Tag Archives for " time "

5 Tips for Effective Time Management at the Office

Many people today find it challenging to manage their time properly.

When you squander your time, you may not leave enough hours in the day for the tasks that are important to you.

The important things in your life may get pushed to the side if you spend too much time on other projects.

When it comes to managing your time wisely, calendars are a necessity!

You may prefer a printed calendar you can write on.

Electronic calendars are also very valuable to have.

No matter the method you choose, a calendar will help you organize your tasks and effectively manage your time.

If you seem to always be a step or two behind, pay more attention to deadlines.

If you procrastinate, your schedule will suffer.

By keeping on top of deadlines and appointment times, you will not have to leave important matters unattended to take care of things you have put off.

#1. Wisely allocate your time.

Consider how much time you have for each task and set a time to complete them. This can help you focus and to limit wasted time.

If you end up with extra free time, spend it on yourself or doing other tasks you are behind on.

Organize your schedule effectively for better time management.

By beginning each day with a realistic set of tasks to accomplish, you stand a good chance of succeeding.

Be sure you haven’t penciled in too much.

#2. If you’re finding it difficult to manage your time, concentrate on smaller tasks.

People don’t get things done on time when they multi-task.

Doing too many things at once leaves you flustered and exhausted, which means quality suffers! Breathe, relax and focus intently on one project until it’s done, then move on to the next.

#3. Practice prioritization throughout the day.

Sometimes, meaningless tasks can get in the way of your day.

Making sure that you do the most important tasks early when you’re most energized allows you to easily get through each day.

List the task facing you on a particular day.

Give some thought to how important each one of them is, and start with the most vital ones first.

 

#4. Learn to say no.

Someone who lacks the ability to say  “no” is more likely to experience undue stress.

Evaluate your schedule if you find that you are often overbooked.

Can you get someone else to do this task?

If there is, it might be a good idea to ask for some help from family and friends.

#5. Close the door to your office when you need to really buckle down and get work done.

When your door is wide open, people think they can ask questions and discuss their problems.

Simply shutting the door provides you with a bit of privacy.

People will be aware that you’re busy and you can get more done.

It is not good to waste time. This rings true when looking for time off to relax.

Learn how to successfully manage time so that you can have a more stress-free life.

Follow the tips above to manage your time better and enjoy life a little more.

Best Webinar Software

Meeting in person is hard to arrange if the entire world’s included on your invite list. With webinars, people can engage in seminars, pieces of training, demos–no hotel stay or airfare necessary.

Your customers will be able to register and pay within the platform if that’s the route you decide to go. This is a big advantage of using webinar software vs video conferencing software. You don’t have to use different software to carry out a simple transaction. That’s just one example of how it makes your life easier.

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

There are a few things you want to think about going into your search, and features that might add value to your webinar content.

 

Top 5 Webinar Software

I’ve put together a list of the top five webinar software options out there. We’re going to cover the ins and outs of how to choose the best webinar software for you.

 

#1 – WebinarNinja Review — The Best For High-Quality Training or Coaching

WebinarNinja gives you tons of tools to connect with your audience. Chat with the group or individually. Share course materials. Take a poll and display the results.

You can really increase engagement, which helps people solidify their experience. This is one of the big reasons I like it for instruction, whether you are coaching, teaching, or onboarding a new employee.

WebinarNinja is a close contender of Demio in terms of its modern, beautiful design, and flexible webinar capabilities. But WebinarNinja is slightly more cost-effective for smaller groups than Demio.

It’s trusted by well-known B2B brands such as Baremetrics, AppSumo, and Podia, which essentially supports their ranking as the best for high-quality training or coaching purposes.

You can run any type of webinar with WebinarNinja: live, automated, series, or hybrid. The key features that come into play with the coaching or training aspect are uploading PowerPoint presentations, creating Q&A spaces, and easily sharing information.

Some other notable features of WebinarNinja are:

• Tons of integrations with notable systems such as MailChimp, ConvertKit, HubSpot, Squarespace, and ClickFunnels
• Beautiful ready-to-use templates for quick and simple webinar creation
• Save marketing materials within the software for easy access
• Create custom branded registration and thank you pages designed to convert

Furthermore, WebinarNinja reportedly has some of the best customer support out there. This support is extended via live chat, email, and a comprehensive resource library for set-up guidance and minor troubleshooting.

WebinarNinja has four pricing plans available:

• Starter: $39/month for up to 100 attendees
• Pro: $79/month for up to 300 attendees
• Plus: $129/month for up to 500 attendees
• Power: $199/month for up to 1000 attendees

Every membership comes with a 14-day free trial, so you can pay nothing and get started today!

 

#2 – Livestorm Review — The Best For Ease of Use & Automation

If you’re looking for webinar software that allows you to run live, on-demand, or automated webinars with just about any goal in mind, Livestorm could be the one for you.

If you want to hold a live event or detailed product demo, you can do that. If you want to build an educational customer training series or an online course, you can do that, too.

Livestorm is a simple yet powerful video communication tool. They really stand out for their ease of use and detailed automation.

You don’t need to be tech-savvy to use this software. You can have a webinar up and running in no time, thanks to automation features like an event registration page, promotional emails, and automatic custom event reminder emails.

Some other features of Livestorm include:

• Join the webinar in any browser with one click
• Full suite of webinar types such as live, on-demand, and pre-recorded
• Screensharing capabilities
• Interactive live chat, polls, and Q&A within the webinar
• Excellent analytics and reporting capabilities

Another great feature? Livestorm also offers comprehensive customer support in multiple languages.

In addition, they also have a very useful self-service documentation section of their website. I love this offering because they’re incredibly handy when you’re facing a minor set-up issue or pesky technical difficulty that you know you could solve alone without needing to explain yourself at length to tech support.

Livestorm plan options include:

• Basic: Free for up to 10 live attendees
• Premium: $99/month for up to 100 live attendees
• Enterprise: Personalized quote based on your requirements

Get started with Livestorm for free today!

 

#3 – EasyWebinar Review — The Best For Beginners & Social Media

The EasyWebinar motto is ‘wildly easy to use live and automated webinar platform,’ and by all accounts, they seem to hit the nail on the head. They are also reportedly one of the only webinar platforms that have successfully integrated marketing strategy with webinar technology.

This software is for anyone wanting to launch their first seminar quickly and painlessly with a drag and drop page builder and tons of seamless integrations at your fingertips.

The highlight of this software? EasyWebinar allows hosts to Livestream to Facebook and YouTube at the same time.

 

Why is this so impressive?

Well, it essentially gives you uncapped potential regarding how many people your content can reach at one time. Of course, those viewing through Facebook or YouTube won’t get the platform’s built-in interactive capabilities, but your message could still be reaching thousands of more people.

Other notable features of EasyWebinar are:

• Seamless integration with popular platforms such as WordPress and MailChimp
• In-depth engagement tracking tools covering webinar watch time and in-platform clocks
• Browser-based viewing
• Turn live events into evergreen webinar funnels
• Allows four presenters in one room, all with sharing capabilities

Although EasyWebinar is not the cheapest webinar software on the market, this platform certainly packs a punch. There are three pricing plans on offer:

1. Standard: $78/month for up to 100 room attendees
2. Pro: $129/month for up to 500 room attendees
3. Enterprise: $499/month for up to 2000 room attendees

You can try both the Standard and Pro plan for free or schedule a demo of the Enterprise plan.

 

#4 – WebinarJam Review — The Best For Large Businesses

With the ability to host up to 5,000 attendees at one time with little to no delays, WebinarJam is easily one of the best out there for large businesses.

A really great highlight of WebinarJam is that, although it’s designed for huge audiences, you don’t have to skimp out on some of the awesome interactive features that software for smaller groups has on offer.

My favorite interactive feature is the advanced live chat within the webinar that actually pulls the person’s video to the stage, so to speak. You can also include offer pop-ups and countdowns to encourage attendees to take action.

These features are almost more important for a larger business than small ones, to remove that ‘faceless large business’ barrier some may perceive.

Some other features that WebinarJam has to offer include:

• Top-notch 24/7 customer support
• Email and SMS reminder notifications
• Create paid webinars and accept payment directly through the software
• Stream directly to YouTube for further participant reach
• Compatibility with multiple browsers and systems

The key selling point of WebinarJam? It automatically records your content every single time.

Why is this so nifty? I don’t know about you, but forgetting to hit that pesky record button is a frequent pastime of mine.

There are three pricing plans on offer:

1. Basic: $499/year for up to 500 attendees
2. Professional: $699/year for up to 2,000 attendees
3. Enterprise: $999/year for up to 5,000 attendees

WebinarJam is so confident you’ll love their software that they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, so your purchase is risk-free. At the time of writing, they also have a $1 14-day trial for a limited time only.

 

#5 – Demio Review — The Best For Live Events

Demio is the cream of the crop when it comes to modern, user-friendly webinar software that is bound to help your business grow. It’s suited to almost any size business that wants to hold interactive live events to drive their marketing campaigns.

One of the best bits? There is no download required! Not only will your attendees have access to a beautiful platform that clearly reflects your branding, but they’ll also be able to join from any browser with just one click.

So, what makes them the best for live events? Here are a few of their top features:

• Run interactive polls and get stats in real-time Embed launch offers and CTAs designed to convert sales on the spot
• Share handouts for instant download with your attendees
• Give attendees video and microphone permissions as needed
• Public and private chat functions for live Q&A

In a nutshell, Demio is so interactive it’s bound to leave your audience feeling like they truly know you!

