If generative AI is the future of marketing (and media in general), how can you compete with other marketers if ALL OF US have access to the same tools?

We can all create amazing images, videos (soon), and articles. We can all use the most amazing copywriter as a template to write our own copy. We can even develop entire marketing plans in SECONDS.

We can also research almost any topic to justify the claims that we make for the products and services we’re trying sell… in almost no time.

Basically, pretty soon we’ll all be able to build anything we want to help our clients sell whatever they want with little effort… but is it a good thing?

It means UNLIMITED competition which may be a problem, but more importantly, it means that all businesses will soon lose the competitive advantage known as “professionalism.”

Why “Professional” Marketing Assets Aren’t Special Anymore

Back in the good ol’ days of digital marketing, if you could produce professional copy and visuals, you would be ahead of 90% of your competitors.

Writing consistent copy WAS hard.

Generating professional graphics WAS hard.

Producing professional pictures and videos WAS hard.

Now, professional marketing assets aren’t just widespread and more available than ever before, they’re LESS effective than user generated content (UGC) in most cases!

According to a Nielsen study, 92% of consumers trust organic, user-generated content more than they trust traditional advertising.

Why is UGC content more effective than professionally created content? It feels genuine and trustworthy.

Even if UGC content is made for personal gain (e.g. influencers, sponsored individuals, affiliates, etc.), it doesn’t matter to the viewer. They just see amateur content made about a product or service they might be interested in. They’ll trust that much faster than the fanciest commercial you can make.

UGC materials don’t need to PROVE anything, we as marketers do.

How Can Professional Content Keep Up with UGC?

So, what can marketers do to influence viewers the same way unpaid (or low paid) amateurs do with UGC?

The answer isn’t simple, but it is necessary.

If we need to produce professional content AND it needs to be compelling, we’re going to have to start proving ourselves in real world situations.

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We all sell high quality, well-vetted products and services (of course), but a list of features, benefits, and even testimonials isn’t going to be compelling enough any more. People want proof, and there’s something we can do to directly provide it.

How Case Studies Can Deliver Results Like UGC

Case studies are the professional business/marketing equivalent to User Generated Content.

Here’s what makes UGC effective:

• Authenticity: UGC is perceived as genuine, fostering trust and credibility.
• Relatability: Real user experiences make it easier for potential customers to envision product use.
• Social Proof: Positive interactions in UGC serve as powerful endorsements, boosting confidence.
• Diverse Perspectives: UGC provides varied viewpoints, appealing to a broader audience.
• Engagement: UGC generates higher engagement, fostering a sense of community around the brand.
• Cost-Effectiveness: Leveraging UGC is more budget-friendly compared to producing polished branded content.
• Scalability: UGC can be easily scaled, allowing for continuous and diverse content creation.
• Emotional Connection: UGC can evoke emotional responses, creating a stronger brand connection.
• Word of Mouth: UGC acts as digital word of mouth, amplifying the brand message organically.
• Adaptability: UGC can be adapted for various channels, maximizing its reach and impact.

Now, let’s look at what makes case studies compelling:

• Authenticity: Like UGC, case studies are authentic and based on real experiences, fostering trust.
• Relatability: Case studies provide real-world examples, making it easier for potential customers to relate.
• Social Proof: They serve as powerful social proof, showcasing successful experiences with the product or service.
• Diverse Perspectives: Case studies often include diverse perspectives, offering a well-rounded view of the product’s impact.
• Engagement: Well-crafted case studies can engage readers, drawing them into a narrative that highlights the value of the product or service.
• Cost-Effectiveness: While creating case studies involves some investment, they can be cost-effective compared to other forms of content creation.
• Scalability: Case studies, once created, can be shared across various platforms, maximizing their reach.
• Emotional Connection: Effective case studies can evoke emotions, creating a deeper connection with the audience.
• Word of Mouth: Positive case studies can be shared by customers, acting as digital word of mouth to amplify the brand’s success stories.
• Adaptability: Case studies can be adapted for different marketing channels, offering versatility in their use.

Even with all of these similarities, Case Studies can feel stuffy (especially when they’re related to services). There’s one type that can come closer to UGC, and that’s the “Undercover Case Study.”

What is an “Undercover Case Study?”

