Making It Easy For Your Customers To Connect With You

It’s a proven truism in the business world that customers purchase from those that they trust. And the easiest way to gain trust is to pave the way for your customers to communicate with you. That’s an easy thing to do if you have a storefront that allows your clientele to walk in the door and say hello. It gets difficult in other circumstances. Maybe you operate your business out of an office, or your home. Perhaps you sell products nationally or internationally, which means you can be well-removed geographically from your customers.

In those cases, it’s extremely important for you to make an extra effort to lend an ear to your customers. If people see your business as faceless and impersonal, it’s unlikely that they’ll trust you in a pinch. By contrast, if they believe they can communicate anything, from concern to praise, to you, it’s more likely you’ll engender their trust and, in turn, their business.

If you buy a 0800 number, you’re providing them with a way that they can call you free of charge, which they’re going to appreciate. Here are some of the other ways you can make connections with your customers, even from a distance.

Website

It’s nearly impossible for any business to exist in this day and age without a well-functioning website. Not only does it provide a great venue for you to advertise your wares, but it allows you the opportunity to have an online dialogue with your customers. If you have a business blog, make sure it allows for comments. And make sure there is contact information, such as an email address or a 0800 number that they can call for whatever reason that they deem necessary. An effective, welcoming website is a wonderful way to open the lines of communication between you and your clientele.

Social Media

Too many businesses see social media accounts as just a way to market their products or services. What they’re forgetting is that these sites provide a chance for two-way communication between your customers and your business. This can occur if you pay attention to the feedback provided on your posts. Try as much as possible to respond to these posts whenever possible. If that becomes too burdensome, perhaps it might be time to consider taking on a social media coordinator solely for this purpose. Customer loyalty, specifically the loyalty of younger customers more inclined to social media, can be engendered in this fashion.

Reach Out

It can be difficult to make connections with customers who are hundreds or thousands of miles away, but that effort has to be made for your business to be competitive with local entities that have a built-in location advantage over you. If customers have signed up for your email announcements, try and make these as personal as possible. It will make a huge difference in making your marketing seem tailored to each individual person.

These are just some of the ways you can bridge the communications gap. Making connections with far-flung customers has become easier than ever thanks to technology; the rest is up to you.

10 Free Marketing and Social Media Classes To Elevate Your Skills Today

Online marketing demands that you have several skills for you to achieve desirable results. The skills can be obtained through several media present online. There are several courses and best essay topics offered over the internet that can improve your digital marketing skills. Let us take a short look at some 40 of the most effective courses below:

1.   Introduction to Social Media Strategy

This is a 45-minute course offered by Skillshare and created by Buffer. The course helps one develop skills on how to craft a winning social media strategy in order to be successful online. Some of the topics covered include the basics of social media, curating and creating content, advertising, and so on.

2.   What Is Social?

This is an online course meant for executives, business owners, and marketing experts. It improves their ability to come up with even better social media strategies through understanding the basics of social media. It was developed by Northwestern University and is being offered by Coursera.

3.   Social Media Monitoring

A course meant for people of all skill levels, it was coined by Eric Schwartzman and is being offered by Coursera. This course offers one the skills that they need to stay at the top of online marketing, figuring out what’s new and trending or outdated. Topics include Google related searched, alerts and the gains, use of keywords, and so on.

4.   The Business of Social

Developed by Northwestern University and being offered by Coursera, this course is meant for social media managers, business owners and marketers looking to derive value from social media marketing. That means developing a business objective that relates to a social media marketing strategy, putting in investments and expecting returns.

5.   Social Media Ethics

A course meant for beginners, it was developed by Eric Schwartzman and can be accessed from Coursera. It provides a guideline on how people can ethically go about marketing, networking and conversing online while also adhering to set laws.

6.   Advanced Social Media Marketing for Picking up Clients

Created by Brian Yang and offered by Udemy, this course is meant for those with intermediate skill level. Marketers and business owners learn tricks and tips to picking up clients that go beyond the basics of marketing.

7.   Hub Spot Inbound Certification

Created and offered by HubSpot, this course has a total of 12 classes where one gets to learn on inbound, email and content marketing, inbound sales techniques and so on. They give actionable tips to help one with inbound marketing.