Another great thing about Demio is that you can record your webinar and send it to all registered participants so no one misses out if they can’t make it, even if they do miss the chemistry of a live event.

Demio offers three pricing plans:

1. Starter: $34/month for up to 50 attendees
2. Growth: $69/month for up to 150 attendees
3. Business Plan: $163/month for up to 500 attendees

Demio offers a 14-day free trial of their Growth plan, so you can give it a try before you buy.

 

What I Looked at to Find the Best Webinar Software

All of the good webinar software can handle is going to make it easy to record and share high-quality videos.

You’ll also get a range of interactive features like live chat and built-in polls. Or not. This is an aspect of webinar software where you will find some variations.

Identify the features that are going to make a difference in your webinars. Do you want interactive features that let your audience participate? Are you interested in measure people’s engagement?

Still, the feature selection is only one aspect of your search. Let’s talk about the three other factors you should pay attention to in order to evaluate your different options.

Attendee Capacity

The number of participants you can have in your webinar at one time is going to be a vital factor in your decision-making process. Some webinar software is designed for smaller groups, while others have the capacity to host thousands of attendees at one time.

Maybe you’re not sure how big your webinar will be or how quickly it will grow. In that case, you should consider whether your software provider has a plan that allows you to scale your attendee capacity alongside your business growth.

Furthermore, if you can have thousands of participants at one time, how well does the software function? Is there any latency or known technical issues that arise when everyone is logged in?

The great thing here is that most webinar software providers have tiered pricing based on how many participants you’d like to have in each meeting, so if you find one you really love, you’ll likely be able to make it work.

Accessibility

How easy is it for your participants to join the webinar? Do they have to download an extra app or plugin, or can they launch from their preferred web browser and be immediately joined in?

For some users, the stress of requiring an extra app or program to join a webinar is too overwhelming or complicated. So much so that they may choose to ditch their plans to join your webinar altogether.

With this in mind, it’s important to focus on choosing a webinar software that is easily accessible for your participants. Many options simply launch from a web browser, and this way, your participants are unlikely to find a reason to back out of committing.

Customer Support

Imagine if you’ve put in weeks of hard work to pull off an incredible live webinar, and five minutes before you’re set to begin, the software crashes.

Just the thought of this alone has me feeling sick.

If you plan to hold live events often, it’s imperative you use a webinar software provider that offers 24/7 customer support to get you out of these sticky situations.

Furthermore, technology can be challenging and fickle. Having access to a team of professionals who know the software inside and out at your fingertips at any time of day really should be an important factor when considering which tool to use.

 

Summary

At the end of the day, the best webinar software for you is potentially going to be different from the best for me.

That’s why it’s important to use the methodology discussed here to do your due diligence in choosing the best webinar software for your business needs.

There’s no better way to get a sense of what you like than taking these products for a test drive.

So don’t forget to also take advantage of free trials and money-back guarantees to get a real feel for how your chosen software works before you commit long-term.

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How to Use Transcription Services to Repurpose Your Content

 

Keeping your audience engaged with your content is a full-time job in itself. You must constantly evaluate your current content’s engagement metrics while also anticipating the needs of your growing audience.

With this in mind, new and updated content is crucial to any successful digital marketer’s strategy. How can you generate new content without spending more time than you have available? With transcription services.

In this guide, I’ll explain what transcription services are and what they can do for digital marketers. This will include a look at one particular use case—repurposing content—to give you an idea of just how valuable these services can be.

 

What Are Transcription Services?

Transcription services are business services that transcribe audio to text. The audio is most often pre-recorded and is then transferred to transcription professionals, who are trained in shorthand. They are able to quickly and accurately transcribe audio from many different sources.

You also have the option of AI-powered transcription tools, such as Otter and Rev. These services combine AI with trained professionals to deliver a top-notch experience.

From podcasts and videos to workshops and live speeches, a transcription service can help you to preserve your audio in text format. This can later be used for reference or, as I’ll outline below, as a way to repurpose your marketing content.

 

When are Transcription Services Used

Transcription services are most often used by physicians, scientists, researchers, and other technical professionals. Their spoken notes are transcribed into written notes and reports that can be used for reference or recordkeeping.

When you think of transcription, you may also think of court proceedings and police investigations. These, too, are used for recordkeeping (often public record) and as a way to make the proceedings accessible to all.

However, transcription can offer great benefits to digital marketers, too. One of the most effective ways to use transcription is to repurpose content and create high-value content in multiple formats.

 

5 Ways to Use Transcription Services to Repurpose Your Content

There are plenty of benefits transcription services can provide to digital marketers, and repurposing of content is just one. Here are five ways you can use transcription to expertly repurpose your content.

 

1. Turn a Video Into a Blog Post

Whether a new or established digital marketer, I can safely assume you never feel as if you’re hitting your weekly or monthly blog post targets. By transcribing your videos into blog posts, you can get that much closer to reaching your goal.

 

How many posts should you publish a week? According to HubSpot, the sweet spot can be anywhere from one post to five posts per week.

However, this will depend on the size of your website and what you hope to achieve. For a small website with a goal of maximizing organic traffic, for example, three to four new posts per week is recommended.

Another benefit of turning videos into blog posts is accessibility. While many digital media platforms offer closed captioning, they aren’t always the ideal way to digest content. By turning videos into blog posts, you can ensure all of your traffic has access to your content in multiple ways.

Of course, you should aim to bulk up these blog posts in ways that benefit the readers. These include using visuals (e.g., images, infographics, charts) and adding more in-depth examples.

The transcription should serve as a starting point to creating engaging, valuable blog posts.

 

2. Turn a Podcast Into a Video or Blog Post

You don’t need to forfeit multimedia content entirely! You can “upgrade” your podcast to a video using transcription services. Just add some visuals and you can now share to digital media platforms like YouTube and Vimeo.

The greatest benefit here is the ability to reach a wider audience. While there is certainly crossover between podcast listeners and video watchers, there are some people who stick strictly to one format.

By turning your podcast into a video (or vice versa), you open your content up to a whole new audience.

You have a few options here when it comes to adding visuals to your videos. The simplest is using one image (perhaps a solid background with your brand and website URL) throughout the entirety of the video.

This isn’t appealing, but it will enable you to add your content to sites like YouTube.

For more appealing visuals, you can also try stock photos, digital imagery, or even b-roll.

How can you ensure the visuals you use are appropriate and appealing to your audience? Search YouTube for similar content keywords to see what types of videos your target audience is currently engaging with.

This can ensure you are on the right track, while also giving you ideas on how to improve your content over the current offerings.

Or, you can turn your podcast into a blog post.

For example, Content Marketing Institute’s Joe Pulizzi hosts a podcast, then turns the transcript into a detailed blog post. This allows users who don’t have time to listen to still access their content.

 

3. Create a List-Building PDF

Do you have a video or podcast episode that would make great list-building content? Then consider hiring a transcriptionist to turn that content into text.

List-building content, also known as lead magnets, is a great way to build your email subscription list. It is an offer of free content in exchange for an email address.

However, it is not as easy to attract people to your list-building content as it was before everyone had a website. Your content must be truly compelling and high-quality.

There are plenty of lead magnet formats to choose from, including:

• checklist
• cheat sheets
• e-books
• infographics
• case studies
• white papers

Using a unique angle, you can use the above formats to attract a targeted audience. With such an array of content types, it’s likely you have a video or podcast episode that can easily be transformed into one of the above.

 

4. Build a Resource for Social Media Content

There’s bound to be a Tweet-worthy quote or two from your latest podcast episode. Instead of replaying the episode and scrubbing through it, turn the episode into a transcript.

This will make it incredibly easy to find social media content to share.

Without the need to scour your audio, you can now spend that time creating attractive visuals using platforms like Canva or Adobe Spark.

These services allow you to create the ideal visuals for each social media platform, and they even include templates to get you started.

Do keep in mind the cost of transcription services may increase if your episode includes more than one person. This can take time and skill to navigate.

On the other hand, the added benefit of transcribing multi-guest content is that multiple speakers can add refreshing insight to your social media pages, especially if the guest has their own social profile to engage with your audience.

 

5. Create an E-Course

If you want to create a substantive course, then consider combining multiple videos or podcast episodes on a similar topic. The resulting e-course can then be offered as a lead magnet or even a paid course.

With platforms like Kajabi and Thinkific, you can host your online course with ease. How can you ensure the course you create is profitable?

The steps to creating a successful online course include:

• Choosing a fail-proof, high-demand topic.
• Creating compelling course objectives.
• Structuring your course modules effectively.
• Choosing a platform to host the course.
• Marketing your course strategically.

As a paid course, the content should be of exceptional quality and it should go in-depth. Transcriptions of your previous content will be helpful to create an outline, but you should really dig deep and build out the content as best you can.

Before you employ a transcriptionist, take special care to pick your best audio and video episodes for transcription. These will form the basis of your course, but they’ll of course need to be bulked up with further examples, imagery, and more.

 

Transcription Services Frequently Asked Questions

Transcription is invaluable to digital marketers, but perhaps you still have a few questions. Let’s go over them.

 

 

Repurposing Transcriptions for Content Conclusion

Your audience craves new and updated content on a regular basis. While this can seem a daunting task, audio transcription services can offer a solution.