This type of “case study” has been done for years, and was popularized by the show “Undercover Boss” which started airing in 2010. If you didn’t know… this was marketing (and was probably paid for by the company being featured). Here’s a few entertaining moments if you haven’t seen the show before:

Yes, there are a ton of cringy moments when the “boss” proves to be incredibly incompetent while working simple jobs, but the desired effect was usually achieved: humanizing big companies and their owners/managers.

It also provides a ton of exposure for the brand, what they sell, and why you should shop there (even if the only reason to shop there is to help the poor souls that work there).

You might be saying, “I don’t have millions to spend on a production like this, what can I do?”

Good news! Marketers are stepping up to show how this type of case study can be done without a million-dollar budget.

Undercover Billionaire: A Step Closer to Practical Undercover Case Studies

“Undercover Billionaire” is this American TV show where super successful business folks get stripped of everything and get plopped into small towns armed with just $100 and a car. They’ve got a tight 90 days to spin that measly $100 into a cool million-dollar business, all from scratch.

The show kicked off on August 6, 2019, and wrapped up its first season on September 24, 2019, featuring bigwig Glenn Stearns. Season two stepped up the game with three entrepreneurs, including the likes of Grant Cardone. Here’s a peak at the content:

Folks love this show for throwing the American dream into the ring and seeing if it’ll come out on top. Can you really build a booming business with just pocket change? Sure, the show’s taken a hit for maybe being a bit too scripted or over the top, but it’s dishing out some serious lessons on hustling and business building.

Here’s the rundown: these high rollers pick a business, build a squad, hustle their way from that humble $100, and BOOM – a startup is born. Oh, and there’s a Discovery Channel film crew shadowing them, calling it a documentary on starting a small business from scratch. They want you to think, “Hey, if these guys can do it, so can I!”

Yeah, we get it – reality shows can be a bit Hollywood, maybe stretching the truth here and there. But, “Undercover Billionaire” serves up some real-deal insights into the wild world of entrepreneurship and the crazy hurdles of starting a business from ground zero.

It also shows whether the marketing techniques touted by people like Grant Cardone ACTUALLY work.

Again, you might be saying, “This is great, but I still don’t have a budget for something like this.”

In that case, good news! Someone is making a show that could prove the practicality of undercover case studies for the rest of us!

Undercover Agency: The Future of Marketing?

We know you can produce a compelling, interesting undercover case study if you have the money for a big show and the ability to get huge names on it, but what if you have a smaller budget and a smaller following?

Enter our DigitalMarketer friend and community members, JC & Karen Hite from Hite Digital.

They’re gearing up to embark on a daring mission: launch an agency from scratch and try to acheive $10k in profits within just 4 months. To up the stakes even higher, they’re moving to Searcy, Arkansas (from their home in Nicaragua) to do it.

They want to prove that their marketing techniques, for both starting an agency and gaining results for their small business clients, works. To do that, they’re following these specs:

• No team
• 4 months
• $2k starting funds

To add an extra layer of challenge, JC is throwing in a commitment to keep faith and family at the forefront. That means reading the entire Bible during this experiment and powering down the phone from 5pm-8pm for some quality family time!

Can the Hite’s “Undercover Agency” show prove that undercover case studies are the future of marketing? We’ll find out!

If you’re an agency owner and want to join JC on this journey, they’ll be posting their progress starting in December 2023. To follow along, just join their Facebook Group.

The post “Undercover” Case Studies: Why the Future of Marketing Is Proving Yourself in the Field appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

There are two core metrics that should drive a lot of the decisions you have in your organization; churn & sales. A great agency is constantly studying these two numbers diagnosing them from every angle learning specific areas of opportunity. 

The more you are able to understand these numbers and what they are composed of the better you’ll be equipped to making the right decisions for your business.

In this report, we want to look at churn, which is something we’ve been studying for about 10 years across two different agencies. The first one was scaled to over 1,000 clients and the second one we’ve scaled to over 200 full time employees in just 5 years. 

When you’re a young agency, churn is so important because 1-2 clients can represent a large portion of your income, however as you scale, the same is true. Imagine you’re an agency like Hite and you’re doing $500,000 per month in MRR.

If you have 10% churn monthly, you’ll need to do $50k in new sales just to break even. If you can create an environment where you’re more likely to have 5% churn, if you do $50,000 in sales you’ll grow by 5%.

