Three Good Reasons to Outsource PowerPoint Design

When it comes right down to it, we have three good reasons to outsource PowerPoint design.

1. So you look like a pro

There's more to PowerPoint design than choosing a slide design and inserting animation effects. It doesn’t take a design procession to tell the difference between a professional design and an amateur design. They may not know why one looks better than the other, but they do notice the difference. You have to ask yourself how you want to appear when you present to clients, investors, and others. We know that appearance leaves a huge impression; you wouldn't walk into a meeting with a tank top and shorts, so why would you present something that doesn't look professional? PowerPoint design affects non-verbal communication, which carries most of your message.

2. So you can focus on your business

You will make far better use of your time focusing on the message you want to deliver, than sweating the details of getting the latest version of PowerPoint to do what you want. By leaving the design and implementation to the experts, you can stop worrying about the graphic design, image selection, typography, and animation. You can leave all of that behind and still have a killer deck on presentation day.

3. So you can save money

Some businesses hire an in-house team to build their presentations, but unless you have a great deal of PowerPointing to do, this can be much more expensive than outsourcing. Depending on the amount and type of presentations design needed, it may be more cost effective to rely on a marketing agency. That way, you can be confident and proud of your presentation when you walk into a meeting, and happy you didn’t have to pay an exorbitant price for it.

To talk more about this, or any of your marketing needs, please contact us. Thanks.

How Can Outsourced Marketing Save a Startup Money?

Starting a business is an uphill climb made steeper by a lack of money, making it important to save on marketing costs whenever possible. The trick is to market cost-effectively as opposed to cheaply, because poor marketing can snuff a business out before it ever truly begins. Outsourcing the marketing function can save a startup’s money, while helping grow its clientele.

Lower Costs Per Lead

Generating quality leads requires effective campaign management and the right lead collection techniques. It’s also a process that takes real-world experience and technical competency, if it’s going to be done cost-effectively. Most startups do not have personnel with extensive marketing backgrounds, because entrepreneurs are typically technical gurus or innovators, not marketing experts. Marketing professionals can help drive down the cost per lead by leveraging their experience and knowhow.

Less Trial & Error

Marketing plans include a variety of online and offline marketing mediums, which in tandem are designed to attract the right types of clientele. However, it can take entrepreneurs a lot of trial and error to find the right mix of marketing programs to generate the right amount of interest in a new product or service. This trial and error period can lead to higher expenses, which in turn can make it harder to get a startup off the ground. Outsourced marketing services can make it easier to find the right marketing programs sooner, saving startup companies a lot of capital and effort.

Lower Overhead Costs

Maintaining a dedicated marketing workforce costs money in terms of salaries and benefits. In particular, benefits may be difficult for startups to pay given the limited funds they have to work with. Outsourcing to marketing professionals can lower overhead costs when capital is in short supply. The net result being a higher chance of success for startups, when they work with outsourced marketing professionals.

Marketing is something that many startups simply can’t do without, because it’s essential for bringing in new customers and enhancing brand awareness. Outsourced marketing professionals have the experience and knowhow to help startups fine-tune their marketing plans, helping them thrive during their first years in business. If you have a startup and need marketing, please contact us.

Why Startups Need to Get Their Story Across

Identifying a target audience is one of the most important things a startup must do. The company needs to have a specific market in mind when creating, designing, and pricing a product or service. 

Moreover, it's equally important in terms of marketing. Before you start telling your story, you need to determine who exactly you're talking to. This will help you decide what angles and tone to take. 

Most business owners are aware of this. But what they don't consider is how their marketing story applies to the rest of the company. According to a Fortune article, you need to make sure that everyone associated with your company understands your brand identity: 

"Let’s first define who needs to hear your story. Most companies use the press as a starting point, but you are not crafting your story just for the media. You are also crafting your story for current and potential team members, customers, partners, and even competitors — basically everyone within your extended network needs to understand your story."

It's not hard to see why it's important for this to be in place. If you market your company's excellent customer service but your sales representatives have no people skills, your brand experience won't match its perception. When this happens, consumers won't know what to think of your business. 

Before you start telling the media your story, make sure everyone in the company is on board. You should focus on the internal aspects of your company before thinking about external factors like the media and your target audience. 

Marketing stories are only effective when people from the inside and outside believe them. If you manage to get your story across to your employees, the media, and your target audience, you'll have a successful marketing campaign. 

To talk more about startup marketing, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks. 

3 Content Marketing Mistakes That Startups Should Avoid

Creating a business is one of the toughest things to do. There are many obstacles involved in startups. One of the biggest challenges is getting potential customers to know about you. A great tactic is through content marketing prior to launch and during the entire process of growing your startup. We will discuss 3 mistakes to avoid with your startup content marketing strategy.

Link Building is not Content marketing

Stay away from viral, trendy topics with the motive of setting the internet world on fire with interest, or attracting moths to the flames. Sharing links is one method used to complement content marketing efforts not the source. The better strategy is creating very valuable information and giving it away free via guides, blog posts, and newsletters. You can do this in exchange for an email address.