With transcription, you can turn your audio content into text. This text can then be repurposed into other forms of content, including blog posts, social media content, and online courses.

Transcribed content can help you to satisfy the needs of your growing traffic numbers, while also providing accessible content so as to reach a wider audience.

Depending on the quality of the services you use, you may not even need to spend much time editing the transcription. This will save you immeasurable time while also expanding your reach as a digital marketer.

Which of the above content formats will you transform your audio content into?

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Best Employee Scheduling Software

It’s no fun being shorthanded or overstaffed.

For a small business, a single absence can turn a morning upside down.

For large businesses with multiple locations, staying organized is even harder.

Employee scheduling software makes it so much easier for managers to staff appropriately.

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

They can create a schedule in minutes, update it on the fly, and switch people around as need be.

Plus, your team will appreciate a schedule that’s always up-to-date and accessible from any device.

Cut down on miscommunications with everyone looking at the same schedule no matter where they are.

 

Which employee scheduling software is the best?

You’ll find in-depth reviews of each of my top picks below, followed by a short guide to help you find the best tool for your workplace.

#1 – Homebase Review — The Best Employee Scheduling Software For Small Businesses

Homebase is an employee scheduling tool designed with small businesses in mind.

It’s versatile enough to accommodate scheduling needs across a wide range of industries, including retail, health and beauty, service businesses, and restaurants.

More than 100,000 businesses rely on Homebase, and not all of them pay for it.

I’m serious. Homebase has a freemium business model.

If you need advanced features, you can look at one of the paid plans.

But if all you need just need a scheduling system,

Homebase more than has you covered.

You get a beautiful interface that employees and managers can access 24/7.

The calendar updates in real-time, so everyone is on the same page.

With Homebase, you’ll benefit from top features and functionality like:

• Simple scheduling templates that can be edited on the fly
• Easy schedule sharing with your entire team
• Ability to forecast your labor costs
• Employees can access real-time schedule updates from the mobile app
• Track employee availability, time-off requests, and approvals
• Automatically remind your staff about upcoming shifts
• Manage shift trading from anywhere
• Calculate overtime and get alerts about scheduling conflicts

In addition to these robust scheduling features, Homebase is an all-in-one solution for time clocks, hiring, onboarding, team communication, HR, and compliance.

You can also improve your labor forecasts by integrating your sales data from POS systems like Square, Clover, Shopify, Upserve, Revel, Lightspeed, and more.

Popular payroll software, like Paychex and Gusto, is also integrated with Homebase.

For hourly workers, having a schedule tied into payroll is going to save a ton of time.

The free version of Homebase works for an unlimited number of employees.

You don’t get every feature, but you do get scheduling, time tracking, team messaging, and the payroll & POS integrations.

To get the most out of the software, you can upgrade to a paid plan, starting at $14 per month per location. Learn more and sign up now.

 

#2 – Sage HR Review — The Best All-in-One HR Solution

Sage HR (formerly CakeHR) is a complete HR software.

Within this all-in-one HR solution, you’ll find robust tools for shift scheduling.

Overall, Sage HR is a great choice for any business that wants to automate its human resources tasks, in addition to improving its scheduling process.

Other noteworthy standouts of the employee scheduling features include:

• Interactive shift planning with an easy-to-use interface
• Compatible for single sites and multiple locations
• Easy to split up schedules into groups and departments with multiple shift managers
• Employee-self service tools with the ability to add preferred times and unavailable times
• Drag-and-drop shift management
• Daily, weekly, and monthly reportsComplete data exports

Aside from the scheduling tools, you’ll also benefit from features related to leaving management, timesheets, recruitment, performance management, employee records, and other HR essentials.

Sage HR starts at $8.50 per month for core HR and shift scheduling.

Additional modules cost extra.

The software is easy to set up, and you can try it free for 14 days.

 

#3 – Deputy Review — The Best For Time and Attendance Management

Deputy is one of the most popular employee scheduling tools on the market today.

It’s trusted by 200,000+ brands across the globe, including big names like Nike, Amazon, HubSpot, and Peloton.

I like Deputy because it’s feature-rich, but also has simple and straightforward pricing.

You can bundle employee scheduling with time tracking software for just $4 per user per month.

Alternatively, each of these functions can be purchased separately for $2.50 per user.

Here’s a quick look at some of the other top features and benefits that you’ll get from this software:

• Easy to fill open shifts based on staff availability, qualifications, and costInstantly share schedules with your team Real-time labor costing data
• Auto-scheduling capabilities using AIBreak planning and rest compliance
• Manage schedules from anywhere with the iOS and Android apps
• Request, approve and track PTOAutomate wage calculations
• Collect timesheets and export them to payroll with a single click
• View who’s currently on shift, taking or a break, or late in real-time

Any business that wants a simple way to manage employee scheduling and time tracking from a single solution will definitely benefit from Deputy.

Try it free for 31 days; no credit card required.

 

#4 – ShiftNote Review — The The Simplest Employee Scheduling Software

ShiftNote is one of the most straightforward employee scheduling tools on the market today.

It’s trusted by 75,000+ users across a wide range of different industries.

I like ShiftNote because they have industry-specific solutions for categories like restaurants, hotels, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, education, and breweries.

Here are some of the top reasons why ShiftNote ranks so high on my list:

• The free mobile app, free team messaging, and free customer support
• Employees can update their availability and swap shifts
• Scheduling templates so managers don’t have to build from scratch
• Free setups and one-on-one training
• Multi-location dashboard
• Time off request management
• Sales and labor forecasting tools
• Daily log reports

Overall, ShiftNote drastically improves the speed of your scheduling process while optimizing the efficiency of your schedules.

It’s a reliable way for your management team and staff to communicate from anywhere as well.

It’s worth noting that ShiftNote lacks some of the HR and time-tracking features offered by other tools on the market today.

But if you’re just looking for a straightforward scheduling solution, this should definitely be a top consideration.

You can try ShiftNote for free with a 30-day trial.

 

#5 – Shiftboard Review — The Best For Labor Cost Management

Shiftboard is another excellent workforce management solution designed for scheduling hourly employees.

It’s a feature-rich software with lots of different options to solve common business challenges associated with scheduling.

This includes things like labor cost management, employee retention, fatigue management, compliance, and more.

Shiftboard actually has two different scheduling tools—SchedulePro and ScheduleFlex.

The Pro version is designed for high compliance industries like corrections, oil and gas, and petrochemical.

The Flex version is built for organizations with changing scheduling needs, like healthcare, staffing, call centers, warehouse and distribution, public safety, and manufacturing.

Other noteworthy highlights of the Shiftboard software include:

• Real-time communication about schedule updates and newly available shifts
• Auto-fill shifts with call outs and no-shows
• Employees can confirm last-minute shift requests directly from the mobile app
• Employees can pick up extra shifts and trade shifts (with approval)
• Tailored fit schedules based on departments and locations
• Smart team groupings based on staff qualifications, certifications, and moreAccurate labor forecasting based on demand
• Avoid over/understaffingScheduling automation tools

60,000+ teams rely on Shiftboard for employee scheduling.

They even have additional features for applicant tracking and time clocks with geofencing.

Request a free demo today to get started.

 

#6 – HotSchedules by Fourth — Best Labor Management System For Restaurants and Hospitality

HotSchedules (now part of Fourth) is a complete workforce management solution built specifically for businesses in the restaurant and hospitality industries.

In addition to employee scheduling, HotSchedules has tools for applicant tracking, onboarding, time and attendance management, manager logbooks, and more.

They even have solutions for inventory management, HR, and payroll.

In terms of the employee scheduling features, here’s a closer look at the top benefits provided by HotSchedules:

• Simple drag-and-drop scheduling tool
• Ready-made scheduling templates
• Reduce scheduling errors, understaffing, and overages
• Limit unplanned overtime
• PTO management and employee availability
• Approve or deny shift requests from any device
• Quick access to your daily roster reports
• Compliance tools for meals, breaks, fair work weeks, and more

Depending on your needs, HotSchedules can be as simple or complex as you want it to be.

You can take advantage of just the employee scheduling tools, or build a robust and custom solution with lots of features and add-ons for your business.

Whichever option you choose, HotSchedules is definitely my top pick for restaurants and hospitality businesses.

Request your free demo to get started.

 

What I Looked at to Find the Best Employee Scheduling Software

Two restaurants in the same city might have completely different employee scheduling needs based on how they operate.

In other words, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution that’s going to work for every business or even business within the same industry.

Keep your daily operations at the front of your mind, and continually assess how each employee scheduling tool maps on to your actual needs.

Here are the key criteria you should use to evaluate the solutions available.

Number of Employees and Locations

A small coffee shop with six employees at a single location won’t have the same needs as a restaurant chain with 500 workers across a dozen sites.

Some software is built to scale, while others are intended for smaller businesses and single sites.

Think about the future of your business as you’re evaluating options as well. While you might only have 50 employees today, how many will you have in six months? 12 months? If you’re scaling rapidly, make sure the software you choose can accommodate your growth.

 

Time Tracking Functionality

Scheduling and time tracking go hand-in-hand for some businesses. Employees need to clock in, clock out, and record their time.

For other companies, time-tracking is less important. Employees are either present for their shift, or not. A simple attendance feature will be all you need.

