“The Benefits Of Electronic Access Control Are Hard To Ignore.”

– Todd Hepler, Digitek Security

The following article written by: MyOffice

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“Video at POS Is One Way To Reduce Employee Theft.”

– Todd Hepler, Digitek Security

The following article written by: Focus POS

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“73 billion calls to businesses by 2018. Are You Prepared?“

– Bill Kerth, Movere Teleservices

The following article appears in, Marketing Profs

As marketers, we read, think, and talk a lot about Web presence—whether social media, content marketing, search, or other digital medium—and we put a lot of time and effort into perfecting our brand’s image, messaging, and positioning. As we should. However, when was the last time you considered “phone presence” during your branding refresh exercises and marketing brainstorms?

Traditional telephony may not be one of the first agenda items that come to mind in a content planning meeting, but perhaps it should be. More than half of consumers still prefer to pick up the phone and talk to a person when they decide to interact with a business, according to Actionable Research‘s June 2014 survey of consumers in the US and seven other countries. That’s huge!

Also, although soaring smartphone penetration makes apps a viable channel, many consumers still find it more convenient to use their mobile phone to talk with an agent than to peck out their contact information and questions on screen, the Actionable Research survey finds.

So, why is it that so many marketers tend to overlook the branding opportunities in voice communications? Is it simply because telephony is not the hot, new craze that gets all the buzz these days? Are traditional voice communications lacking PR to advocate for this older channel?

Regardless of the reason, phone presence can be as important as a business’s Web and mobile presence for expressing a brand and attracting customers.

Phone presence can be particularly critical for small businesses that are just getting established and forming a brand identity.

Marketers should have the following three considerations in mind when they’re developing their communications strategy for the voice channel.

1. Pick the right phone numbers for your business

At first glance, you might think this is a no-brainer: You’ll find a catchy vanity number—such as (800) TECH DOC—to make it easy for current and potential customers to remember your number when they need it.

But be aware of the downsides. Vanity numbers cost significantly more, and the chronic short supply is making it more and more difficult to find one that matches your brand or value proposition.

Standard-issue numbers can be highly effective, particularly if you know how to wring the most value from them. For example, consider getting multiple numbers so each one can be assigned to a separate campaign; that makes it easy to track each campaign’s reach and effectiveness—and thus its ROI.

If you’re targeting a large geographic area—such as an entire state or multiple states—consider getting a local number for each market within that area. Those can help attract consumers and businesses that prefer to work with a company that has a local presence, or those who have phone plans that charge extra for long-distance or international calls.

The reverse also can apply. By choosing one or more toll-free numbers, a small business can create the impression that it’s larger than it is. That perception can help attract customers who believe that larger businesses are better able to meet their needs.

2. Align every touch point in your phone presence to your brand

Two-thirds of small businesses (66%) consider phone calls the most valuable source of incoming leads, according to BIA/Kelsey. So, what first impression and business image are you conveying to those prospects when they make their phone call?

First, there are the basic best-practices. For example, the greeting should be concise enough so callers don’t feel as if it’s standing in the way of getting what they want. Your automated phone system also could include the ability for callers to dial a particular salesperson’s extension, directly or by his or her last name, so they don’t have to sit on hold. An alternative is to give each salesperson, or group of salespeople, their own phone number that goes through the cloud and rings their mobile phone.

Then there are the key image considerations in your greeting and automated phone system prompts: They should reflect your corporate voice and branding goals as much as possible. So although an accountant’s greeting could be formal to make callers feel confident that they can trust that firm with their money, a marketing consultancy or design firm might come up with a catchy message that shows creativity, and a dentist might choose a soothing message to pacify callers who are fearful or in pain.

Also consider the voice you select for your greeting: The depth, tone, and gender can say different things about your brand, as well as resonate with callers differently. Think about whether hiring voice talent to record those messages may make sense for your brand. You can even consult with your telephony provider to see whether they’ve worked with one and can recommend voice talent.

Finally, consider using hold messages to educate callers about offers, products, and services, or to reinforce your branding in a way that’s helpful (as opposed to irritating). Sometimes less repetition and more creativity is a direction to go—a great topic for the marketing team to discuss in the context of the business’s marketing and branding goals.

3. Be prepared to scale up to maintain a professional image

Mobile search will generate 73 billion calls to businesses by 2018, up from 30 billion in 2013, BIA/Kelsey estimates. That’s just one example of why it’s important to ensure your IVR, trunks, and other phone systems can scale up to meet the demand that a successful campaign can generate.

Hosted phone solutions could provide the additional flexibility and cost-savings when a calling campaign ensues or there’s rapid employee growth. With on-premise PBXs and other systems, businesses risk overpaying for too much capacity or buying an undersized system that can’t keep up when a campaign lights up the phones more than expected. With hosted solutions, they pay for only what they need, when they need it. And when money isn’t wasted on unneeded phone capacity, it can mean a bigger budget for marketing.

Your phone presence remains a regular touchpoint for your brand, so it’s important to plan your voice communications content, style, and customer experience a way that reflects your image and marketing goals.

