Halloween is one of the most exciting times of the year for children, but sometimes the most hectic for parents and guardians. This Halloween, take a moment to consider basic safety precautions that will make your children’s Halloween a safer night of fun. You can also click on this link to download a few fun coloring activities for the kids. halloween-coloring-pgs
Sometimes it seems like there aren’t enough hours in the day. A direct mail campaign needs to go out, and that email marketing campaign won’t write itself. That’s not to mention the social posts you have to keep up with and the latest trends—it’s exhausting. Everybody has those days where it seems like you’re running the entire day, but there are small steps you can take to ensure every day is a little more productive.
Check out these 5 productivity tips to help make sure you’re on top of your game always.
1. Catch the Worm
It’s an old idiom that we’ve all heard (and some of us dread). If the early bird catches the worm, why does it feel so great to sleep in? If you’re likely to reach for the snooze button or even throw your alarm clock across the room, you understand the struggle. But according to Psychology Today, early risers are more likely to be happy, healthy and more productive. That means to put your best foot forward at your business, you’ll need to get plenty of shut-eye and develop a routine. Plus, waking up earlier means you eliminate some distractions.
2. Work it Out
It may seem like this has nothing to do with your business. However, doing any sort of physical activity makes all the difference for your day. Working out releases endorphins, which makes us happier. Endorphins help to reduce stress, and you’ll be feeling great while you’re working on your marketing efforts.
3. Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize
Plan out which campaign needs to drop when, how you’ll reach a certain demographic with a new tactic and what exactly needs to be done on which day. Setting priorities (big AND small) will help ensure that you accomplish all you hope for. Pick the top priority and start working away.
4. Eliminate Distractions
An email ping here, a text message there. Every time you’re interrupted, focus is lost and you have to pick back up where you left off. Take a moment to observe each time a distraction hits, then see what you can do to minimize it.
5. Schedule Breaks
In a world that falsely reveres the term “busy” you’ll need to master the mindset that breaks are perfectly fine—in fact, they’re encouraged! If you’re doing your job efficiently, your business will flourish. Plus, you’ll have more energy to spend in areas that need improvement.
NJC Printing provides quality digital and offset printing to businesses in St. Louis, Missouri and throughout the Midwest. Please visit our website at www.NJCPrint.com to learn more about us or to Request An Estimate.
THE PITCH! It doesn’t have to be a real elevator where the scenario happens, it could be anywhere. Researchers have widely debated the human attention span, but some say it could be as little as eight seconds. Not very long, right? Use these tips to make sure you’ve mastered how your company will be portrayed.
Sell Your Story, Not Your Business
Let’s be honest—elevator pitches get a bad rap. Many of us don’t like to come off as “salesy.” But if you truly care about your business and its success, you should be ready to talk about it at any given moment.
In lieu of sounding salesy, focus on what really matters about your business. Ask yourself questions to help develop the kind of story you’d like to tell. Why do you love your business? What would get other people excited about your business? What is the most important thing for people to know?
Shape your story around the answers to those questions. When you light up talking about your passions, other people take notice. They’ll want to be a part. So, what will your story be?
Cut the Jargon
Never assume that people know what you’re talking about. You may be trying to sound smart, but really you’ll only confuse somebody who isn’t in your industry. That’s why you should explain the pitch in terms that anybody could understand.
Start by practicing your pitch on somebody who has no idea what you do. Get their feedback. Listen to their feedback. Having somebody to bounce ideas off of makes a world of difference.
Provide Next Steps
Remember that a short-form pitch is just enough to intrigue your prospect. Now that you have their attention, remind them of where they need to go next.
You can do this by using a shortened URL that leads to your website with something that’s easy for them to remember. Better yet, make sure you have business cards or some sort of information handy that is tangible. With so much information swirling around in our day-to-day lives, it’s hard for somebody to remember something off the top of their head. Make it easy, and they’ll be coming back to learn more about how amazing your business is.
NJC Printing provides quality digital and offset printing to businesses in St. Louis, Missouri and throughout the Midwest. Please visit our website at www.NJCPrint.com to learn more about us or to Request An Estimate.
