How to Improve Project Management and Workflow

How to Improve Project Management and Workflow

Your business is thriving and your employees are accustomed to the daily routine. Eventually, however, you may find that your business’s inner workings hit a road block. A new project gums up the works, priorities aren’t correctly focused, and productivity slows down in general. This happens to every business at some point, and that’s okay. This is a great time to take a step back and assess how well your project management and workflow strategies are working.

Is anyone overworked/underworked or not on the same page? To help you get your workflow back into a smooth course, there are some great tools available to help you manage your projects to the fullest potential. Here, Virtual Market Advantage will go over a few of those tools as well as some additional ideas that can help you and your business flow more smoothly.

Look at the Big Picture

As you start to look at how to make your company more efficient, ask yourself the big picture questions about each of your current projects. Once you know the answers to these questions, you will be more ready to incorporate improvements to your project management and workflow:

• What do your project tasks involve?
• What is the overall goal you want to achieve?
• What is the projected growth of your company, and how can this project help with that?
• What kind of needs might your business have within the next year?

Knowing the answers to these questions will be key in setting up the tasks at hand. These big answers will help you set smaller goals for the future and understand how better project management will aid you going forward.

How to Improve Project Management

Now that you've asked yourself the big picture questions, set your goals, and are ready to go, there are a few different ways to go about improving your project management. If one way doesn’t seem to be working for you after giving it a good shot, it’s helpful to have another strategy ready to add to your project management agenda. Let’s take a look at three methods for improving your project management:

Don’t overcomplicate your projects. This is a factor that often happens over time and brings tasks to a standstill. Keeping your ideas and expectations easy for your employees to understand will make your project run that much smoother. Keep the tasks simple and your overall idea clear and your employees will deliver the project successfully to completion.

Communicate any changes. Whether you do it through weekly meetings, a group email, or a project template software, always keep your team updated on any changes taking place. A well-informed team will stay on task and be less likely to make time-consuming mistakes. No matter how small you may think the change is, it could be a very big deal to someone on the team who is working on a certain task. Always keep the communication lines open, and your project will run more smoothly from start to finish.

A well-informed team will stay on task and be less likely to make time-consuming mistakes. Click To Tweet

Establish a daily log. Your team also needs to keep communication open. By logging their work and tracking their current tasks, employees are kept accountable and on course. Logging activities should be a daily habit. This helps you record how the project is progressing as well as establish a general timeline of which tasks need to be completed in what order and when the project should be completed as a whole.

Choose a Project Management Tool

There are several tools online that you can use to make sure your team is on task, the lines of communication are open, and workflow is going well. Some software plans come with a free version for a limited number of people to use or with restricted extras, and the price point will go up based on usage. Four of the most popular online project management tools are:

• Trello
• Asana
• Wrike
• Invision

All of them let you create tasks for different projects, clients, and employees. Based on your business needs, some of these tools are better than others. For example, Invision has the best tools for web design. The easiest way to decide which choice will work best for you is to try out their free versions. Each business and its taskmaster will feel most comfortable with one option over the others for countless reasons. All of these options are great project management tools to help keep your employees and your business on track.

Overall, once you have set your project management tools in place, you will start to see your business's productivity pick up speed. Once your team is in a good place using these project management tools, you’ll experience improved communication, productivity growth, and more work being completed on time. Over time, you can add new ideas and processes to the workflow while keeping the original project management foundations in place. The first step to improving your project management is to take an honest look at the current flow, get back to basics, and start working on improving it today.

If you want more information on how to improve your business, check out Virtual Market Advantage's blog on reviving dead business leads here!

How to Build a Website without Coding

So you want to build a cool new website, but you don’t have any programming experience? That’s ok! There are actually a lot of resources out there these days that can help you. Websites like WordPress use a modular system that allows you to design your site by moving around pre-made components, such as text boxes and pics, without typing out the code. This makes it easy to put together a simple website yourself. Let’s take a look at how you can start building your website code-free!

Get a Domain Name and Business Email

Before you start building anything, you need to choose your domain name. This is the online address used to reach your website. Since so many websites exist already, you might find that your original business name is not available as a .com option, so you should come up with a few other options. You can search and purchase available domains at sites like godaddy.com or hostgator.com.