Not having an eye on the prize

Often when developing a content marketing strategy, startups are disjoined and all over the place. As result the plans they develop are not aligned with any goal because they have yet to set up goals. For instance, new startup starts a blog, they start blogging about anything and everything when it should be a medium to introduce articles that are prevalent to their goals and mission. They are so preoccupied to get followers that they forget, quality over quantity.  You want potential customers who believe in your goals and vision and thus buy your products. The target is not those who just want to read a hip article but have no real interest in your company and what you’re about.

No Plan of Attack

Often startups don’t have a strategy, or development of a strategy has been overlooked. As a result when content marketing endeavors get put into action, they fail. This plan should include data and metrics that will be used to gauge the campaigns and adjust accordingly as needed. That way the strategy can be altered depending on the goals of the campaign.

By avoiding these 3 primary mistakes, your startup can increase its chance of success.

Please contact us to learn more startup strategies that can help assist you in your new venture.

What You Need to Know About Remote Workers

Remember when there seemed to be a new article every day preaching that the end of commuting was nigh, and that we’d all be “teleworkers.” This new way of working would solve all sorts of social ills. Traffic jams would be a thing of the past as workers replaced their daily commute with a leisurely walk down the hall to their home office. In this tele-utopia, the air would be cleaner, the workforce would be stress free, and productivity would soar.

Still waiting for that? Me too!

So what happened? Why hasn’t the remote worker scenario played out as predicted? Is it just like those flying cars we were promised? Shouldn’t the economic slowdown of recent years  — with its layoffs and high gas prices — triggered an upswing in remote workers?

Turns out I have some experience with this. For years I was an airline commuter, flying to my office in Silicon Valley on Monday, and back home again on Thursday. The rest of the time, I was a remote worker. The number of days “in the office” fluctuated over time, but there was always a split between on-premise days, and remote days, depending on what my responsibilities were at the time. And even though I was at a company that supported teleworking through its own products, it was sometimes difficult to keep the remote work regimen going. 

I remember a time when we were going through budget cut-backs, and only essential travel was being approved (read only sales people making calls). I worked from my home office full-time for months, and understood what the invisible man must have felt like whenever he took that potion. It felt like I was disappearing, and had to work hard to remind my coworkers I was still out there.

So why is remote working even a thing, anyway?

PROs

There’s plenty of research in support of remote working. RingCenteral recently posted an infographic showing some of the many benefits. Things like working remotely can increase productivity up to 40%, and the fact that people spending less time commuting spend 60% more time working.

But many still don’t believe you can work at home. After all, everyone knows remote worker really means you’re just sitting on the couch all day watching soap operas, right? 

Nope. I can tell you that I produced more work while away from the office than I did while I was there. It does take some discipline, but so does working in the office. After all, since the advent of the Internet, we all have access to pretty much every distraction under the sun whenever we’re sitting behind our computer screens — even when we are in the office. But we still get our work done. If we don’t get get fired.

A recent study by ConnectedSolutions looked into the behavior of remote workers. They found that respondents got 40% more sleep, 32% more exercise, and 33% spend more time with their family. 

Ok, so they’re more rested, more fit, and happier in their home life, but what about productivity? What about being part of the team? The ConnectedSolutions study revealed that remote workers feel more connected to their co-workers, and that their productivity actually increases with more remote time.

So why isn’t everybody doing this? While it sounds like the classic “win-win” scenario, there are some down sides — real and perceived — to remote working.

CONs

Recently, Yahoo’s new leader, Marissa Mayer, made news when she ordered a  roll back of Yahoo’s remote worker policy. The memo announcing the change in policy said, “Being a Yahoo isn’t just about your day-to-day job, it is about the interactions and experiences that are only possible in our offices.” I think Mayer believes that Yahoo’s remote workforce wasn’t as productive as the traditional one, and that making everybody commute through Silicon Valley’s notoriously bad traffic would boost their productivity. Or maybe she just wanted a convenient way to reduce the workforce without paying large severance packages. Hard to say, really.

But leaving Yahoo’s change of policy aside, there are other reasons cited for the lack of  remote worker policy adoption. A survey released last month by Kona, indicates that something much less business-like is behind most of the pushback against remote working. Co-worker jealousy! Yup, jealousy. Fully 57% of non-remote employee respondents cited the basic vice of jealousy of their remote co-workers as factor against the practice. 

What should you do?

Despite the slow pace of adoption, remote working is still on the rise. As a business owner, what should you do when one of your employees comes to you with a request to work from home some of the time. It’s going to happen, so you may as well think through it now.

One New York company, Fog Creek, recently removed the requirement that all employees work from the office, and decided to put a remote worker policy in place to keep things from going awry. They’ve posted the policy on their blog, and they’ve taken a practical, reasoned approach to the issue. I think you’ll find it a good place to start as you move your own business towards embracing remote-workers.

If you’re not running your own business, but rather work for one that allows for remote workers, it’s important to bear in mind that it’s still a new phenomenon for many. Don’t assume everyone’s cool with it. Trust me, everyone isn’t. To help you get along and avoid getting into trouble, you may want to read this article from Time on how to work from home without getting fired.

Share your story 

What has your experience with remote work been. Have you had remote employees work for you? Have you been a remote worker yourself? I’d love to hear how it worked for you — good or bad.