If time tracking is a key part of how your employees show their work and get paid, I highly recommend getting employee scheduling software with that functionality built-in.

First of all, you don’t have to get a separate time tracking software that may have trouble integrating with your schedule.

This simplifies everything.

It’s even better if your employee scheduling software ties directly into your payroll service, as this will eliminate the process of entering times manually.

With time tracking, scheduling, and payroll all working together, there are going to be fewer mistakes that annoy employees and frustrate managers.

 

Flexible Access

The best employee scheduling software is usually offered as a web-based solution.

You want to make it easy for your staff to access their schedules from anywhere.

This isn’t possible with desktop software.

I also recommend looking for an employee scheduling solution that comes standard with a free mobile app.

Then your staff can essentially carry a schedule with real-time updates on them 24/7.

These apps are great for things like team communication features and push notifications with schedule changes or shift reminders.

Mobile and browser-based access to the schedule is a must if you have employees working remotely or in the field.

And even if everyone is in a single office or restaurant, chances are employees will appreciate the ability to check the schedule or send a message no matter where they are.

 

Industry-Specific Solutions

There are plenty of general-purpose employee scheduling tools on the market today.

But if you fall into certain categories, look for an industry-specific tool.

Restaurants and hospitality industries are two that come to mind.

Lots of software is geared towards these types of businesses because the scheduling needs are more involved in these cases.

If you have the opportunity to use software that’s designed specifically for your particular industry, I tend to lean in that direction as you’re making a final decision.

 

Additional Features and Extras

As I said before, lots of employee scheduling software does much more than just allow managers to post weekly schedules.

The best tools will also have shift swapping, employee self-service tools, HR features, labor cost management, leave management, attendance tracking, team messaging, overtime control, time clocks, etc.

Some extras are definitely more important to consider than others, depending on your business type and needs.

So keep a close on these various options as you’re shopping around.

 

Summary

What’s the best employee scheduling software?

The answer really depends on what you’re looking for.

But regardless of your needs, you can find the right option for your business based on my recommendations in this guide:

Best Employee Scheduling Software

1. Homebase – Best employee scheduling software for small businesses
2. Sage HR (formerly CakeHR) – Best all-in-one HR solution
3. Deputy – Best for time and attendance management
4. ShiftNote – The simplest employee scheduling software
5. Shiftboard – Best for labor cost management
6. HotSchedules by Fourth – Best labor management system for restaurants and hospitality

 

Just refer back to the methodology I described earlier to simplify the buying process. This will make it much easier to narrow down your options.

Source: feedproxy.google.com

How to Use AI to Bolster Your Customer Journey

 

Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could skyrocket your lead-to-sales conversions to new heights?

Most business owners struggle with this.

Data shows that a whopping 79% of leads never convert to sales.

This highlights how challenging it can be to move leads through the customer funnel journey.

The good news is, Artificial Intelligence (AI) can supercharge your customer funnel journey to help you get more sales.

AI will efficiently weed out your low-quality leads and eliminate repetitive, time-consuming tasks, allowing you to focus on higher-quality and converting ones seamlessly.

AI will help your brand grow by preventing your leads from falling through the cracks at each stage of the customer funnel, which increases your sales-ready prospects for conversion.

Read on to learn more about how you can use AI to bolster your customer funnel journey.

 

Customer Funnel Journey: What is it?

A customer funnel’s structure and components can vary depending on the company or industry, among other factors.

The standard customer journey funnel stages can include:

Awareness.

This stage focuses on raising awareness for your brand and sharing information about your value with your target audiences.

Interest.

Here, your leads learn more about your business, products, and services.

You can introduce your positioning and capture leads by encouraging signups to your email newsletters (among others).

Consideration.

In this step, engage your leads actively by delivering personalized messages that reinforce your brand’s benefits.

Provide specific information to overcome objections and qualify your leads.

Evaluation.

Your prospects start showing interest in your products and services at this phase, deciding whether to buy from you or other brands.

Highlight why prospects should choose you over your competitors to make them stick.

Conversion.

After your leads convert to customers, market your onboarding materials, deliver messages celebrating their decision, and assess satisfaction levels.

This stage is also a great time to run your upselling and cross-selling strategies.

The customer funnel can show you how your leads interact with your brand and where they fall off.

This helps you refine and improve your strategies to keep your leads moving through each stage until they ultimately become paying customers.

A well-defined customer funnel journey helps you optimize your lead capture, engagement, nurturing, qualifying, and converting efforts.

It also informs your strategies to help you create immersive and memorable experiences across devices, channels, platforms, etc. that make your leads stick and convince them to become loyal clients.

 

The importance of using AI in the customer funnel journey

It’s time-consuming and labor-intensive to establish an effective customer funnel journey.

However, AI can do the heavy lifting for your sales and marketing teams through automated methods, such as autonomously identifying more qualified leads quickly.

This reduces the strain on your resources and your teams avoid needlessly chasing less-qualified leads.

AI can serve as your company’s sales and marketing virtual assistant by handling repetitive and tedious tasks.

This frees up your teams so they can focus on more meaningful, higher-level, and revenue-generating work.

The technology can also reduce human error and work 24/7, optimizing your lead engagement, nurturing, and qualifying efforts.

Through machine learning technology, you can “train” your AI to respond to conversations and events the way you would.

Your AI can learn from lead interactions and data, and the more input it accumulates, the more it can optimize its functions and responses on its own.

 

Ways to leverage AI in each stage of the customer funnel journey

Below are several ways AI-based technology can boost your customer funnel journey.

Streamline your lead generation efforts

The customer funnel journey typically begins with raising brand awareness, and this is where a lot of manual work is done.

For instance, you’ll need to build and design campaigns to tailor them to potential customers who haven’t heard of your products and services before.

This includes creating content such as blog posts, articles, lead magnets (ebooks and whitepapers), and website content (among others) to raise brand awareness and capture leads.

However, the content creation process can take a huge amount of time and resources — unless you use an AI-powered platform that can automate your content creation process.

This is where Broca comes in handy.

Broca provides a deep learning AI platform that generates content for your marketing and sales needs in a flash, saving you from the resource-draining aspects of building content.

If you’re creating content for all your campaigns, Broca delivers by instantly generating the content, from ideation to distribution, for your website and marketing channels.

First, provide a campaign brief (in a few sentences) describing your campaign and where you want to direct your traffic, such as your blog post or landing page.

Image source: usebroca.com.

The platform then creates core messaging based on your campaign brief, giving you three key benefits of your brand, an enticing value proposition, and a killer headline.

You can validate and modify all these with your team before proceeding.

Image source: usebroca.com.

Finally, Broca creates promotional content out of your core messaging, providing you with brand-aligned and ready-to-distribute emails, ad copies, and social media posts.

Image source: usebroca.com.

The platform creates your marketing and sales content across channels, which helps ensure your content and messaging remain consistent throughout the customer funnel journey.

Broca also streamlines creating Google ads by analyzing your current ads and generating new suggestions, putting your ad channels on autopilot.

A robust AI-based content-generating platform is a game-changer in your content creation for lead generation.

It significantly cuts down on the time-intensive, tedious, and usually complex process of creating effective content by doing the heavy lifting aspects of the process.

With AI under your tool belt, you and your teams don’t break a sweat but still get high-quality, consistent content at a scale that generates significant leads.

 

Automate your lead nurturing and qualifying processes

To get your leads to interact with your brand and guide them to the next stage of the customer funnel journey, you’ll need to nurture and qualify them.

However, the lead nurturing and qualifying process can take up plenty of time and energy that your sales team can optimize better to implement strategies to close deals.

The solution?

Delegate your lead nurturing and qualifying initiatives to a reliable virtual sales assistant.

If you want to take things a step further, use an AI-powered sales assistant.

One such solution is Exceed.ai.

Exceed.ai is a powerful virtual sales assistant with conversational AI that works alongside your sales and marketing teams to nurture and qualify your leads.

It helps you move your leads along the customer funnel journey until they are sales-ready.

Exceed’s AI-driven platform uses a conversational bot and machine learning technology to provide your leads with highly personalized and contextual interactions.

It uses AI to deliver human-like responses and follow-ups via chat and email, automating your lead engagement, nurturing, and qualifying processes.

First, it engages your leads through your web or chat-like forms through personable interactions.

Here’s an example of Exceed’s AI-generated email, in this case, from their own email marketing operation. (It’s always a good sign when a company uses its own product and Exceed does all of its lead nurturing via their AI assistant.)

The virtual assistant then assists your leads by answering questions, dealing with objections, and responding to their requests while simultaneously gathering data for your Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

Next, it implements automated nurturing and uses intelligent follow-ups to move your leads through the customer journey funnel stages.

The VA acts as a virtual Sales Development Representative (SDR) by validating your leads based on the previous and current conversations and your Sequence or Playbook (more on this later).

Finally, after the VA qualifies your lead, it hands over your sales-ready prospects to your human sales representatives for closing.

It can automatically book a schedule for your leads based on your sales reps’ appointment availability that you and your team configure within the Exceed.ai platform.

The AI-based virtual assistant handles the entire process, from engaging your leads to handing them off to your sales reps.

This saves your team tons of time and energy while ensuring you generate, nurture, and qualify your leads effectively.

Another key Exceed.ai feature is Sequences.

Sequences serve as your playbooks or campaigns with pre-built, customizable chat and email templates.