To maximize that effectiveness, make sure to include your phone presence in your ongoing branding reviews and brainstorming exercises, and update accordingly.

The traditional voice channel is not going away any time soon, so spend time considering your options and planning, and be strategic about the branding and marketing opportunities your phone presence affords.

Learn More about Movere Teleservices.

“Good ideas and remember telemarketing can also play a key role in client retention in 2017.“

– Bill Kerth, Movere Teleservices

The following article appears in, Marketing Profs

Traffic, acquisition, and sales have always been critical priorities for marketers. Yet customer retention also plays a key role—but is too often neglected.

Interestingly, only 49% of small business owners have a customer loyalty or other retention plan in place, according to a Belly survey related to current small business marketing and retention activities. The 429 businesses surveyed represent a range of industries, and they use various marketing tools and solutions.

Here, I’m going to share five findings with the biggest impact for small businesses. I’ll also share relevant marketing approaches to help you reach your growth and revenue goals.

1. 72% plan to allocate most of their marketing budget to customer acquisition

This finding was surprising, considering it costs up to five times more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep one.

Only 28% of merchants surveyed said they were putting most of their budget into customer retention. This is a huge miss according to brand influencer Tamara McCleary, who says existing customers are 50% more likely to try a new product or service from someone they’ve done business with in the past.

So, how can marketers and business owners drive acquisition without sacrificing retention?

Consider the processes and teams already within your organization. Optimize customer service and experience with upsells that improve the overall buying experience.

Outstanding customer service requires daily interaction with your customers. Training your customer-facing teams with proactive soft-selling skills will help you to serve your customers with new products and services.

A reactive approach to social media is another method for boosting customer retention. Because not everyone will post directly to your social channels with how they feel about your business, you can use tools like Mention to monitor conversations folks are having about your business.

Pay attention to the channels where these conversations are happening. Contribute with guidance in the form of valuable content.

2. Customer loyalty programs, email, and social are considered the most effective marketing channels

We asked 429 businesses where they planned to put their marketing dollars in 2016. These were the top three:

1. Social Media Advertising (63%)
2. Customer Loyalty Program (55%)
3. Email Marketing (50%)

That came as no surprise, since those channels are easy to measure and have strong ROI. Traditional marketing methods are more difficult to measure and are being replaced by digital channels. What can you do to test these digital channels (or optimize them)?

Email continues to prove its worth, but only when it’s done well. Consumers today are smart. They know all the tricks used in creating and scheduling mass emails and now prefer transparency and personalization in the messages they receive.

There are 4 billion email accounts worldwide, 25% of which are business-specific, and the average open rate is 20% to 25%. How can you improve upon that metric?

Despite conventional wisdom, a personalized approach doesn’t always work. Emails containing the recipient’s first name aren’t original; many have become immune to that trick. Think about it: Do you put the name of your friend in the subject line when emailing them?

Test an anti-personalized approach by removing all instances of names and other fields. This disrupts the recipient’s knee-jerk reaction against marketing.

Marketers have found a new enemy in the form of the “promotions” tab in Gmail and other apps. To get around this hurdle, direct email subscribers to a Thank You page to remind them why they signed up and to keep an eye out for a confirmation email.

If you really want to ensure your subscribers can find your email, add an extra call to action on the Thank You page to send the user straight to that email.

Ensure your emails are optimized for mobile. If you see high opens but a low click-through rate, this could be because your email isn’t appearing properly on mobile devices.

Finally, consider social media advertising platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, as these are hyper-targeted and effective paid acquisition channels. You can target your audience to the exact age and location, as well as other demographic and psychographic information.

Test on a small scale first by matching audience to the right message. Know who your personas are, and align your ad copy with their challenges and desires. Use a tool like Perfect Audience to scale this up once you’ve achieved a positive ROI.

3. 30% of SMBs don’t have budget to hire a full-time marketing position

Many SMBs don’t prioritize marketing into their budgets because they think they need to hire someone to manage it full-time, which isn’t the case, of course. And even business owners who do put budget into marketing activity believe it’s hard to measure results.

Before hiring a full-time marketer, business owners should be marketing their business so it can grow. There are several ways to do so.

One option is to test channels in an automated manner. You and your employees can set up one or two approaches to see what works. Leave it running for a few weeks, track results, and iterate from there.

If you’re unsure where to start, look to the top three channels outlined above. For example, you can spend a day or two writing email content to send to your customers over a one-month period. Use MailChimp or a similar ESP to schedule these and track results.

Perhaps your customers are on Facebook. Put some budget into testing Facebook ads. Create a campaign focused on the demographic of your best buyers and measure results on a weekly basis. Check out “The Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Advertising” by AdEspresso for a road map.

If you can’t find time or internal resources, seek the advice of a consultant or agency. Find a local supplier who offers a free consultation. That conversation can help identify activities you should be investing in, and many suppliers provide very affordable payment options.

There are also freelance websites, including UpWork and Freelancer. Put up a job description and invite freelancers to bid. This is an affordable approach that many business owners favor over hiring a full-time marketer.