Understanding why clients leave and acting on it, isn’t only the key to scaling. Agencies with lower churn, partake in other benefits such as receiving more referrals & a much higher evaluation when it comes to selling the business. 

Hite is constantly focused on understanding the why behind our growth & this is essential for your business if you want to scale in 2023.

Churn is critical, especially as you scale for churn is a representation of the quality of your product, service, & customers.

Every agency is constantly battling both the increase of sales and the decrease of churn.

Defining Churn? 

Churn can be broken down in a lot a ways, but for agencies, the most common two churn metrics you’ll see is Client Churn & Financial Churn. These two churn types can be define these two churns as followed: 

For Client Churn we will look at the monthly turnover of clients regardless of financial impact.

For example, If in January you had 10 clients pay you then in February only 8 of them paid you, that would be a turnover of 2 clients and equal 20% churn. In this example it would not matter how much each client represented financially. 

For Financial Churn, we look at the monthly turnover of revenue regardless of clients.

For example, if in January you had $20,000 in recurring collected MRR and in February you only collected 18,000 of that $20,000, it would represent a 10% churn rate. 

Understanding the difference between these two numbers is crucial, let’s look at the following list of clients. 

MRR

Client A $1,000

Client B $5,000

Client C $2,000

Client D $3,000

If we were to lose Client B, you would have 25% client churn, however you’d have 50% financial churn. There could be a very large difference in these numbers especially as you scale. 

The Problem With Researching Churn

Doing research on churn for agencies doesn’t come easily. First off, about 80% of agencies that exist today would be defined as micro agencies, doing less than $15,000 in monthly revenue of which the vast majority do not keep up with, nor have any data on their numbers, especially when it comes to churn. 

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If you take into consideration those that do keep great track of their numbers, between those they may manage and report back churn in many different ways, even beyond the above numbers.

For example, there is a well known agency that is doing several $100m in annual revenue that keeps track of their financial churn, but in their own way focusing more on net growth vs. churn.

In their model, they look at how much was lost, and measure that against what was upsold in order to come up with a net churn. 

With that said, we believe that this report takes all those data points into consideration arriving to tangible and definitive results.

The post How to Reduce Churn appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

They say employees are a company’s greatest asset, and it’s just as true for marketing agencies as any other business. The right team can help prove your agency’s quality, credibility, and competency to potential clients. So, it just makes sense that you want to find qualified candidates and, more importantly, ensure they’re in it for the long haul. 

Unfortunately, it’s easier said than done. Chances are, you’ve experienced this firsthand. Maybe you’ve lost one of your most talented employees or been disappointed by a lack of interest from candidates. Whatever the case, it’s worth looking at why this is and how you can change your approach for greater success. 

Why Finding and Keeping Qualified Candidates Is Tough

There are many reasons marketing agencies struggle to find qualified candidates and retain them. The two biggest factors are as follows:

1. Competition in the labor market
2. Employee expectations 

For starters, consider the competition in the labor market. There are more than 14,000 marketing and advertising agencies in the U.S. alone. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, marketing job demand is expected to increase 10% by 2026. However, there’s a limited pool of candidates willing and able to perform at the desired level.

We’re all looking for a specific type of professional, right? At a minimum, the ideal team member is knowledgeable about marketing, has skills in one or more areas, and possesses the right attitude for success. A person with these traits who cares about helping clients grow is a hot commodity. Every agency that’s hiring wants them!

In short, the competition is fierce. Your competitors are trying to attract the same high-quality candidates as you are. So, you have to work extra hard to stand out and encourage them to apply for a position at your agency. And if you manage to bring them on board, you need to prove their decision was the right one. After all, there’s no shortage of options available to them.

But that’s not the hurdle you have to overcome…

There’s also the fact that the wants and needs of today’s marketing professionals (and workers in general) have changed. 

For instance, employee expectations include more than just a salary reflecting their value. People are looking for things like…

• Positive work culture
• Recognition 
• Flexibility
• Transparency
• Respect
• Purpose 

Unfortunately, these are things that many agencies neglect to highlight when recruiting—or worse, fail to deliver in the workplace. And in the second scenario, it leads to great talent leaving for other opportunities. In fact, 2022 showed 62% of professionals considering a job change.