Each sequence for every campaign includes guided templates for many use cases, such as getting your lead’s attention, engaging them with a product intro, and handover chats or emails.

Customize the template or build one from scratch to set the automated responses your Virtual Assistant sends out for every sequence in your campaign.

All these features streamline your lead interactions as they move along the customer funnel journey.

With AI-led lead nurturing, your sales and marketing teams spend minimum effort and time on your lead nurturing and qualifying processes.

They can divert their resources to closing sales instead, boosting your business’ sales performance.

 

Improve customer conversations when closing sales

Not all prospects end up converting even when they made it as far as one-click or a conversation with your sales reps away from becoming a closed deal.

This makes it crucial to ensure your sales reps can skillfully and effectively steer the conversation so your prospects successfully convert into customers.

Here the Cogito, an AI software enters the scene.

It uses real-time emotional intelligence software and incorporates machine learning with AI. It can analyze voice calls between your reps and prospects (or customers).

The software is primarily designed to augment your call center and sales agents with an AI coaching system.

For instance, if your reps speak too fast during a customer call, Cogito sends a prompt alerting them to talk slower and pace how they speak.

Cogito’s technology combines speech analytics and conventional sentiment with proprietary voice insights, which can help your sales reps spot opportunities on the fly during prospect and customer conversations.

Cogito’s AI coaching software detects and measures the customer’s sentiment by:

• Using AI informed by behavioral science and machine learning to uncover over 200 voice signals, revealing how speakers feel.
• Uncovering trends, patterns, and problems through data compiled in many conversations over time.

It can be almost impossible to detect by humans alone.

Cogito also provides an automatically generated experience score that alerts your agents of the customer’s sentiment in real-time, helping them adjust their speaking style accordingly.

 

Enhance customer loyalty and retention

It can take less of your resources to retain existing customers than convert new leads, making the loyalty stage a critical phase of your customer funnel journey.

AI can help you retain and establish loyal customers through machine learning technology that automatically displays highly personalized right before and after-sales offers.

For instance, AI-based Ecommerce website software integrations can help you build, upsell and cross-sell strategies automatically.

 

This can enhance your customer’s shopping experience further seamlessly while increasing your average revenue per buyer.

These tools can use machine learning and algorithms to deliver relevant and automated cart recommendations without requiring you to pre-set or configure anything.

In a nutshell, using an AI-driven platform that can seamlessly provide supplementary and interesting product offers tailored to each shopper boosts their customer experience.

This leads to a memorable experience with your brand, encouraging repeat business, nurturing trust, and in turn, increasing customer loyalty.

 

Start optimizing your customer funnel journey

AI-based software are powerful tools that can significantly reduce and streamline your busy-work tasks, enhancing the process and experience for your teams and your customers.

The right AI-driven platforms can help ensure your leads avoid slipping through the cracks as they move through each stage of the customer funnel journey.

These tools can help optimize your strategies to effectively convert your leads into paying and loyal customers.

While investing in tools with AI capabilities might not be cheap to start, the benefits can far outweigh the costs, and you will end up with seamless and efficient lead conversion processes in the long run.

The post How to Use AI to Bolster Your Customer Journey appeared first on Content Marketing Consulting and Social Media Strategy.

Source: convinceandconvert.com

How to Create a Lead Generation Minisite in 3 Steps – Tips & Tools

 

Do you have a long list of domains you never had time to create a website for?

Who doesn’t, right?

Here’s an idea for at least one or two of those: set up a lead generation website.

I have an SEO background, so in most cases, my advice would be: keep everything on your main site.

Don’t dilute the brand.

 

Why Do You Need a Separate Minisite for Your Brand?

Yet, there are several reasons why you may want to set up a separate minisite for your brand.

These reasons include:

For personal branding reasons.

Ok, I have my business and my main site, but what do I do with myname.com domains which I rightfully registered so no one else would?

Should I just keep it empty?

I don’t have time to maintain another site!

That’s when a one-page “portfolio” style website makes total sense.

When you need to take an extra position in SERPs.

This makes sense for brand-driven search results.

Google will usually grant you one — maximum of two — positions when people search for your name in combination with another term, but, obviously, you’d want to control more of those search engine result pages.

Let’s say people are searching for something like [your-name coupons], there will be lots of third-party (affiliate) sites that will potentially drive those customers away by showing your competitors or showing ads.

So grabbing a separate domain, like your-name-coupons.online and curating the most recent special deals of yours would give you more control of that search.

When you are launching a completely different project.

I am an SEO and suddenly decide to write a book on being a mom.

It is a good idea for me to register a domain (which would match my book title) to start collecting leads for my future book independently of my main business.

In all the above cases, getting those sites to rank and drive some organic visibility will be quite doable.

When it comes to personal brand or brand-driven queries, all it takes is to set up a minisite and link to it from your main site.

That being said, keeping all links and brand exposure consolidated around your main site is obviously smart, yet there are many cases when you need a separate entity.

On top of that, you are likely to be busy and cannot spare much time for your new site, so let’s keep things easy.

How to Set Up a Mini Lead Generation Site

Here’s how to set up a mini lead generation site:

1. Pick a Domain

This step is getting harder and harder now that it is becoming next to impossible to find an available .com domain that wouldn’t be all dashes.

I’ve got good news for you:

There are lots of options beyond .com domains, and all of them are equally effective.

There’s a cool tool that will help you pick a great domain and even help with branding.

Namify is what that tool is called, and it’s a time saver!

The tool allows you to find a cool brandable name in minutes. Unlike other domain name generators, it focuses on short names that create niche associations and are easy to remember.

You’ll love those ideas.

 

On top of that, Namify will draft your visual brand identity (logo and color scheme) for you to use right away:

2. Set Up Your Site

When dealing with a secondary asset (which is not your main site), the easier the setup, the better.

With that in mind, I suggest using WordPress, which makes it incredibly easy to create a website.

Here’s a detailed beginner-friendly guide on making a WordPress site.

All you need is to follow the steps.

And here’s a huge collection of one-page WordPress themes (both free and paid) which are easy to customize to match your chosen color scheme, logo, or your main brand.

There are tons of one-page WordPress themes to choose from.

Once the basic setup is done, it is time to create your content.

To make it easier, try running Text Optimizer for your core search query — it basically writes content for you.

I use Text Optimizer to create the core structure of my page: the subheadings, introduction and key points to be covered.

After that, I write my text.

This has been the biggest writing productivity booster I’ve ever tried.

Since this is going to be a website focusing on collecting leads, using Text Optimizer is a great idea because it is also an intent optimization tool that makes sure your copy meets your site visitors’ expectations and hence increases the conversions.

3. Set up Your Lead Generation Funnel

Finally, setting up a clear lead generation funnel is something you will be focusing on.

Obviously, you will need to keep experimenting with your CTA wording and placement, here but here are a few ideas for you to get started:

3.1 Set up your lead generation forms

Setting up a lead generation form doesn’t require any technical skills these days.

Here are a few easy-to-use online form builders you can use to create a form to collect leads from your site visitors:

Don’t be afraid to gamify your lead generation web forms and make them fun!

3.2 Implement secondary engagement triggers

No matter how cool your web forms are going to be, the majority of your site visitors may feel wary of giving you their email addresses.

Some people may be in a hurry; others may not have enough trust in your brand.

Regardless of the reason, these people may be willing to convert a bit later.

So coming up with additional engagement triggers is helpful:

• Install Facebook pixel to be able to reach out to those visitors through Facebook ads
• Try using a smart chatbot or feedback widgets to get those people to talk to you without sharing their personal details. This may encourage them to follow your conversion funnel on a later basis.
• Use more traffic-driving conversion optimization tactics to engage more of your site visitors. Remember that certain conversion optimization tactics will also improve your rankings, so it is well worth the effort.

3.3 A/B test often

Again, this is going to be an ongoing process: When it comes to generating leads, there’s never “good enough.”

You need to experiment with new engagement triggers and change your forms on a regular basis.

This is where A/B testing to identify your better-working tactic is always a good idea.

I know lots of marketers who shy away from A/B testing because it is deemed too technical.

Finteza is a web analytics tool that makes A/B testing easy and available to anyone. Here’s how to run A/B tests using Finteza.

Conclusion

If setting up a minisite to claim your old but neglected domains have been on your mind for quite some time, I hope this guide will finally get you up and running.

I did my best to make it as easy to follow and implement as possible.

When it comes to lead generation, every bit helps, and who knows, maybe this site will drive some great leads.

The post How to Create a Lead Generation Minisite in 3 Steps – Tips & Tools appeared first on Content Marketing Consulting and Social Media Strategy.

Source: convinceandconvert.com

Why Is My Organic Traffic Down? Here Are 4 Things to Check

Before you rush to find a new agency to try and figure out what happened, here are 4 ways to diagnose a decline in organic traffic.

Do you see a negative trend in your Google Analytics account?

Are you wondering why your organic traffic is down?

Is this time to panic?

Not necessarily.

Before you rush to find a new agency to try and figure out what happened, here are 4 ways to diagnose a decline in organic traffic.

 

First Things First: Which Page is Declining in Traffic?

So you see some unfortunate trends on your overall Google Analytics reports.

How to tell what exactly is being affected?