If you haven’t already done so, you also need to set up a business email address. As you set up and build your website, use this email for all business-related steps. This looks more professional and is safer than putting your personal email address out there. In general, a gmail address is a good way to go, since this simplifies a lot of social media setup, but it's not required.

Choose a Website Building Software

Now that you have your domain and email, you need to choose a good website building software that’s easy to use. Some of the simplest options are WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly. Not only are they easy to use, but they’re also great tools overall. In fact, many people who know how to code end up choosing to use one of these tools, because they’re so simple and save a lot of time.

Your skill level and understanding of how websites work will determine which website building software you’ll want to use. Here’s a closer look at the four main options:

• WordPress - This is the most flexible website builder and the one that we tend to use at VMA. You can customize to your heart’s content with their versatile plugin system. However, it’s not the easiest software for beginners, and some previous experience is helpful.
• Weebly - This is the easiest website building software to use. If you’re a complete beginner and tend to shy away from technology, this is your best bet.
• Wix - This is a great all-around builder. It has many features and tools that allow you to drag and drop just about anything into place on your website.
• Squarespace - This is the most design-oriented builder. It has a ton of design templates to choose from.

Decide on Hosting

Now that you’ve started actually building your website, it’s time to find that domain address a permanent home on the Internet with web hosting. Think of this step as putting an address (domain) onto a house (host). There are four general types of hosting, and you should make a decision based on what you want out of the service (and your budget).

• Free Hosting - There’s almost always a free hosting option provided by the fully managed drag-and-drop website builders mentioned above. This is a great option for budget hosting, but it doesn’t come with as many options or much support.
• Shared Hosting - This is hosting that you share with other websites. Think of it like sharing your apartment with a roommate. This is simpler and more affordable than most individual hosting options, but leaves you with fewer options. One major downside is that the server can get overloaded if one of the websites gets a lot of traffic suddenly.
• VPS Hosting - This is another type of shared server that gives you more space, so that your site can handle more visitors. This is a great step to take before you jump onto your own dedicated server. Your website is growing, but not big enough for its own building.
• Dedicated Hosting - This is a server that’s set up just for you. This is like renting out that entire apartment mentioned above by yourself. This option is often used by larger enterprise websites that need more server space or cannot risk having the server overload and crash.

In most cases when building your first website, it’s best to start with free hosting. Once your website is polished up, getting more traffic, and you want to start tracking your visitors, you can move to a larger hosting space. Start small and grow your hosting along with your website. You can find more information on hosting here.

Fill Your Website with Great Content and SEO

After you've set up and designed your website, it's time to put it to good use! By providing a constant stream of quality content, you will keep your viewers engaged and coming back for more. Also, setting up a website is the best time to add some basic SEO strategies. Don't worry, this is also pretty easy to do. Learn how to set yourself up with great videos, blogs, SEO, and more with VMA's other blogs!

Basic Checklist to Build a Website

1. Choose a domain name and purchase it.
2. Set up a business email.
3. Choose your website building software.
4. Find a hosting company that works for you.
5. Make sure you have good content and photos, set up some basic SEO, and track your data so you can watch it grow.

With all the tools available, it’s easier than ever before to build a website. Most of the website building softwares have great online communities that can answer any questions that might arise. Go through the steps outlined above and you’ll find that you have a working website in no time. Then you just need to fill it with quality content and start spreading the news on your social media pages.

If you’re still feeling overwhelmed by any part of the process of setting up your website, designing it, creating content, developing an SEO strategy, and connecting through social media, Virtual Market Advantage can help! Click To Tweet

If you’re still feeling overwhelmed by any part of the process of setting up your website, designing it, creating content, developing an SEO strategy, and connecting through social media, Virtual Market Advantage can help! We provide services to help with all of these aspects of online design and marketing, and you can pick and choose which parts you want us to handle for you.