8.   Facebook Blueprint

Offered by Facebook and created by Blueprint learning, this is a course necessary for agencies, advertisers, marketers, and businesses across all skill levels. The course specifically helps with developing the requisite skills for running a successful Facebook ad on your page.

9.   Digital Analytics Fundamentals

A 4-6 hour course for grasping web analytics offered by Google Analytics Academy. This course is meant for individuals with intermediate or advanced skills. Topics covered include:

• Fundamental digital measurement models
• Basic principles of digital analytics

10.                Pay Per Click (PPC) University

Developed and offered by WordStream, PPC University helps one grow their Pay Per Click and digital marketing skills. This online resource also offers additional modules for social advertising skills. You can learn on the go as it’s mobile friendly.

Hope these courses will be useful for you!

3 Foods You Can Eat To Dispel The Winter Blues

Summer is long gone, and once again we feel the nights closing in. There’s the lucky ones out there that embrace the darkness and prepare for halloween with an enthusiasm greater than any child, but for many people we feel a bit down in the dumps come winter, particularly in a country with a climate like the UK. As it’s dark and the weather is usually wet, windy or cold, we tend to spend more of our time indoors. And while we all like a cosy night in, too much time spent sheltering from the elements can make us go a little stir crazy.

Okay, so that’s one side of the story. But there’s also a clinically proven depression, known as seasonal affective disorder or SAD, that’s related to the changes in the seasons. Shockingly, as many as 29 percent of British adults experience the symptoms of SAD during the winter months. For most people, SAD will tend to start and end at about the same time every year, with symptoms including lethargy, irritability and a persistent low mood.

Treatments for SAD include lifestyle measures, such as getting as much natural sunlight as possible, exercising regularly and even managing your diet. So with diet in mind, what foods should you eat to battle those winter blues?

1.           Bananas

Bananas are a fantastic fruit because they’re cheap, tasty and good for you in a whole range of different ways. Companies like office fruit basket delivery service Fruitful office now deliver fruit to workplaces across Ireland and the UK and this is one way to make sure there’s always a supply of fresh fruit within easy reach.

Bananas are full of vitamins and minerals, including vitamin A, B6, and C. They are also an excellent supply of fibre, potassium, phosphorous, iron and carbohydrate. However, most important in battling the winter blues is the amino acid tryptophan. This essential amino acid is converted into the hormone serotonin, which is considered a natural mood stabiliser that can also boost bodily functions such as eating, sleeping and digestion.

2.           Oily fish

Eating a regular supply of oily fish, at least one portion or around 140g a week, can lower blood pressure, reduce fat build-up in the arteries and bring a whole host of other health benefits. As well as our bodies, fish that is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, mackerel and sardines, is also good for our brains.

About 60 percent of the dry weight of the brain is made up of fat, with about 30 percent of that omega-3. People who are deficient in omega-3 can be more susceptible to depression and low mood, so when winter comes along they can be left battling the effects of SAD. Eating oily fish once a week will provide the omega-3 the body needs and help to keep our brains flexible, allowing the brain’s messaging chemicals to work more effectively.

3.           Oats

Another symptom of SAD is low energy levels. Oats can be a serious ally in your battle against this lethargy thanks to the slow and regular way they release energy into the bloodstream. This steady release of energy helps to stabilise blood pressure and mood by avoiding the energy surges and crashes that can be experienced with other foods. Oats are also a source of the mood-boasting mineral selenium, a powerful anti-oxidant that’s associated with a wide range of benefits for mind and body.

Do you suffer from the winter blues? What are your go-to pick-me-ups? We’d love you to share your views with our readers in the comments section below.

How To Prepare Family For Disasters?

It is quite unfortunate that some families are living in disaster-probe areas. Despite the situation, we need to get fully prepared to deal with storm, earthquakes and other situations. When the disaster does strike, we could have much less options. However, with enough preparation we will be able to deal with such condition much more easily. There are many things that can be handled ahead of time and we should focus on the essentials first. As an example, the family house may need to be strengthened against possible natural disasters. We should consider whether the house is more resistant to earthquake, storm and flood. However, this can be achieved more easily before the house is constructed. But, we could still improve our existing house to make sure that it is stronger and can with withstand external factors. We should sit down with the whole family to make sure that everyone can be in touch if an emergency situation does occur. We should know how the family should be able to gather together in such situation.