4. Most small businesses planned to spend more on their marketing this year than last

The other 70% of small business owners we talked to were planning on investing more budget in marketing this year.

In fact, 42% of them estimate they’ll spend between $1,000 and $5,000 on marketing this year alone. This is good news both for small businesses and for the marketers who are selling software and services to them.

If you’re selling to an SMB audience, increase your outreach. Be sure that your proposition is solving a specific challenge and aligns with customer needs.

Social advertising, email, and customer loyalty are the favored tactics because they solve the biggest challenges SMB’s face: acquisition, retention, and sales. Your proposition should align with those challenges. Prove how you can solve these problems, and you can generate a positive ROI.

5. 30% of SMBs estimate that 71-90% of their customers have visited more than once

Although all eyes are on acquisition, retention is still key for many business owners. Accordingly, 61% of business owners agree that a loyalty program to retain customers is “very important,” whereas 30% agree it’s “important.”

Loyalty programs give customers access to exclusive perks and bonuses. They also create a more convenient and personalized buying experience, increasing the likelihood of turning a one-time customer into a loyal advocate.

Businesses that recognize the value of loyal customers are discarding their legacy “stamp-based” systems for digital, trackable solutions instead. Marketers and business owners can easily measure the retention rate of their customers. Visit history, purchasing patterns, and reward redemptions are now fully visible metrics.

If you’re a brick-and-mortar business, you should consider adopting a digital system. When you have a loyalty program, competitors have a harder time taking away your customers; that’s because loyalty programs play on a behavior psychologists call “previous investment.”

For digital businesses, ReferralCandy and Ambassador are retention tools that can be implemented quickly. They make customer loyalty through referrals simple for both you and your customers.

MeUndies and Harrys use gamification elements in their loyalty and referral programs, which make customers feel invested in them and make them more likely to take action.

Whatever approach you choose, focus on maximizing profitability; reward your most loyal customers, and start with rewards that cost little to nothing for you.

Those five marketing and retention trends and ideas were the most interesting findings in our survey. If you’re not executing the strategies and techniques covered in this article, it’s time to test them. Test small, with a low budget, and scale up once you’ve seen measurable ROI.

Learn More about Movere Teleservices.

“Excellent excerpt on these powerful tools.”

– Mark Ingraham, Image Perspective

The following article written by: Branding Strategy Insider

Your brand management and talent management approaches are two of the most powerful levers at your disposal in driving tangible, measurable improvement to the performance of your business.

Brand Management helps ensure that people are aware of you, of what you can do for them and why they should consider and purchase from you. It gives you something clear to stand for and to steer by; it guides some of your biggest strategic decisions. Name something more important to a CEO than the reputation of his or her firm.

Talent Management helps you make sure you get the right people aboard to help in the first place, and then create an environment where they can contribute more so that your organization can deliver on its promises. Name something more important to a CEO than the talent needed to deliver growth.

Chances are, they are both in the top five; for some, the top three, according to recent surveys by McKinsey, PWC and BCG. But the two are inextricably linked – a fact that seems to be lost on many boards, CEOs and strategists today.

Why do so many organizations manage these distinct drivers of business effectiveness as if they are completely different things? This book seeks to answer that question, and it makes the case for a different (integrated) approach to thinking about the way your organization manages the way it attracts, recruits, develops and motivates the people it needs to thrive, in order to provide a product or service that is authentic, relevant to its customers and differentiated from its competitors – for both business and talent. Does that sound crazy?

It still does to some people. When I set out to create the idea of ‘Brand and Talent’ as a practice area in one of the world’s biggest global communication networks years ago, I encountered surprising resistance to the very name ‘Brand and Talent’ itself. They just didn’t get it. Brand? That’s about external positioning. Logos. PR and advertising campaigns. Reputation management. Social media. Talent? That’s about recruiting. Employee communications. Human resources. ‘They just don’t go together. It’ll confuse the marketplace.’

One of the most telling challenges in setting out to make the case for integrating several related disciplines is how easy or hard it is to research those disciplines. Brand? There is a lot out there about how to define, create, activate, maintain, defend and grow your brand in the marketplace. Talent? There is even more out there about talent acquisition, talent management, employee engagement, motivation and the many human resources techniques to help make the most of talent.

But Brand and Talent? While, to be fair, the world of ‘employer branding’ has grown in profile, as has the idea of ‘living the brand’, these are still generally seen to be separate activities aimed at solving different challenges. While there is evidence of some organizations and service providers connecting employer branding and living the brand/employee brand engagement-type activities, they are far from being integrated and hardwired to the organization – at either communication, operational process or management level. It is virtually impossible to find an actual example of where brand, employer brand, human resources and employee engagement have been genuinely connected and managed as a single integrated process.

But the tide is turning. The now irrational (yet at one time perfectly sensible) functional separation of many of the activities relating to brand management and talent management has reached the end of its usefulness. Smart organizations understand that there is a better way – that one core idea is better than many when it comes to focus and clarity in a dynamic internal and external environment.

Learn more about The eDot Family of Companies.