How to Revive Dead Business Leads

When you start up a business, it’s common to spend a lot of time gathering leads. Some of the leads will pan out and turn into customers eager for your business, while others just won’t respond. There are many reasons why a lead can go dead. Maybe the person got too busy to remember you and your offer. Maybe the timing wasn’t right on that first visit. Or maybe you simply forgot to follow up on one of the leads on your list.

If some time has passed and you want to try to reconnect with old leads, there are a few good ways to go about it. Who knows - maybe the timing is better for them now than it was before or you have new appealing features. Maybe they went a different direction and regretted it. Maybe someone else is in charge of the purchasing department now. Below, Virtual Market Advantage will take a look at some effective ways to revive some of those dead business leads collecting dust in the corner. Hopefully your efforts will gain them as customers this time around!

Update Your Old Data

To ensure that your leads are always fresh and easy to check in on, regularly update your data. A good rule of thumb is to refresh that data every month or two. Why do this extra step? What if you go to contact an old lead, but you don’t have the right contact information anymore? To do this, you can update by hand or automate the process with online contact-keeping software.

Use the Power of Social Media

In modern marketing, social media is a key component of generating business leads, and it’s also a great way to reach out to old ones. Click To Tweet

In modern marketing, social media is a key component of generating business leads, and it’s also a great way to reach out to old ones. Before you email or make a phone call, try following the lead on Twitter, Facebook, and/or LinkedIn. This could give you some good insight as to what that business needs and how it’s currently operating before you call and offer your services again. Engage them by sharing interesting articles, commenting on posts, or retweeting them. This lets them see that you’re engaged in what they’re doing and have a genuine interest in them other than just gaining their business.

Bring Attention to New Features

One of the best times to revisit old contacts is when your business has an update or starts to offer a new service/product. If you launch a new service or product, look back through those old leads and see what they wanted that you couldn’t offer at the time. Maybe your new feature would draw them in as a new customer. When you attempt to follow up with a contact, let them know what’s new with you, and ask if they might be interested in looking at your company now.

Look for a New Way In

When reviewing your old contacts, you may find that you were just contacting the wrong person within that company when trying to gain their business. There may be another person in the company who has greater decision-making power. Don’t be afraid to move on to the next person, as that could be the person you needed to contact from the beginning. If the person you initially talk to seems reluctant about making a commitment, it’s okay to ask them who else in the company may be better suited to make such a decision.

Re-Engage with Better Content

When using online marketing, there comes a time when your content needs to be refreshed. Your articles may be dated or out of touch with new businesses and customers who are visiting your page. Once your content is freshened up, it’s a good time to reach out to those business leads gone cold. Let them know that you’ve updated your business and website and request that they have a fresh look. This could result in them wanting to use your services after all. Sometimes potential customers just want to see that what you’re offering is current and relevant to them and their business. Plus, a little update is great for your company overall. One great way to modernize your business is to start providing video content. Learn more about getting started here!

While these are just some of the things you can do to help regenerate old business leads, there are many others methods to try. You know your business and its leads better than anyone. Each lead may require a different approach, but the ideas mentioned above can help give you the tools required to turn those leads into customers.

How to Get Started with Video Content

As you build your website and set up your online business and SEO, there are certain steps you need to take to ensure that you’re getting as many eyes on your website as possible. As you develop your online content strategy, seriously consider using video content. Why? Videos convey a lot of information while drawing in many viewers.

Don’t worry if you have no directing, recording, or editing experience. With the advances in modern recording technology and editing software, even a short video from a smart phone can easily be made into worthwhile content! If you’re new to video content or just want a refresher, Virtual Market Advantage will go over what you need to know to get started.

Understand Your Audience

When developing a marketing and content strategy, it’s best to start by learning who your audience is and what drives them to your website. What type of content pulls them in? What content makes them stick around and convert to sales? Are they looking for motivation? How-to videos? Entertainment? Do they want to know more details about your product? Using analytics tools, you can keep track of what your viewers are looking at, how long they stick around on a particular page, and all kinds of demographic information about the people you’re reaching. Based on this information, you can see what type of video content might connect best with your audience.