However, we should know that the cellular network can be taken down by natural disaster and it won’t work entirely. It is better to invest on handy talkies sets that can provide direct communications in a range of few miles. Each set can be placed permanently inside the car or the child’s school locker. The battery should be taken out to prevent leakage and damage to the handy talkie set. When the disaster seems to be more likely to happen, we should make sure that the handy talkie set will be able to work properly. They need to be checked to make sure that there are no malfunctions with the set. Due to the limited range of the handy talkie set, we should consider designating a meeting place that can be considered safe. As an example, the place should be flat and higher; which can be free from flood and falling trees. The route that we choose should be simple, quick and direct. Everyone in the family should be taught how to properly and quickly avoid injuries.

During an emergency situation, we should think about items that we want to bring, such as jewelry, food, cards, very important documents and others. Even so, we should keep our luggage to the minimum and it is often important to prioritize on things that can ensure our safety or survival. During disaster situation, it is important that we pack light, so we will be able to move much more quickly. All the essentials should be able to sustain us at least for 3 days. This will allow us to reach the aid centers, so we will be able to obtain supplies. We should bring enough money, so we will be able to purchase things. When things are bad enough, money may no longer be accepted and it is a good thing to small chunks of gold that can be traded for food and other essentials. With enough preparation, we should be able to cope with disaster more easily.

How To Prevent Bacteria Contamination On Your Food?

Preventing the contamination of bacteria on your food can be quite tricky. Bacteria multiply incredibly quickly in your food. Even in less than ideal condition still allows for bacteria to multiply relatively quickly. It means that we need to prevent the food to stay in ideal situation for a long period of time. This includes the right amount of moisture and temperature. If the food is no longer consumed, we need to make sure that we store it at lower temperature. This should make sure that the bacteria will be inactive, although they are not killed by the cold temperature. We should make sure that the food doesn’t come into contact with high degree of moisture or water before the handling and cooking process. Also thawing your food in water can give bacteria a head start, so this process needs to be completed as soon as possible. Remove bones from the meat before freezing it, so we could reduce the thawing period and cut up the meat when it’s still half frozen with a sharp cleaver.

The cooking process should be performed as soon as possible and the cooking process starts at 70 degrees Celsius. If the food isn’t immediately consumed, we need to cool it down as soon as possible. It is also important to shut the food tightly to prevent air circulation and a varying degree of contamination. If we want to keep the food for a longer period of time, we could put it in the fridge. However, even if the food is completely frozen; it doesn’t mean that it will last forever. Chemical breakdown may still occur, rendering the food inedible after a period of time, depending on the type of the food. Pressure cooker is the best method for destroying all bacteria, compared to using pans and other cookware. The high atmospheric pressure and temperature have direct effects in completely eradicating small organisms. We should also make sure that bacteria on the work surface have been eradicated as well. The cooking process is intended to kill organisms, soften the food and enhance taste, so we still should cook the food more than necessary to maintain the nutritional content.

There are different ways to prevent bacteria from multiplying inside the food, such as smoking, dehydration, concentrating, pickling and sterilization. They should be able to prevent the development of bacteria inside our food. The environment should also determine the hygiene of our food. Work surfaces should be proper washed with detergent and hot water. In restaurants and any professional kitchen, the working area should have stainless steel surface. All cooking utensils should be boiled in hot water after a few weeks of usage. Regular washing isn’t enough, because traces of foods could accumulate in nooks and crannies of the cooking utensils; which is quite hard to wash away. Boiling water should enter all parts of the cooking utensils, killing much of the small organisms. Perform this regularly and you should be able to maintain proper hygiene.

What’s The Reason Behind Increasing Number Of Chatbots In Facebook Messenger?

The buzz of chatbots for Facebook Messenger is unknown to none. Let’s understand the concept of chatbots and discuss how it benefits the business by making an existence on Facebook Messenger.

