to get more out of less and reach customers faster. Additionally, marketing automation can also be used to automate customer service tasks such as managing customer inquiries or providing product recommendations. By automating these processes, small business owners can free up their time for other tasks, while still ensuring their customers receive the excellent service they deserve. With the right marketing automation tools, small business owners can save time and increase their productivity while still providing customers with the best possible experience. Web scraping has several uses, particularly in the area of data analytics. Companies that conduct market research use scrapers to collect information from online forums or social media for purposes like customer sentiment analysis.
Social Media Automation
Social media has become an integral part of the success of many small businesses. It’s a great way to get your message out in a cost-effective and efficient way, but it can be time consuming to manage all the different accounts. This is where automation comes in! Automation tools allow you to schedule your posts in advance, track engagement, and measure performance. This helps you save time, freeing up more of your energy to focus on what matters most – growing your business. From HootSuite to Buffer and everything in between, there’s an automation tool out there that can help you become a social media powerhouse.
LinkedIn Marketing Automation
LinkedIn is a great platform for small business owners to promote their services and products. LinkedIn Automation makes it easy to automate all of your marketing activities on the platform. You can schedule posts, track engagement, create campaigns, and measure results with this powerful tool. This way you can save time while ensuring that your brand’s presence on LinkedIn is up-to-date and relevant. It’s a great way for small business owners to maximize their efforts on this platform.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Solutions
Having a good customer relationship management system in place is essential for any small business owner. CRMs allow you to track customer interactions, understand their needs and preferences, and build long-term relationships with them. A good CRM can help you increase customer loyalty, generate more sales, and optimize your customer 360 platform marketing efforts. There are a range of solutions available for small business owners to choose from depending on their budget and requirements.
Tech-Based Recycling Tracker
Small business owners are always on the look-out for ways to become more productive and efficient. Technology offers a variety of tools that can help save time and money, while also improving accuracy and effectiveness. One such tool is a tech-based recycling tracker.
Recycling services have become an increasingly important part of corporate sustainability initiatives and having a platform that can help small businesses track their recycling activities is invaluable. This technology-based tool can provide visibility into the types of materials being recycled, how much is going to waste, and which areas need improvement. It also helps to ensure compliance with appropriate regulations and guidelines!
For example, a tech-based recycling tracker may be able to identify the kinds of materials that have been recycled, such as paper, plastic, glass, and cardboard. It can also track which areas are most successful in terms of waste reduction or recycling rates. This data can then be used to inform future sustainability initiatives and goals.
In addition to tracking recycling activities, a tech-based recycling tracker can also provide insights into energy consumption and environmental performance. This data can help small businesses make better decisions about how to reduce their carbon footprint, save money, and improve efficiency.
MARKETING
YouTube Ad Specs, Sizes, and Examples [2024 Update]
Introduction
With billions of users each month, YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine and top website for video content. This makes it a great place for advertising. To succeed, advertisers need to follow the correct YouTube ad specifications. These rules help your ad reach more viewers, increasing the chance of gaining new customers and boosting brand awareness.
Types of YouTube Ads
Video Ads
- Description: These play before, during, or after a YouTube video on computers or mobile devices.
- Types:
- In-stream ads: Can be skippable or non-skippable.
- Bumper ads: Non-skippable, short ads that play before, during, or after a video.
Display Ads
- Description: These appear in different spots on YouTube and usually use text or static images.
- Note: YouTube does not support display image ads directly on its app, but these can be targeted to YouTube.com through Google Display Network (GDN).
Companion Banners
- Description: Appears to the right of the YouTube player on desktop.
- Requirement: Must be purchased alongside In-stream ads, Bumper ads, or In-feed ads.
In-feed Ads
- Description: Resemble videos with images, headlines, and text. They link to a public or unlisted YouTube video.
Outstream Ads
- Description: Mobile-only video ads that play outside of YouTube, on websites and apps within the Google video partner network.
Masthead Ads
- Description: Premium, high-visibility banner ads displayed at the top of the YouTube homepage for both desktop and mobile users.