Videos are a great way to get almost any type of content to your users. After you understand your audience a bit more, the next step is to set goals for your video marketing campaign. What are your marketing goals? What do you want your videos to accomplish? If your goal is to increase your sales, then you will want to focus your video content around marketing your brand and product with useful information. If your goal is to spread awareness and gain followers, you might choose to focus on entertainment videos.

Research Your Competitors

Knowing what you’re up against is as important with your video content as it is for your website as a whole. Researching how businesses similar to your own are marketing though video can help you understand your audience, focus your message, and inspire you with new content ideas. Check out your competition’s YouTube channels, other social media pages, and websites to see how they market with videos and how they link everything together.

As you research and take note of your competitors’ content, make sure that you remain authentic to your brand and provide content with a unique spin. Simply copy/pasting a marketing campaign from another company won’t work as well as forming an individualized strategy (and can get you into legal trouble).

Create Your Own YouTube Channel

Once you have done some research and understand your audience, you should create a YouTube channel for your business. This is simple to do, as you just need a free Google account to get started. You probably already have one that you use for your business, but if not, go ahead and create one. It’s better in the long run to link your social media accounts and website with an official business email address rather than a personal one, and using a Google account makes a lot of steps much simpler.

Once your channel is created, there are a few basic elements to focus on first. These include your channel icon, your “about me” section, and your cover art. Connecting your YouTube account with your brand in this way will make it clear to your audience that they’re in the right place and will make it easier for people to find and reach your company.

After you create some videos, upload them to your YouTube channel. From there, you can spread them to your other social media pages and connect back to your website.

Creating Your First Videos

Making video content does not have to be expensive. There are some simple and stress-free ways to create great video content without breaking your marketing budget. Here are some quick, cheap content formats to consider:

• Video Testimonials – These are popular, especially for e-commerce stores, because they establish trust and social connection among viewers, and they can come across as more genuine than a text review. Ask a few of your loyal customers to provide a video testimonial of your product or business. This is a great way to start up your video content while getting honest reviews at the same time. You can simply have them send in a self-made video from their phones or set up a more professional shoot.
• Live Videos – People who view online videos are more likely to spend time watching live videos than ones that are prerecorded. Live videos can easily be done through your Facebook business page using your smartphone, and they’re a great way to connect new viewers to your website. This creates a more personal experience while saving you money by not needing fancy video recording equipment or a dedicated recording space. Give your customers a behind-the-scenes look at your building or spread the word about a company open house.
• DIY Animation – If you think you’d enjoy dabbling in animation or you like the looks of an animated video for your business, there are some simple, free animation tools online. While the quality will not be as great as paying an animator to make the videos for you, this is an easy way to create some fun little videos for your website. Put out some quick video content while learning how to create more complex animations!
• Start with Simple Edits – There’s plenty of different video editing software available for a range of prices and complexity. To see if you enjoy the process and are willing to learn more, pick out a simple, free editing software, and make some very simple changes to a short video. If you have a good message, your viewers won’t mind if the video is rough around the edges, and this content can even be endearing and build trust in your brand.

Watching Your Video Data

As with any other type of content, once you’ve posted a few videos, you should pay attention to the analytics data. Check out factors such as how many views the videos receive over a period of time, click through rates of how many people continued on to your website after watching the video, and conversion rates of viewers who went on to make a purchase or sign up for your newsletter. This data can help you understand your audience better as well as figure out what types of videos get you new customers and followers or bring back old ones for more purchases. It can also help you see what you need to do to make those numbers grow. Try a few different types of videos and see what gives you the best rates of viewers and visitors.

The average person watches around 10 seconds of a video before they either decide to keep watching or move on, so try to hook them in within those first moments. Your content should be fun, personalized, and get to the point quickly. Click To Tweet

Knowing your customers and what draws them in can help you create videos that keep people coming back for more. The average person watches around 10 seconds of a video before they either decide to keep watching or move on, so try to hook them in within those first moments. Your content should be fun, personalized, and get to the point quickly. Having fun with your video content and being honest with your viewers will help launch your business’s online presence. Your videos don’t need to be professional quality – they just need to be genuine, informative, and true to your business.