For that:

1. Login to your Google Analytics account and click Acquisition -> All Traffic -> Channels -> There select “Organic Search”
2. Select the time range (if the trend is most recent, the 7-day time frame would work best)
3. Check the box that reads “Compare” to and keep the “Previous period” option there intact
4. Click to “Landing Page” and scroll through the results

Now that you know which page needs your attention, go ahead and run some checks.

 

1. Check Which Search Queries Have Been Impacted

Google’s Search Console will be able to help you identify your most impacted search queries:

1. Login to your Google Search Console account and proceed to the “Performance” report
2. There, again, select the timeframe and choose to compare it to the previous period:

Next:

1. Click the “Pages” tab and click the page you identified in step #1 above
2. Go back to the “Queries” tab and sort by “Difference”

You only want to pay attention to your top 10 rankings, as nothing else was driving many clicks, so you can also sort results by the number of clicks the page was generating during the previous period.

This task would be much easier if you were tracking your most important search queries.

In that case, it would just take one click to your tracked #1 positions.

Site Checker does a good job saving your time here:

 

2. Check SERPs Changes

The good news is you are not alone.

There are at least 9 more pages ranking for that query as well as many other search features that may start stealing your clicks.

So next steps are:

Search for the identified query on Google.

Is there a new search element you didn’t see before?

Examples of click-stealing search elements include featured snippets, image, and video carousels, etc.

Don’t forget to search on both mobile and desktop devices.

Check the recent SERP movements.

Again, a solid rank monitoring solution should come with a comprehensive SERP monitoring feature.

Here’s one Site Checker is equipped with:

SpyFu comes with that feature as well, so if you were not tracking your keyword check if SpyFu has records for it:

If you notice a competing page that is confidently moving up, check it out.

Is there link-building or content tactics that may be moving the needle?

 

3. Check If Anyone Else Is Experiencing Anything Similar

Are you alone in seeing some unusual organic traffic fluctuations?

A few quick resources to check here are:

Search Engine Roundtable:

Barry does an awesome job monitoring all the active discussions across SEO forums and on Twitter.

If there’s anything going on, you will definitely see him reporting here within hours.

Barry’s Twitter account @rustybrick is another source to watch as sometimes he shares stuff on Twitter that didn’t yet make it to his blog.

Knowing that there’s an update going on will help you understand whether it is anything that needs an immediate fix.

If there’s a global update going on, you will need to give it some time.

Things take time to stabilize, and there’s never anything urgent.

 

4. Audit Your Content

First things first: Is the information outdated?

In many cases, this is the first thing to look at.
Can it be expanded?

As Google is moving to seek better answers to more specific questions, it is always a good idea to edit your content to cover more related angles, questions, and concepts.

More importantly, is the page doing a good job satisfying a searcher’s intent?

Keyword intent optimization will boost both organic rankings and conversions, so it is a must when auditing content that is losing rankings.

Commercial (or purchasing) intent is something you need to look out for. Lior Krolewicz of Yael Consulting explains purchasing intent as:

a measurement of the likelihood that a given individual will be purchasing specific goods or services at some point in the future.

Optimizing for what your potential site user intends to do on that page is crucial.

To help you expand your copy as well as optimize for search intent, use Text Optimizer.

The tool uses semantic analysis to help you discover related concepts and entities to be covered in your content for it to do a better job to address a target query:

To start, run your current content through Text Optimizer and see your current score.

Aim for a score of 60 and higher for better results.

Also, make sure your grammar is always perfect.

There are a lot of tools that can help to see your errors, illogical constrictions and make your speech smooth.

 

Conclusion

Organic traffic fluctuations are normal and need to always be expected, so really the most important tip here is “Stay calm”.

Once you notice something going on, give it a couple of days and then look into that.

Auditing traffic declines can be done at home, so save yourself some time and money and look into that using the steps above.

The post Why Is My Organic Traffic Down? Here Are 4 Things to Check appeared first on Content Marketing Consulting and Social Media Strategy.

Source: convinceandconvert.com

Best Time Tracking Software

Why is time tracking still a source of stress for employees, supervisors, and management? There are only two reasons, really. They’re not using time tracking software.

Or, they’re using a solution that doesn’t fit with their business.

There is no third reason.

I can say that with total confidence because there are so many good time trackers to utilize.

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

Because no one should suffer any longer, I’m going to share the top five-time tracking software options on the market today.

The Top 5 Options for Time Tracking Software

• Clockify – Best Reporting Features
• Time Doctor – Best for Employee Monitoring
• Toggl Track – Best for Holding Everyone Accountable
• TSheets – Best for GPS Monitoring
• Tick – Best for SMB Time Management

How to Choose the Best Time Tracking Software for You

If you have searched for time tracking software before, there’s one thing you’ll notice right away.

All of the popular products deliver way more than simple time tracking.

Trying to keep track of all these additional features would be difficult, but they break down into four highly-recognizable areas:

• Scheduling
• Reporting
• Accounting
• Monitoring

Does your time tracker need to be connected to some or all of these areas?

Finding the best time tracking software is about knowing how you want it to sync with your business. Let’s dive into the core features in each area.

Scheduling

When employees clock in, time tracking software automatically logs their hours. In most cases, users fill out a timecard that says what project or client they are working for.

All of that information gets tracked in a timesheet.

In this example, the timesheet from Clockify shows how all the time entries are automatically mapped out over the week.

Some time tracking software comes with built-in scheduling tools that allow you to assign shifts and alert users when there’s a change in plans.

Time tracking software that’s light on native scheduling features usually has tight integration with the best project management solutions.

Look for the product that has what you need out of the box or connects with the tools you already use to manage your schedule.

Reporting

Time tracking software will let you monitor productivity and forecast budget problems well in advance.

The products I like pull all your data into clear visualizations.

In this example from Toggl Track, it’s easy to see how work is progressing and the impact that has on revenue:

Good tracking platforms also let you drill down into each client, employee, and project’s specifics.

The more advanced tools will let users and administrators add more detail, but all of the products on this list come with tools to help you stay on budget.

Accounting

A lot of companies use time tracking software to streamline payroll and invoicing. By integrating with services like Quickbooks and PayPal, these tools can handle the job in a few clicks.

You can forget about long spreadsheets and good ol’ human error. Whenever you generate an invoice or make a payment, there’s a clear record of the work that was done.

Monitoring

Some time tracking software comes with monitoring features that let you check up on employee productivity.

These include location-based monitoring—such as GPS tracking—which ensures that employees are supposed to be.

Time tracking software can also be downloaded to a specific tablet or desktop that serves as a time clock kiosk.

Like a punch card system of old, the kiosk lets employees enter a PIN or takes a picture to prove they clocked in on time.

There are also digital monitoring aspects to time tracking software, which can record the websites and applications a user visits while they are clocked in.

Some products also take screenshots at random intervals to ensure that people are staying on task.

One quick, important word about monitoring and tracking software.

Before you deploy your new solution, have an open conversation with employees about what’s happening and why. Find alignment in the fact that tracking and monitoring will protect employees as much as the company.

The Different Types of Time Tracking Software

Time tracking software really breaks into two separate categories. One important thing to note is that both types of software have integrations for payroll and billing.

Time Clock Software

If you are looking for a basic time tracking functionality, time clock software is a good place to start.

These are great products for companies that need to track remote workers, as they can clock in the right from their phone.

For consultants, freelancers, or small business owners who really need to keep track of billable hours, time clock software can be a solid, cost-effective solution.

Project Management Software

Once scheduling and reporting features are added to time tracking software, it becomes a powerful tool for project management.

Premium subscriptions for products like Clockify are going to come with everything you need to plan, budget, and execute a project. Others, like Tick, work best when integrated with tools like Basecamp, Trello, and Asana.

Working time tracking software into your project management workflow can be a huge time-saver, and it gives decision-makers excellent insight into productivity.

#1- Clockify — Best Reporting Features

Clockify is a wonderfully simple solution for time tracking and project management. The free version is generous, and its paid plans are very reasonable.

I really like Clockify because it is easy for users to get a bird’s eye view of their time entries for the day, week, or month.

Once they clock in—they can do it anywhere—they see a complete list of their time entries.

From there, they can easily check if anything is missing or incorrect. Without opening a new window, they can edit times and additional information or tags to projects. They can also use the timesheet to confirm that everything is correct each week quickly.

The reporting features in Clockify are quite good, bolstered by users’ ability to put so much information into their timesheets.

Administrators can get a real-time view of project budgets and see exactly what each person is working on.

There are many different reporting filters available to slice the data. However, you like. Get a quick read of how things are progressing for every individual, team, and client.

Clockify is loaded with features to help users stay on track like:

Idle detectionTime auditRequired fieldsAlertsBulk editOffline mode

The free version of Clockify allows unlimited tracking, users, projects, and reports. It has all the great viewing and editing capability that make Clockify easy to use.

The paid plans, which are still a bargain, come with features that give administrators more control over who can see what and advanced alerting and reporting features.

Here’s a breakdown of the Clockify pricing:

• Plus: $9.99/month
• Premium: $29.99/month
• Enterprise: $9.99/month per user

Integrations with Salesforce, G Suite, Freshbooks, and more than 50 other web apps make it easy to use Clockify for scheduling and payroll.

Shortlist Clockify if you need a budget-friendly time tracking solution with beneficial reporting features.

It’s not at the ERP software level, for sure, but compared to other time tracking software, Clockify is fairly robust and really easy to navigate.