To say that finding strong, qualified candidates and holding on to them is a challenge would be an understatement. But here’s the good news—it’s not impossible. It’s just a matter of changing your approach, putting your marketing skills to good use, and offering value to your team.

Let’s start with recruiting…

5 Tips to Find Qualified Candidates for Your Agency

As marketers, we’re always looking for ways to level up and do better for our clients. And the same should apply to the recruitment process. If you’re having a hard time sourcing and inviting top talent to work for your agency, you need to make some improvements. 

With that said, here are five tips you can use to find qualified candidates:

Create True Job Descriptions

A job description is just that—a description of a job. Yet, most marketing agencies (and businesses in general) get this wrong. If you’re trying to build a solid digital marketing team, you probably have a lengthy list of requirements for the ideal candidate.

But that’s not explaining the job, is it?

Jason Weseman, Certified Business Coach at FocalPoint Consulting, put it best during a workshop hosted by Viral Solutions: “A job description should define the work that needs to be performed, not the skills needed to do the work.” 

To explain why this is so important, Weseman went on to say, “You can find people that meet your exact description—your requirements, your skills, your experience—that couldn’t do the work.”

Plus, if you’re strict with your criteria, you could miss on great talent. For example, research has shown that women only apply to jobs if they’re 100% qualified. 

So, focus on outlining what the job entails rather than what characteristics you’re looking for in a candidate. 

Brand the Job, Not Your Agency

As marketers, we’re no strangers to branding. And we all know how vital employer branding is. But a common mistake agencies make when trying to find suitable candidates is not branding a job. 

According to Weseman, “Top talent already knows about their competition. They know about other companies in their space… What they need to be sold on is the job itself.”

So, in each job description you write, focus on answering the following questions:

• What can they do? 
• What can they become?
• What does success look like?
• What does the future hold?

Brand the job by explaining how it will benefit them and make life better. Use storytelling to take them on a journey!

Spread the Word Wide

When you have written your job description and are ready to look for candidates, spread the word wide. Go beyond popular platforms such as LinkedIn, Monster, Glassdoor, and Indeed. Consider posting the position on marketing-specific sites like MarketingHire, the American Marketing Association, and Digital Agency Network. 

And don’t forget about the other resources you have available! You can post about the job on your social media channels and encourage current employees to refer qualified candidates they may know.  

Don’t Ignore the Passive Market

To find qualified candidates to join your team, Weseman also recommends looking at the passive market. 

What does that mean?

It means considering those who aren’t actively searching for a new job. 

This gives you a wider pool of potential candidates. More importantly, it gives you a wider pool of top talent, as they likely have the knowledge, skills, and attitude you’re looking for. After all, another agency hired them!

The key to convincing someone to change jobs (apart from making sure they see your opening) is to show that a position at your agency can offer more. A career move needs to provide a 30% nonmonetary increase. That includes job growth, job stretch, and job satisfaction. 

By proving that a talented marketing professional can have greater opportunities, a bigger impact, and higher satisfaction with your agency, you can reach more exceptional candidates.

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Rethink Your Interviews

The last tip for finding good candidates is to rethink your interviews. (This is another nugget of wisdom from Weseman.) You’ll have a better chance of filling an open slot with the perfect person if you…

• Ask the right questions. 

“What is your biggest accomplishment?” is the most critical and effective interview question you can ask. It gives insight into what a candidate views as an accomplishment and helps you see if they’d be a good fit. If their answer is irrelevant to the position or doesn’t align with your agency’s goals, they’re probably not the right choice. 

• Wait to make a final decision. 

People come to an interview as the best version of themselves, so first impressions aren’t always reliable. That’s why Weseman recommends waiting 30 minutes. If you love them after three minutes, give them tougher questions for the remaining 27. If you’re unsure after three minutes, give them easier questions for the rest of the interview.  

How to Retain Good Marketing Talent After Hiring

Finding qualified candidates is one thing, but retaining them is another. And it’s arguably more important! When a team member leaves, you miss out on everything they bring to the table. Plus, it can cost you—big time. Replacing a salaried employee costs an average of 6-9 months’ salary. 

So, what can you do to retain good marketing talent once you’ve brought them on board?

• Offer training opportunities.