Become More Trustworthy as a Marketer

Become More Trustworthy as a Marketer 

With a lot of misinformation spreading around, it’s often hard to trust a salesperson. There are so many other people you would more willingly put your trust into, right? From buying cars to makeup to electronics, do you find that you trust your friends, family, and even Google searches over official salespeople and marketers?

Unfortunately, it seems like many marketers will say and do just about anything to get you to buy or sign up for their company’s products or services. This has been going on for decades. Marketers create campaigns with the goal to sell. As consumers, many of us realize that this is their only goal, and we become more skeptical of these campaigns over time. It’s especially annoying when every marketer claims to have the best product without any actual facts to back up this claim.

If you’re a marketer and reading this, you know it’s true. You may feel like you’re being honest with your campaign and what you’re selling, but there are many out there who have resorted to making up fake reviews and stories about their product just to get it to sell.

So now that consumers are wising up to these tricks and starting to distrust all marketers, what can you do to make sure that you can become more trustworthy as a marketer? Below, Virtual Market Advantage will go over a few things you can do to help your image, reach out to your audience, and spread the word about your business in a beneficial way.

Stop Talking About Yourself

Consumers will not care about you or your company until you give them something to care about. If you want to create that good initial customer connection, you need to put them at the center of everything you do, not yourself.

If you simply create a campaign that produces and promotes content that says nothing more than how amazing your product is or why your service is the best, you will lose the consumer before you even have them. Right now, the customer wants to know how your goods or services are going to help them.

So how can you do this? First, you need to create content that offers a solution to a specific problem. Create content that taps into the emotional wants and needs of your audience. Make sure your product does not become center stage by shoving aside your customers and their needs.

Use Expert and Established Content

People will buy from those they trust, and that trust comes from being open, honest, and educational. You need to show your audience that that you know your stuff and understand their wants and needs. Doing this will go along way in becoming a trustworthy marketer.

One great way to improve trust is to bring in content that’s created by an expert in the field you are marketing. You can do this by interviewing them, asking them to create a piece of content for you, or creating a video that showcases their expertise. This is especially useful if you have not yet built up enough authority yourself.

When you use this method, you will become an expert by association, because you’re offering established, trusted information to your audience. Keep in mind that you aren’t bringing in these experts to help you sell your product or service. Rather, you’re doing it to become the go-to brand in your niche. This will ultimately show your audience why they should trust you over other marketers.

Share Real Life Stories

We know that there are marketers who will create fictional stories of people using their product to help sell it. Many consumers are tired of this sales tactic. Consumers are now looking for real stories from real people that they can connect with and relate to more directly. Remember, you are creating a campaign centered on your audience’s needs and emotions, not on your product.

Social media really helps businesses reach out and find these real-life endorsements. You can get stories by reaching out to past customers and asking them to spread their experience with your product and post about it on your social media pages. They can post stories or even videos and pictures. Endorsements coming straight from the mouth of your customers show your audience that you aren’t hiding anything and that your product has already worked for someone else. When they see this, they may start thinking that the product could work for them too!

Build a Community

Building a community that supports your product is a great way to find more customers, especially through social media. This can happen when you take all the points mentioned above and combine them together. Doing this will help you start building a community around your brand. This is an important step for today’s market, as it’s becoming easier by the day to just click and buy online.

Consumers are in control of the social media they follow and who they interact with online. The days of old-fashioned marketing strategies that just push to sell are gone. The marketing ring is now welcoming a collaborative approach between businesses and their customers. This helps build a community, and trust is becoming the most important factor for you to apply when it comes to your marketing strategies.

Creating an online community can boost your brand, because it provides you with an active base of customers who are willing to talk about your product. These are people who can give your social media the validation you need to build a trustworthy brand. With the right community, your customers will be bringing in more customers for you!

Help your customers feel like they are a part of something good, and create content that’s geared towards them and their needs and emotions, all while showing your expertise. Using these points will go along way in helping you establish authority, which will create trust. If you provide good content, are honest, and directly interact with your audience, and you are well on your way to becoming a more trustworthy marketer.

If you want more information on how to use social media to help your business, check out VMA’s blog that goes over how to track whether or not your social media strategy is working!