#2 – Time Doctor — Best for Employee Monitoring

Time Doctor has rich monitoring features. It’s a full-service time tracker that you can use for payroll and project management, but where it really steps away from the competition is the employee monitoring.

Once employees download Time Doctor, they create tasks and begin tracking time. Supervisors can see what tasks people are working on and get insight into mouse and keyboard activity.

They may also enable screenshots taken at random intervals to confirm people stay on task.

Website and app monitoring is another beneficial facet of Time Doctor for both users and supervisors. You can quickly generate reports that show exactly how much time each person is spending on a website or application.

For supervisors, reports surface unproductive behaviors. With Time Doctor, you can set automatic alerts when users spend too much time on problematic websites and apps or block them altogether.

Moreover, users can better understand their work habits and where they are losing time.

There’s a lot more than just monitoring features included with Time Doctor, as it can handle:

Timesheets & payroll project management & budgetingOffline time-tracking productivity analysis daily, weekly, monthly reports

Pricing for Time Doctor breaks down as follows:

• Basic: starting at $7/month per user
• Standard: starting at $10/month per user
• Premium: starting at $20/month per user

There is no free version of Time Doctor, but you can sign up for a 14-day free trial.

#3 – Toggl Track — Best for Holding Everyone Accountable

Toggl Track has a surprisingly feature-rich free-forever version. For a freelancer or a consultant, this free time clock software can be used to track and invoice all their billable hours.

It’s an excellent app for personal accountability. There’s an idle detector, automated reminders, and Pomodoro timer to maintain focus, which may change the way you work forever.

For teams, the paid plans are a little more on the expensive side, but that is because it can collect and report so much information.

I especially like Timeline, Toggl Track’s background tracking feature, which records time entries for any app or website you use for more than 10 seconds. It’s an easy way to see how you’re really spending your time, and you can configure alerts to suggest tracking for specific actions, such as every time you join a certain call.

Automated alerts let you know when projects are nearing their estimated completion or are in danger of running over budget.

You can also automate email reminders for users who aren’t tracking their hours.

Toggl also has a handy time auditing capability that helps you detect incorrect or unassigned time entries.

Some of the other features that help users save time include:

• Time tracking across all devices
• Chrome and Firefox browser extensions
• Team access levelsProject templates
• Google Calendar integration

Like time audits and being able to set required fields, some nice features are only available with paid subscriptions of Toggl Track.

There are three tiers to choose from:

• Starter: $9/month per user
• Premium: $18/month per user
• Enterprise: Contact Toggl sales for a custom pricing plan

The appeal of Toggl is that it really helps people hold themselves accountable. Between automation and robust monitoring, everyone is reminded of how they are spending their time.

#4 – TSheets– Best for GPS Time Tracking

TSheets is a great choice for employee payroll, especially if you have many people working in the field. It’s a favorite for property developers, construction companies, and other field service-oriented businesses.

It’s wonderful for shift work and salaries, but the GPS tracking features are where TSheets shines.

Employees clock in from the mobile app, and managers can see exactly where they are in the Who’s Working window.

You can use geofencing to set specific areas for employee clock-in, and they can upload pictures and a digital signature to confirm that everything’s done.

The real-time GPS data is also a boon for company coordination.

Quickly figure out who’s closest to the job-site for optimal deployments. Any changes to the schedule will trigger alerts to let everyone involved know about the new plan.

Some of the other convenient features include:

• Drag-and-drop scheduling tool
• Time clock kiosk
• Facial-recognition time clockOvertime tracking
• Reporting and forecasting
• Alert by text, email, or push notifications

TSheets has dozens of integrations on its App Marketplace, but I want to note that Intuit makes Quickbooks the same company. So, if you are using Quickbooks, know that TSheets is going to plug right in.

Pricing for TSheets is very reasonable:

• Premium: $8/month per user, plus $20 base fee
• Elite: $10/month per user, plus $40 base fee
• Premium doesn’t have geofencing, digital signatures, and advanced reporting features, but it has literally everything else.

In terms of a project management app, TSheets doesn’t let you get too granular, but you’ll be a master of the entire platform within a week. There’s not a lot of education needed for workers to use it, which makes getting buy-in a lot easier.

#5 – Tick — Best for SMB Time Management

Tick is project-based time tracking software. It integrates nicely with tools like Trello, Asana, and Basecamp, helping managers keep projects on time and budget.

In Tick, you create projects made up of tasks. Then, employees select the appropriate project and task, entering time from their desktop, mobile device, or even their Apple Watch.

You can set budgets for individual tasks within Tick, so managers have a better idea of where time is being lost within the larger project.

You can also create recurring projects, which can close at the end of the month and auto-duplicate for the next one. This is great for individuals and companies that use retainers or provide routine services for their clients.

The reporting capabilities in Tick are helpful for budget analysis and forecasting. Searching through data is really easy, by the client, employee, project, or billable versus non-billable.

A lot of users like Tick’s auto-fill search because they don’t have to browse for what they need.

Quite simply, Tick simplifies time management. With very little work on the user-side, those in control of the budget can make decisions based on accurate, real-time information.

Other key features of Tick include:

• Set running timers
• Assign people to projects
• Chrome extensionInvoicing and payroll integrations
• Easy-edit time entryBulk move time entry

A word about these last two features: It used to be that Tick’s editing time entries were a real pain. They’ve since updated it so you can edit time directly in reports and move all entries from one task or project to another.

Tick pricing is based on the number of projects you can create:

• 1 Project: Free
• 10 Projects: $19/month
• 30 Projects: $49/month
• 60 Projects: $79/month
• Unlimited Projects: $149/month

With every tier, you get unlimited users, clients, and tasks. It’s super affordable for any business.

I mean, if Tick saves you 2 hours, it’s already paid for several months of service.

I recommend this product to teams using Trello, Asana, and especially Basecamp, which has really tight integration. It also integrates with Zapier and more than 750 other web apps.

There’s a 30-day free trial of Tick. If you think it could work for your business, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.

Summary

I don’t like just to hit expectations; I always want to over-deliver.

But my work has to be on time and budget. It’s impossible to sustain a consistent level of service without a clear sense of how my time is spent.

The same holds for both blue-collar moving companies and white-shoe law firms. Time is money.

Take control with time tracking software.

Individuals and small businesses should check out Clockify, Tick, and Toggl to see how far they can get with a free forever product.

Looking at those three options and thinking about larger teams and paid plans, Clockify is going to offer the best in-house reporting features. This can be really helpful for teams that are trying to track revenue and expenses across many projects.

For time management, SMBs are going to find that Tick has everything they need within an intuitive interface. It delivers a similar experience as Toggl at a lower cost. Choose Toggl if you want employee monitoring features, which you won’t get with Tick.

If you really need robust employee monitoring features, Time Doctor is the product for you. You get a lot more insight into how users spend their time than you will with other time tracking software.

In the field, TSheets outperforms the competition. The GPS tracking features work beautifully, and the mobile app keeps remote workers up to speed.

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3 Key Reasons to Use Augmented Intelligence Tools in Digital Marketing

Do terms like “AI” and “machine learning” make you think of robots and science fiction?

These technologies are being used everywhere, and the age of AI is already in full swing.

AI and technology offer a solution to inefficiency. Deloitte has shown that 83 percent of early adopters of AI and cognitive technologies achieved either “moderate” or “substantial” benefits.

AI is somewhat part of augmented intelligence tools’ technology, but how is it used in marketing right now?

What is Augmented Intelligence?

Gartner defines “augmented intelligence” as “a human-centric partnership model of people and artificial intelligence working together to enhance cognitive performance.”

What that means is that augmented intelligence isn’t just about creating super-smart machines. It’s about creating technology that can help you and your brain do things better.

Augmented intelligence is sometimes also called intelligence automation (IA).

How is Augmented Intelligence Different From Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

Artificial intelligence is all about computers making decisions. But augmented intelligence is about you making better decisions, with the help of a computer.

Let’s dive into some specific examples so we can see how this works:

Artificial Intelligence Examples

Artificial intelligence operates on its own, without help from humans.

That might make you think of autonomous killer robots, but the reality is usually a little less exciting.

Ever used a grammar checker tool? Lots of those use AI to give you more sophisticated grammar recommendations.

Even Google Docs uses an AI grammar checker. Google’s engineers train the model using correct sentences. It’s then able to predict whether sentences are correct or incorrect on their own, without needing to be programmed with every single grammar rule.

Know where else Google uses AI? In its search engine algorithms.

Updates like RankBrain and BERT have brought AI to the search engine, and SEOs have needed to update their strategies accordingly with AI SEO.

Augmented Intelligence Examples

Now that we’ve seen how AI is used, how is augmented intelligence used? How are its applications different from AI?

Augmented intelligence is a pretty general term. You can use it to talk about basically any machine that helps humans enhance their capabilities and make better decisions, even something as simple as a compass or telescope.

But in practice, augmented intelligence is usually used to talk about automated systems that need direction or input from humans to function. Augmented reality tools, like Google Glass, are just one example.

Augmented intelligence can be used in a bunch of different fields. It can support financial professionals in making regulatory decisions, or help health care professionals make medical decisions.

The augmented intelligence tool gives recommendations, and then the human makes the final call. Feedback from humans helps the tool to learn and grow continuously.

Why would you want to use augmented intelligence when you could use “true AI?” Well, augmented intelligence allows us to do more with the technology we currently have, without needing to wait for AI to advance.

