I recently wrote an article in Forbes about how three out of four customers are more loyal to your employee than your business. This research came from OnePoll on behalf of DaySmart Software. They surveyed 2,000 Americans and found that in many businesses, customers are more loyal to the employee—so much so that almost half…

We’re all feeling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as individuals and business owners. In this unusual time, communication is more important than ever before. You have to ‘over-communicate’ to your customers to help them navigate changes, especially if your customers are also businesses. They’ll be feeling the impact of the current global changes in…

Speaking human in a world full of robots is a rare skill In today’s modern world of business, there is an ad every 5 minutes telling you that you can automate your entire customer journey in some shape or form. You are offered on a daily basis a bottomless pit of integrations to choose from…

How much should agencies spend on their own self-marketing? Consider two approaches to benchmarking. How much should agencies spend on their own self-marketing? It depends… You can calculate cost of marketing as a percentage of revenue—between 7% and 20% of revenue, including labor costs. Yet for many agencies, headcount is an easier initial metric—between 0.5…

Today, I want to talk about the five biggest mistakes big businesses make on LinkedIn. This also applies to small businesses, and even solopreneurs. The first thing I will assume is that you have a business page on LinkedIn. The second thing I will assume is that some (if not all) of your employees have…

When it comes to driving direct sales and providing lift to your marketing campaigns, nothing provides the effectiveness of advertising, at least not in the short-run. However, a business doesn’t just measure effectiveness in terms of results (sales), you need to calculate the cost incurred to generate those sales, something we generally call ROAS (return…

How to define a strategy for your growth team. A step-by-step guide for new leaders at early stage companies.I’ve spent the last five years working on growth teams at tech startups. During that time, I’ve learned a lot of growth tactics and frameworks. But nobody ever taught me how to create a strategy and communicate…

According to iHire’s 2019 Employer Branding Pulse Survey, 59.3% of companies either don’t have an employer branding strategy, or don’t know if they do. If you fall into that camp, it’s time to remedy that ASAP. The hiring game has changed. Job candidates expect a lot more than a paycheck these days. Crowded job markets…

The pandemic has caused a spike in businesses like groceries, cleaning products, and even beverage alcohol, but that spike may be short-lived. Other businesses are suffering and dragging the economy down with them. The entire world is facing mass unemployment and the global economy is circling the drain. Civilians and government officials alike are calling…

When you are visiting a city and suddenly realize you need a quick bite to eat, what do you do? Undoubtedly, you pull out your smartphone and Google something along the lines of “Pizza in Seattle.” The first page of Google appears, and you see a business listed with all the information you were seeking…

When it comes to jump-starting your site traffic and growing your business, paid media can be enticing because of its ability to get your company in front of real people searching for products or services like yours. But Google Ads is the most expensive place to advertise on the internet. Anyone who chooses to run…

Do your employees believe they have a voice in the workplace? The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) publishes an annual list of top 10 workplace trends and “capturing the voice of the employee” was on the list. It shared, “Employees’ voices will become more important to organizations as they focus on collecting employee feedback…

Sustainability reporting is crucial for your company, your customers and your employees. “Sustainability Reporting” is sharing your sustainability actions, goals, and achievements with your stakeholders and community. At my company, Green Buoy, we take “reporting” to mean sharing concrete sustainability goals, achievements and actions. In reporting, you are sharing sustainability numbers, figures, years and baselines…

Social media marketing has seemed to overshadow the broader aspect of content marketing in the past couple of years. With the audience insights and audience targeting capabilities available on most of the popular social media platforms, they have become the go-to platforms for B2C businesses building out a “content strategy”. But social media alone isn’t…

The coronavirus has been one of the most damning events to happen to the United States stock market in its history. The virus, which began in China, has so far infiltrated every aspect of the world and it continuing a rampage. Governments have been forced to issue stay-at-home orders across countries. This means that companies…

Years ago, one might reasonably separate the elements of Google’s results into distinct entities: Google News, Books, Videos, Images, Local… But today it’s near-impossible. The list of elements Google might show for a given query are so vast and varied that at the macro-level there’s really only three kinds of search results that matter: 1)…

Examining the myth of the crisis-born startup On May 6, I got a message from my cousin Stacey, who had just returned from a yearlong maternity leave to the global consulting firm where she’d been working for the past decade. “Well, I will be joining the entrepreneurial ranks shortly,” she wrote. “Got laid off today.”…

We’ve all seen those social media accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers that get less than a hundred likes and rarely have any comments on their posts. People have been led to believe that in order to be successful on social media, you need to have a large number of followers or page likes.…

Looking for that next thing to give your personal brand a leg up? How about video? Using video for personal branding has helped many people to expand their brand and reach more audiences And COVID-19 has created an atmosphere where video thrives. Think about it….now that so many of us are working from home, video…

Even before COVID-19 drastically changed how we connected, virtual events were on the rise. Companies and brands may have different reasons to host a virtual event, but there are two overarching benefits: Virtual events take less of a budget to host. Virtual events are more accessible. Involving more people and spending less money sounds great,…

Yesterday, we explored how Google puts their own products before any others, often regardless of quality. When they do, *even* when those results are superb, it discourages competition. Why bother building something better if Google’s going to send 70, 80, 90%+ of the search traffic to their own property? Today, we’ll look at how Google…

Suppressed listings are quite common amongst sellers on Amazon, especially for those who are relatively new, facing operational challenges, or operating in categories that require strict quality control. Suppressed listings on Amazon can hamper your inventory planning, and lead to revenue loss. For market leaders, it may even mean loss of Best Seller/Amazon Choice tags…

As local governments begin lifting lock downs and permit more businesses to reopen, email should be one of your go-to channels to entice shoppers back into stores. If you’re like many retailers, you’ve already sent out at least one “Woo hoo, we’re reopening!” email. Who could blame you? Getting customers back into your stores is…