YouTube Ad Specs by Type
Skippable In-stream Video Ads
- Placement: Before, during, or after a YouTube video.
- Resolution:
- Horizontal: 1920 x 1080px
- Vertical: 1080 x 1920px
- Square: 1080 x 1080px
- Aspect Ratio:
- Horizontal: 16:9
- Vertical: 9:16
- Square: 1:1
- Length:
- Awareness: 15-20 seconds
- Consideration: 2-3 minutes
- Action: 15-20 seconds
Non-skippable In-stream Video Ads
- Description: Must be watched completely before the main video.
- Length: 15 seconds (or 20 seconds in certain markets).
- Resolution:
- Horizontal: 1920 x 1080px
- Vertical: 1080 x 1920px
- Square: 1080 x 1080px
- Aspect Ratio:
- Horizontal: 16:9
- Vertical: 9:16
- Square: 1:1
Bumper Ads
- Length: Maximum 6 seconds.
- File Format: MP4, Quicktime, AVI, ASF, Windows Media, or MPEG.
- Resolution:
- Horizontal: 640 x 360px
- Vertical: 480 x 360px
In-feed Ads
- Description: Show alongside YouTube content, like search results or the Home feed.
- Resolution:
- Horizontal: 1920 x 1080px
- Vertical: 1080 x 1920px
- Square: 1080 x 1080px
- Aspect Ratio:
- Horizontal: 16:9
- Square: 1:1
- Length:
- Awareness: 15-20 seconds
- Consideration: 2-3 minutes
- Headline/Description:
- Headline: Up to 2 lines, 40 characters per line
- Description: Up to 2 lines, 35 characters per line
Display Ads
- Description: Static images or animated media that appear on YouTube next to video suggestions, in search results, or on the homepage.
- Image Size: 300×60 pixels.
- File Type: GIF, JPG, PNG.
- File Size: Max 150KB.
- Max Animation Length: 30 seconds.
Outstream Ads
- Description: Mobile-only video ads that appear on websites and apps within the Google video partner network, not on YouTube itself.
- Logo Specs:
- Square: 1:1 (200 x 200px).
- File Type: JPG, GIF, PNG.
- Max Size: 200KB.
Masthead Ads
- Description: High-visibility ads at the top of the YouTube homepage.
- Resolution: 1920 x 1080 or higher.
- File Type: JPG or PNG (without transparency).
Conclusion
YouTube offers a variety of ad formats to reach audiences effectively in 2024. Whether you want to build brand awareness, drive conversions, or target specific demographics, YouTube provides a dynamic platform for your advertising needs. Always follow Google’s advertising policies and the technical ad specs to ensure your ads perform their best. Ready to start using YouTube ads? Contact us today to get started!
MARKETING
Why We Are Always ‘Clicking to Buy’, According to Psychologists
Amazon pillows.
MARKETING
A deeper dive into data, personalization and Copilots
Salesforce launched a collection of new, generative AI-related products at Connections in Chicago this week. They included new Einstein Copilots for marketers and merchants and Einstein Personalization.
To better understand, not only the potential impact of the new products, but the evolving Salesforce architecture, we sat down with Bobby Jania, CMO, Marketing Cloud.
Dig deeper: Salesforce piles on the Einstein Copilots
Salesforce’s evolving architecture
It’s hard to deny that Salesforce likes coming up with new names for platforms and products (what happened to Customer 360?) and this can sometimes make the observer wonder if something is brand new, or old but with a brand new name. In particular, what exactly is Einstein 1 and how is it related to Salesforce Data Cloud?
“Data Cloud is built on the Einstein 1 platform,” Jania explained. “The Einstein 1 platform is our entire Salesforce platform and that includes products like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud — that it includes the original idea of Salesforce not just being in the cloud, but being multi-tenancy.”
Data Cloud — not an acquisition, of course — was built natively on that platform. It was the first product built on Hyperforce, Salesforce’s new cloud infrastructure architecture. “Since Data Cloud was on what we now call the Einstein 1 platform from Day One, it has always natively connected to, and been able to read anything in Sales Cloud, Service Cloud [and so on]. On top of that, we can now bring in, not only structured but unstructured data.”