Great team members strive to learn and grow in their careers. That’s why you should offer training opportunities to enhance their knowledge and skills. Ask what they want to do better or take a deeper dive into. Then, source appropriate training for them. 

• Create a healthy company culture.

Fostering a healthy company culture can go a long way in retaining team members long term. It can boost satisfaction and keep employees engaged. So, make sure your culture passes the test by prioritizing wellness, promoting diversity and inclusion, being transparent, and ensuring everyone aligns with the agency’s values. 

• Commit to job advancement.

If you’ve promised a candidate that your agency can provide them with job advancement, commit to it. Give them a chance to move up the ladder once they’ve shown they’re capable. Having the option for vertical career growth will increase the chances they stay on. Plus, it proves you stay true to your word. 

• Reevaluate to stay competitive.

Put in the effort to show your agency is one of the best to work for.

How?

Reevaluate what you offer your team members every so often. In addition to compensation and benefits, look at the perks other agencies provide their teams. Even giving increased flexibility by allowing team members to work from home can be seen as an advantage. 

• Prioritize employee recognition.

Team members need to feel valued, which is why you should make it a point to recognize and reward their hard work. How you do this is up to you. It could be as simple as congratulating someone on a project completed without a hitch or setting up a bonus program for hitting set goals.  

In Summary

If you’re struggling to find qualified candidates to work at your agency and stay on for years, you need to change things up. We tell our clients it’s not about them, and the same goes for us! Show how a particular job can benefit a potential candidate, and don’t forget to deliver on your promises. That way, you can build the strongest team possible and position your agency for success.

The post Unlocking the Secrets to Recruiting and Retaining Top Talent in Your Agency appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

The recent turn of events has digitized business operations throughout the world. Business leaders from various industries are using technology to run their commercial ventures. 

Businesses are extensively leveraging digital marketing to up their game. With the increasing advancements in this area, it is evident that this trend will continue to thrive as we move into 2023. 

Let’s learn more about digital marketing and its successful trends. 

What Is Digital Marketing?

Are you an entrepreneur looking for ways to expand your business? If yes, you should incorporate the progressing idea of digital marketing in your branding strategy. 

Digital marketing uses technologies and online avenues to promote your products and services to people beyond your service area. Also known as internet marketing, this process uses digital communication to spread brand awareness and increase sales.

According to a Forrester report, digital marketing spending by companies will reach $146 billion by 2023. With the existing and new digital marketing trends in 2023, you can prepare yourself to take your business to phenomenal heights. 

Exploring 7 Effective Digital Marketing Trends in 2023

Out of plenty of business strategies, a wise entrepreneur will always opt for the ones that are lucrative for his venture. Some of the top digital marketing trends that will be effective for your company in the long run include;

1. Real-Time Messaging Remains Effective 

Personalizing the sales is the secret to making your customer choose your products and services. You can achieve this by real-time messaging with your potential customer. Several chatting platforms can help you in getting to know your customers better. 

You can create a customized sales strategy for every customer using their data from the chat between you and them. It spikes the chances of a successful sale as your customer will think that the product or service is exclusively designed for them. 

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2. Attract Users Through Video-Based Content

Everybody loathes the idea of reading long texts on websites. However, people are attracted to moving graphics as they provide more information in less time. Thus, it is ideal to incorporate video-based content in your digital marketing strategy to make the user stay longer on your webpage. 

Videos are captivating and successfully capture the attention of the user. Use engaging videos to make the audience stop and stare at your webpage. It is an excellent way to promote your business by including the top selling points in your video. 

3. Influencer Marketing Continues to Gain Popularity

We engage with the stories and posts of our favorite celebrities and influencers daily. So, why not use their extensive social media reach to create a buzz about your business?

Consider the trendy idea of influencer marketing if you want to attract maximum customers to your business. This idea involves social media marketing, using socially influential people and organizations to market your products and services. 

The innovative idea of marketing your niche through influencers has recently become the talk of the town. It is because influencer outreach is far better than traditional marketing, which elevates the chances of affordably acquiring more customers. 

All you need to do is hire an influencer who belongs to the same niche as your business and has a substantive following so that your brand’s message can reach maximum people. Following that, you can strike a deal with them to promote your brand in return for adequate money or complimentary products and services from your brand. 