If your website doesn’t have some sort of call to action, there’s a good chance you’re losing out on sales. Calls to action tell your readers to do exactly what you’d like them to. And if your call to action is engaging, your readers will be far more likely to take that action.
Consider these tips for creating a compelling call to action from Entrepreneur.com
Create a personable experience. Let’s say that you’re promoting an eBook about do-it-yourself oil changes and you’ve written an article about the importance of regular oil changes for a vehicle. Instead of ending your piece with “Those interested in learning more can click here to buy this eBook,” it’s better to say something like “Click here to buy this eBook and become a master oil changer!” Unlike the first instance, the second instance speaks directly to the reader as if they’re a personal friend. It also tells a small story that tells readers exactly what they can expect after buying and reading the eBook. And in the end, this personable experience takes readers beyond a basic pitch and creates an engaging and compelling reason for them to buy.
Provide directions. Most people on the Internet are busy doing things like checking their email, surfing websites, and participating in social networks – all at the same time, so chances are that they won’t want to spend the time trying to figure out how to actually take advantage of your offer after they have read about it. Telling your readers where to click, explaining when to join a live session, and providing links to in-depth instructions when necessary, can noticeably increase your conversion rates.
Go big and stand out. Make sure that your calls to action stand out from the rest of your content so there isn’t a chance that it will be missed by readers just skimming your page. In fact, a good CTA that catches the eye of readers as soon as they reach the page may find themselves more intrigued by the content that precedes it.
Keep it short and simple. To avoid giving your CTAs a salesy feel, it’s important to keep them short and simple. Tell just enough of a story to spark interest and get straight to the point by following up with an actionable demand. By simply saying “click here to buy” instead of “check out all the benefits” ensures that readers know what to expect when they do click your link, and it gives all the power to your landing page so it can do the job of selling for you. Each call to action you create shouldn’t be any longer than just a line or two – this will ensure that you don’t leave any room for fluff or desperation.
NJC Printing provides quality digital and offset printing to businesses in St. Louis, Missouri and throughout the Midwest. Please visit our website at www.NJCPrint.com to learn more about us or to Request An Estimate.
Instagram, the image-based social networking platform, has quickly become one of the most effective ways to market yourself or your business. On Forbes.com, Griffin Thall, the CEO and co-founder of Pura Vida Bracelets shares these five steps for building your brand on Instagram:
Find your niche
Every person or brand must have a niche– a way to set yourself or your business a part from everyone and everything else. With out a niche, you will blend in and become lost in the social media noise. Finding your niche is creating your personality. To get started, first ask yourself: what am I good at? What do I enjoy doing? What is my brand’s main purpose? You need to not only be unique, honest, and sincere, but also somewhat mysterious. Be sure to keep your purpose and persona clear but always strive to have people wanting to know more. If people are confused at what you do in the first few seconds, you’ve lost them for good.
Find your influencers
Once you’ve found your niche, the next step is to find your influencers. An influencer on Instagram is someone who has power, reach and authority among their followers. Pairing your brand with the right voice can be the single most important force in getting the word out. Who do you want talking about your brand and sharing your story? Start with people who have between 5k and 25k followers and classify them as your “content producers” or entry-level influencers.
Find your product photographers
Once you’ve found your potential influencers, you need to find product photographers. These Instagram users are similar to influencers, but you are not looking to them for outreach purposes, you are looking to them for high-quality lifestyle or product photos of your brand in action.
Send out samples
Once your list of influencers and photographers is finalized, the next step is to send out samples. To do this, first draft up a very simple and to-the-point email to these Instagram pros. These days, anyone can detect a “spam” or templated email from a mile away, so take your time to draft up a unique email that caters exactly to the person you’re trying to target. Remember, these influencers are sorting through hundreds of emails a day just like you, so your first go is very important.
Repeat
Creating a “system” and repeating the steps above is key to growing your brand on Instagram.
NJC Printing provides quality digital and offset printing to businesses in St. Louis, Missouri and throughout the Midwest. Please visit our website at www.NJCPrint.com to learn more about us or to Request An Estimate.
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