It also adds a human element to the decision-making process, which can be helpful for complying with regulation in some industries. Plus, with augmented intelligence, we can take advantage of new technologies while also continuing to use human talent.

But the best thing about augmented intelligence? When humans and machines work together, they can achieve better results than one or the other working alone.

For example, an experiment by a team from a Harvard Medical School hospital at the Camelyon Grand Challenge showed that an algorithm could accurately detect breast cancer 92% of the time, while a human pathologist accurately detected it 96% of the time. When the pathologist worked together with the algorithm, the results were accurate 99% of the time.

Overall, augmented intelligence is just a different philosophy that can help us get the most from AI, without needing really sophisticated capabilities.

How Can Augmented Intelligence Help Your Business?

The truth is, augmented intelligence can do huge things for your company.

There are tons of different ways to use augmented intelligence. There’s probably an IA application out there that can help you streamline and improve every single area of your business.

Here’s an example: Augmented intelligence can help you sell things online.

Think about the last time you thought about buying something online. What were some reasons you might have hesitated before making a purchase?

You might not want to lay out money for certain items before trying them out in person. Furniture, glasses, clothes are examples of products users want to see how they look up close before you buy.

Enter augmented intelligence. With augmented reality (AR) applications, your customers can “try on” things virtually. Even if they’d prefer to shop from home, they can still get a feel for your merchandise.

Want to know how this works in practice?

Check out some of the companies using augmented reality to sell furniture (Wayfair), glasses (EyeBuyDirect), and makeup (MAC Cosmetics).

To use the virtual try-on tools, you can upload a photo or open your webcam, and the tool will show you what the product looks like in real life.

But sales aren’t the only area where augmented intelligence can help your business.

Want to make your product safer? Car companies are already using augmented reality to help drivers spot dangers on the road and avoid looking down at their phones.

Want to thrill your customers with a cool new feature? Google did that when they introduced internet searchers to AR animals.

You can improve your customer service with augmented intelligence, too. Chatbots can help answer some more straightforward customer questions, freeing up more time for your human staff. IA can also help support your customer service reps when they need more information to help customers.

Finally, just like with sales, product, and customer service, augmented intelligence tools can take your marketing efforts to the next level.

Here are three crucial reasons why you should use augmented intelligence tools to supercharge your marketing.

#1 – Augmented Intelligence Creates Positive Customer Experiences

If you use augmented intelligence to create an extra cool or innovative product, your marketing will basically be halfway done for you. An awesome customer experience pretty much markets itself. Just look at all the videos people have made about Google’s AR animals:

Check out all these articles people have written about Wayfair’s augmented reality feature for furniture:

If you make something interesting enough, you might end up getting lots of new backlinks and traffic without even trying.

Besides creating new product features, you can also improve your customer experience with augmented intelligence in other ways.

For instance, customers are more likely to be satisfied if they can get their questions answered faster with technology like automated chatbots, as mentioned above.

You can also use augmented intelligence to help personalize the customer experience. An example of this would be user recommendations. You’ve probably seen these on YouTube on the right-hand side:

And on Amazon as suggested product examples:

These websites use algorithms to make recommendations based on the videos you’ve already watched or products you’ve already shown interest in. When you click on a recommendation, you’re sending a signal to the algorithm that the recommendation was relevant.

Recommendations help you offer a better experience by helping your customers find things they might be interested in. They are also a way to convince customers to stay on your website for longer.

#2 – Augmented Intelligence Can Reduce Busywork

Another major reason why companies are interested in automation is that it saves time. According to WorkMarket’s 2020 In(Sight) Report, over half of employees think they could save 240 hours every year through automation.

IA can help your marketing department save time in lots of different ways. If you’re currently using data for strategic planning, augmented intelligence tools can help.

You can use these tools to help clean data sets, forecast future trends with predictive modeling, or even keep an eye on competitors, social trends, and customer feedback. This can help you create more effective marketing plans more quickly.

If you decide to use augmented intelligence in your marketing, you won’t be alone. According to a Forrester report, 46% of respondents say that marketing and sales teams are leading AI adoption.

It’s no wonder marketers are excited to adopt this technology. Hubspot found that using AI software cut the time one agency spent on reporting by 97 percent.

#3 – Augmented Intelligence Can Help Write Content

Here’s another way that augmented intelligence can help with your marketing: It can help you write better content, faster.

If you’re a marketer, you know that writing quality content takes serious time and effort.

A survey by Orbit Media Studios states that the average blog post takes almost four hours to write. That’s actually a 63% increase over 2014 when the average blog post took just under 2.5 hours.

If you’re wondering why the writing time has gone up so much, it’s because Google’s algorithm updates have started to favor long-form content.

Besides the actual writing, researching, adding photos, and publishing also take up lots of time, not to mention content planning and SEO.

Augmented intelligence can helpfully write text, but it can’t add much research, facts, or emotions to it.

AI’s writing style can be a little different from what we’re used to, so it needs human polishing.

That’s an excerpt from an article written by an AI, published in The Guardian.

As you can see, AI can write sentences, but you might need to edit or adjust them to fit your content needs.

Even if you don’t want a robot to write your articles, you can still use augmented intelligence tools to help you in your writing. Spelling and grammar checkers, like Grammarly, are a good example of this.

Augmented intelligence can also help you create better content by coming up with more relevant topics for your audience.

If you’re using augmented intelligence for data collection and analytics, you can use the knowledge you gain from that to help you write more data-driven, personalized content.

If you want to do a content audit to review the content that’s already on your website, augmented intelligence can help with that, too.

Augmented Intelligence is Becoming the Norm

It looks like AI, and automation in general, are here to stay. McKinsey predicts that “half of today’s work activities could be automated by 2055.”

With “AI’s adoption increasing year-on-year,” marketing departments are leading the charge.

Augmented intelligence offers the perfect approach to AI, because it’s all about pairing AI’s strengths with human strengths.

Conclusion

As a marketer, you’re all about staying ahead of the competition.

To do that, you’ll need to have the best tools, including artificial intelligence.

However, a lot of people are skeptical about AI. In fact, research by PwC shows that 67% of CEOs think AI and automation will have a negative impact on trust in their industry over the next five years.

With augmented intelligence tools, you don’t have to rely on AI alone. Instead, you can use AI’s strengths and human strengths together to get better results.

If you’ve already started using augmented intelligence in your marketing, or if you’re thinking about using it soon, tell us about your experience in the comments.

The post 3 Key Reasons to Use Augmented Intelligence Tools in Digital Marketing appeared first on Neil Patel.

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Tips And Tricks On Making The Most Of Your Time

Time is money, especially in today’s busy world. If you do not know how to manage your time, you won’t have enough time for what is really important. If work consumes the majority of your time, your personal life is sure to suffer.

Keep the deadlines that you set in mind at all times.

If deadlines always creep up on you, it has the potential to throw your whole day off. But if you make deliberate progress every day for tasks with a deadline, you’ll do better work and feel more relaxed.

Make an honest assessment of where your time is best spent.

Think over each task and how long it will take and then tell yourself what time that task should be done by. This will go a long way toward time management and improving your quality of life. If you find yourself with surprise pockets of free time, apply them towards enjoying yourself or catching up on anything you’re behind on.

Each day should start with a schedule.

If you know what you need to do as your day begins, the chances are better that you’ll achieve your goals. Check the agenda carefully to make sure you aren’t overbooked.

Focus on specific tasks if time management is hard for you.

People who multitask end up lowering their quality of work. Trying to complete all your tasks at one time will simply exhaust you and leave you feeling like there’s not enough time to finish anything. Make sure to take breaks in between each task.

If you are having trouble with time management, step back, and look at how you are going about things. Are you able to focus? If not, why? To achieve wise time management, you must determine your present level of productivity.

If you’re finding time management difficult, plan your days in advance. This can be through a future to-do list done at the end of a workday or a more in-depth plan of action. It will help you to stop worrying about it and start the new day ready to go.

Practice prioritization throughout each day.

If you’re not careful, you can spend the bulk of your time dealing with matters that aren’t ultimately important. Put strong effort into tasks that really need to get done. Consider keeping a list of every task you hope to get done, and then organize them by the level of importance.

Think about the way you use your time now.

Consider the wisest use of your time. Check your messages on a regular schedule – not every time one comes in. When you fall into these interruptions, you won’t get your tasks done.

First thing in the morning, think about what you need to accomplish for the day. Use some paper and a pen to determine what you are going to do, and how long you’ll do it. Having a schedule every day will allow you to use your time better.

Do not hesitate to shut the door to your office if necessary in order to get more work done. An open door tends to invite folks in to chat. Signal your need for privacy by closing your door. People realize that you need to concentrate in order to finish your tasks on time.

Unless it is absolutely necessary for you to do so, don’t answer the phone, a text message, or instant message when you’re doing something else. It’s going to prove difficult to refocus on your initial task after the interruption concludes. Just let things go to voicemail, and return calls or take care of texts once you have a free moment.

Keep your focus on the task at hand.

Don’t get distracted with items that interrupt your tasks. People often hand you more tasks when you’re still not done with one and demand you to finish the new one first. Don’t enable this hijacking of your time. Finish your task before you take on more of them.

Time is not something that should be wasted.

This is even more so when the time wasted eats into your ability to rest and relax. Proper time management is critical if you would like to live a great life. Use what you’ve just learned to get what you want out of life.