Take a leisure walk on road and observe people what are they doing? It is quite possible that 90% of people you come across are engaged in their mobile phones. What’s this new addiction all about? To get an understanding of it, you have to deep digger into the purpose of usage of mobile phones by people.

Irresistible chatting applications along with millions of other available in the App Store are the main culprit for the addiction of this pocket sized gadget. People like to stay connected and socializing and chatting apps serve this purpose at the touch of fingertips. Amongst all, Facebook has secured the top most position when talking about number of active users on social media platform.

What’s more is that Facebook also comes with a subsidiary messaging app called ‘Messenger’. The purpose of this app is to allow Facebook users to chat with each other (either one-to-one or in group) seamlessly. As per Statista reports, there were around 900 million users using Facebook Messenger for chatting in their network of friends.

What is Facebook Chatbot?

A chatbot is a service that enables users to chat with robots that are either powered by rules or artificial intelligence. This concept was off recently added by Facebook Messenger, thereby expanding horizons for developers to create the best chatbot.

With the Facebook Messenger chatbot being much talked about topic, several verticals such as grocery, news, weather forecast, personal finance and many others are now coming up with their own bot to assist users and give all the required information without leaving the Messenger app.

Functioning of Chatbots

Depending on how smart you want your chatbot to be, you can choose to develop either a rule-based chatbot or the one with artificial intelligence:

Chabots that function based on rules can respond to only specific commands. To be precise, it gives the correct answer to only those questions that have been fed into its memory.

Advanced chatbots with artificial intelligence do not merely function based on programming or rules. It understands human language to an extent, tries to interpret the question asked by a person and provides the most appropriate answer.

Building Chatbots

Though the concept is new and big, building chatbots is not very difficult for web developers. Artificial intelligence one require you to learn basics of AI, but building a simple rule-based one is a cheesecake. The functioning of chatbot depends on the purpose for which you want it to be developed. Further, the platform, say Facebook, has to be considered while its development.

Finally

Technology has opened up new ways to bring your business close to people. So make the most of it by developing a chatbot for your business soon!

Author Bio:

Alice Watson is a specialist software advisor for online business by occupation. My essential responsibilities is to provide live chat software service & how to use it properly. I love to researching new trends and share them in her writing pieces.

How To Increase Our Chance Of Getting Approved For Trademark Filing?

It can be quite expensive when we want to file for trademark registration and the whole process can be quite long. In this case, it should pay if we are able to perform our own trademark researches. Before filing the application, we should seek the advice of local trademark attorneys. The first thing that we need to do is to perform a preliminary search in the national or international databases to make sure that there’s no similar trademark. After performing the informal search, we should be able to find out whether our mark has been used by a registered party. It means that if we file for trademark application, there’s a big chance that it will be rejected and if we continue to do so, we could be held liable for a trademark infringement. With access to online databases, we should be able to determine whether our mark is unique and we could proceed with the next step. Even Google should be able to help is to find out whether a trademark has been registered.

The next step is to find out whether our proposed mark is actually being used by an external company for specific product or service. As an example, we could determine whether marks for hair products have been used by specific companies. Again, we should know that even if no results are found in the initial search, it doesn’t guarantee that our mark is eligible for the next step of registration. But we could be sure that if our mark is already in the database, there’s no chance that we will be approved. If there’s no direct result that’s identical or similar with our mark, we should proceed with the comprehensive search. This should allow us to find related terms that could have direct correlations with our products. If we do this, we will be able to increase our chance of getting an approval. In this case, we will need to be creative with our search terms, such as by looking for synonyms, altering the spelling, adding quotation marks and doing other things that can help us to find things similar to our products and marks.

. If we do this, we will be able to increase our chance of getting an approval. In this case, we will need to be creative with our search terms, such as by looking for synonyms, altering the spelling, adding quotation marks and doing other things that can help us to find things similar to our products and marks. By having accesses to trademark and patent databases, it should be quite easy for us to perform simple searches. However, there is still a possibility that we are missing one thing or two. In this case, we may need to hire a qualified trademark attorney who can really help us with the whole process. It is important to make sure that we can really get professional opinions about whether our mark is really eligible for registration. They often have better access to patent, copyright and trademark databases, allowing them to give us real confirmation about our chance of success.