4. Email Marketing Nevers Falls Out of Fashion 

Email marketing is one of the oldest yet most compelling digital marketing trends. 82% of B2B marketers say that using email newsletters is still their go-to method for brand promotion. 

Have you ever wondered why this method is still relevant when we have more functional and practical social media communication methods today? A prime reason is that content often fails to reach people through social media as it is heavily filtered. However, such is not the case with emails – they convey your message directly to the user without the threat of being brushed aside due to privacy and filters. 

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5. Get Smart with Artificial Intelligence 

Modern digital marketing trends are all about using smart demeanors like Artificial Intelligence to grow your business. AI marketing stores data of your potential customers to help you make automated and informed decisions in milliseconds. 

AI observes your audience, economic trends, and other aspects affecting your marketing strategy. It uses data analytics to ensure you target the right pool of customers at the right time. Several brands use AI for effective marketing and have already started to reap its extensive benefits. 

6. User-Generated Content Is Growing 

User-generated content refers to any online material created by someone not representative of your brand. These people can be your customers, brand loyalists, employees, or anyone. User-generated content includes customer reviews or ratings and back stories about the brand that employees share. 

Using user-generated content is a brilliant emerging concept in digital marketing. It shows the positive aspects of the brand, posted by people who have no direct connection to your business. 

7. Consider Outsourcing To Marketing Agencies 

Digital marketing is a vast field that comprises various innovative digital trends. It is challenging to incorporate all the emerging trends at a time by yourself; therefore, a constructive approach to expanding your business would be to hire a competent digital marketing firm.

Obtaining professional digital marketing services would boost your business in a limited time. The right digital marketer will use different innovative techniques and the latest marketing trends to increase awareness of your business worldwide. 

Assessing The Importance OF Digital Marketing

Several reports have shown that 55% of marketing in businesses worldwide has gone digital. The remarkable effect on businesses through digital marketing has increased its use in the world’s major industries. 

Let’s see some of the many gains of using digital marketing in businesses;

1. You can get global reach for your business by using digital marketing
2. Digital marketing phenomenally increases your chances of sales as it adopts a more personalized marketing approach with each customer
3. There are lower costs and manpower required to conduct internet marketing. As a result, it is a suitable option for startup businesses
4. You can use multiple strategies and forums to market your products digitally. This offers a variety of customers, which expands your business in less time
5. Digital marketing techniques are easy to learn and apply
6. The results of digital marketing are much faster than traditional marketing strategies
7. Using technology to market your niche allows you to know your customers better so that you can improve your products and services accordingly for them
8. Digital marketing offers optimization and analysis. This provides you with strategic insights into your performance, which can help to perfect future business operations. It also makes you aware of your mistakes so you can fix them quickly

In A Nutshell 

Digital marketing is thriving in the business arena and will continue to do so in the years to follow. It offers an exceptional global reach to take your business to unprecedented success. The existing and emerging digital marketing trends have entirely transformed the way businesses used to operate. 

The post 2023’s Digital Marketing Trends for Small Business appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

According to research, 37% of employees blame unproductive meetings as a significant loss to organizations. As a result, more than 24 billion productive hours are lost. Meetings take a good chunk of time out of an employee’s routine, but they are also inevitable. 

The worst thing that can happen is that after hours of discussion and brainstorming, there is no actionable outcome. As a result, company resources and productive employee hours are wasted. 

You should have a roadmap for a meeting to increase collaboration among your teams and make effective decisions. 

Strategies to Make Your Meetings More Effective 

On average, a meeting lasts 12 to 13 minutes. In many cases, this time isn’t enough to discuss the key points. Increasing the meeting time means taking a portion of the employee’s productivity.  

You have to ensure that each minute spent in the meeting has a beneficial outcome. Managers and leaders should use the following meeting strategies to conduct effective meetings

1. Create Goals and Objectives for Meeting

The first step before you call the meeting is creating an agenda. The best thing is to determine the reason why you need a meeting. As soon as you get valid reasons, you have a green light. 

Whether the meeting is to discuss tasks’ progress or company crises, it would be best if you have predefined goals and what you are willing to achieve from the meeting. 

Managers can also create an agenda and cover all the necessary objectives without deviating from the meeting goals. Once the meeting’s agenda is finalized, distribute it to the selected attendees. 