That’s a significant progression from the position, several years ago, when Salesforce had stitched together a platform around various acquisitions (ExactTarget, for example) that didn’t necessarily talk to each other.
“At times, what we would do is have a kind of behind-the-scenes flow where data from one product could be moved into another product,” said Jania, “but in many of those cases the data would then be in both, whereas now the data is in Data Cloud. Tableau will run natively off Data Cloud; Commerce Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud — they’re all going to the same operational customer profile.” They’re not copying the data from Data Cloud, Jania confirmed.
Another thing to know is tit’s possible for Salesforce customers to import their own datasets into Data Cloud. “We wanted to create a federated data model,” said Jania. “If you’re using Snowflake, for example, we more or less virtually sit on your data lake. The value we add is that we will look at all your data and help you form these operational customer profiles.”
Let’s learn more about Einstein Copilot
“Copilot means that I have an assistant with me in the tool where I need to be working that contextually knows what I am trying to do and helps me at every step of the process,” Jania said.
For marketers, this might begin with a campaign brief developed with Copilot’s assistance, the identification of an audience based on the brief, and then the development of email or other content. “What’s really cool is the idea of Einstein Studio where our customers will create actions [for Copilot] that we hadn’t even thought about.”
Here’s a key insight (back to nomenclature). We reported on Copilot for markets, Copilot for merchants, Copilot for shoppers. It turns out, however, that there is just one Copilot, Einstein Copilot, and these are use cases. “There’s just one Copilot, we just add these for a little clarity; we’re going to talk about marketing use cases, about shoppers’ use cases. These are actions for the marketing use cases we built out of the box; you can build your own.”
It’s surely going to take a little time for marketers to learn to work easily with Copilot. “There’s always time for adoption,” Jania agreed. “What is directly connected with this is, this is my ninth Connections and this one has the most hands-on training that I’ve seen since 2014 — and a lot of that is getting people using Data Cloud, using these tools rather than just being given a demo.”
What’s new about Einstein Personalization
Salesforce Einstein has been around since 2016 and many of the use cases seem to have involved personalization in various forms. What’s new?
“Einstein Personalization is a real-time decision engine and it’s going to choose next-best-action, next-best-offer. What is new is that it’s a service now that runs natively on top of Data Cloud.” A lot of real-time decision engines need their own set of data that might actually be a subset of data. “Einstein Personalization is going to look holistically at a customer and recommend a next-best-action that could be natively surfaced in Service Cloud, Sales Cloud or Marketing Cloud.”
Finally, trust
One feature of the presentations at Connections was the reassurance that, although public LLMs like ChatGPT could be selected for application to customer data, none of that data would be retained by the LLMs. Is this just a matter of written agreements? No, not just that, said Jania.
“In the Einstein Trust Layer, all of the data, when it connects to an LLM, runs through our gateway. If there was a prompt that had personally identifiable information — a credit card number, an email address — at a mimum, all that is stripped out. The LLMs do not store the output; we store the output for auditing back in Salesforce. Any output that comes back through our gateway is logged in our system; it runs through a toxicity model; and only at the end do we put PII data back into the answer. There are real pieces beyond a handshake that this data is safe.”
-
SEARCHENGINES7 days ago
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 6, 2024
-
SEARCHENGINES6 days ago
Google August Core Update Done, Google Interview, Google Ads & Merchant Center News & The YouTube Algorithm SEO
-
SEO6 days ago
Plot Up To Five Metrics At Once
-
SEO5 days ago
Google’s Guidance About The Recent Ranking Update
-
SEO7 days ago
Top 10 Affiliate Marketing Platforms To Maximize Sales In 2024
-
SEARCHENGINES5 days ago
Google Search Volatility Still Heated After August Core Update Rollout
-
AFFILIATE MARKETING6 days ago
Best US Cities to Start a Business, Entrepreneurship: Report
-
SEARCHENGINES4 days ago
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 9, 2024
You must be logged in to post a comment Login