Related Articles

• 2 Ways to Take Back the Power in Your Business: Part 2

• 2 Ways to Take Back the Power in Your Business: Part 1

• Unlocking the Secrets to Recruiting and Retaining Top Talent in Your Agency

2. Invite Relevant People 

 Meeting attendees can be divided into two groups. Those who directly contribute to achieving goals (managers and team leaders) and the interested or contributing parties (team members). Any other person’s presence is unnecessary.

Suppose the meeting agenda is “budgeting for future investments,” only invite the finance department’s head and team members. Any other person who is not relevant to the meeting agenda is the third wheel. 

Unnecessary attendees will waste their time. They do not have prior knowledge of the agenda.

3. Utilizing Mind Mapping Tools 

Mind mapping is an effective method to discuss an idea and explore new possibilities related to it. Business meetings can significantly benefit from a mind map maker. Managers can use mind mapping tools for the following benefits 

• Managers and leaders can create engaging presentations for the meeting. Audience engagement is crucial to getting a positive outcome from the meeting
• Regular meetings with PPTs can take minutes and even hours to discuss the plan. Mind mapping allows you to cover long meetings in just minutes without missing any essential details and remaining on the meeting agenda
• Mind maps make task assigning seamless. Team members and leaders can know their responsibilities without complex explanations
• Meetings can discuss the agenda in order and logical structure with mind mapping

4. Minimize Distractions/Disturbance

Distractions lead to a decrease in productivity. During meetings, many factors can cause distractions, identify the elements and take measures before the meeting. Conduct test runs and demos before the meeting to find distractions that can waste the attendee’s time.

There are chances that your internet connection, power, or other technical errors can come up in the meeting, and fixing them can require considerable time. Moreover, it can create a bad image when you have a meeting with C-level executives or higher management like CEO or CFO.

5. Time Management 

Time management is crucial for saving attendees precious time. It also increases the productivity and efficiency of employees. Moreover, it is the manager’s and HR’s responsibility to ensure that attendees follow the meeting time as part of organizational discipline. 

Time is money, meaning wasting time is directly causing loss to the organization. Whether it is starting or ending the meeting late, it will compromise the schedule and productivity of teams. The ideal approach is to keep the meeting time at a minimum and keep it efficient using tools like mind mapping.

6. Assign a Moderator

As a manager you already have tons of other work. There are chances that the workload can affect the meeting quality. You can find someone with good leadership skills as a meeting moderator. 

The moderator can effectively conduct the meeting on time with the necessary requirements allowing you to be more productive. However, the moderator should know how to conduct effective meetings and ensure that they follow the agenda.

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Managers can also assign a note taker that focuses on creating notes for attendees. Everyone can focus on the meeting agenda without frequently writing notes down. It will not benefit the meeting agenda after it ends and will reduce distraction. 

7. Set Up a Q&A Session

Many of the meeting attendees will have some queries or questions. However, allowing them to ask during the meeting will create frequent interruptions, and meeting decorum will be disturbed. 

The meeting guidelines should have a specific time for a Q&A session. It usually happens after the primary points are discussed to save time and make the meeting more meaningful. 

8. End Meetings When the Goal has been Accomplished

You should know when to end the meeting. If the desired goals are not achieved, or attendees do not have significant insights, it is a waste of time. 

Along with implementing other practices, you must complete the meeting when attendees have the necessary information and the desired meeting goals according to the agenda have been achieved. 

Conduct Less but Effective Meetings 

Conduct fewer meetings and achieve more. Your purpose is to make the organization as productive as possible; meetings take a lot of time. 

By following the above practices, you can keep the meeting relevant to the agenda while saving costs and time. 

The post How to Make Meetings More Meaningful Without Wasting Time appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

If you are having a hard time getting leads and conversions from your social media marketing right now, then you want to watch this video where Kris Krohn goes over:

1. Which social media channels YOU should use based on your business
2. How to know what kind of content to create to generate organic views
3. How much content you should put out each week (without killing yourself) and,
4. His top tip for taking off on social media

Kris went from relative obscurity to celebrity-level status (and an 8-figure business) really quickly all on social media marketing…and without spending a dime on ads.

The post How to get free leads and sales with social [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.