What are the 5 Types of Outsourcing?

adminBusiness, Startup

Nowadays, entrepreneurs and companies rely on outsourcing to cut operational costs and focus on growing their business.

If you are planning to seek outsourced help, learn how outsourcing works and what outsourcing model will give you the best benefits. The general rule is to define outsourcing based on the job to delegate and how the result will be delivered.

The most common outsourcing models are as follows:

Project-based Outsourcing

These projects have well-defined requirements as well as deliverables. Companies outsource them to a dedicated team that can deliver excellent results without disrupting the regular tasks of their staff.

Staff Augmentation

Companies often outsource help because they need a skilled workforce that can work part-time. This model is usually utilized by companies who offer add-on services like outsourced customer experience support services to expand their business.

Managed Services

This outsourcing model is commonly used to hire IT, HR, production, or daily operational support. The managed service provider (MSP) assumes the responsibilities of monitoring, problem- solving, or handling specific backend office functions.

Contracting or Out-tasking

In this model, the company transfers a specific service or process to its outsourcing partner. Meanwhile the out-tasking involves licensing, where the partner gets permission to use the intellectual property of the company. Another means is through contracting, where a third-party supplier manages a set of processes or performs a group of tasks for the client. It can be in a yearly, monthly, weekly, daily, or hourly basis.

Offshoring

This involves relocating the dedicated resources to another country where skilled and professional workers can be hired at lower compensation. It allows the foreign company owners to maintain full control over the process and delivery of services. It also opens up accessibility to new market and opportunities.

These outsourcing models provide flexibility and optimum growth opportunity for your business. To ensure the success of outsourcing your projects, choose the best-outsourced partner or BPO company in the Philippines.

Brand Awareness – Best SEO Benefit for a Startup

adminSEO, Startup

Search Engine Optimization may be a foreign language for many startup entrepreneurs. If this is the first time that you are learning about SEO, then you better know the benefits that you are getting from it. It is important to understand that it is not a marketing cost. Rather it is part of your investment in your company.

As a business owner, you naturally want increasing sales. Not just a one-time luck, but a steady flow of increasing sales for your venture. SEO helps you get those sales coming from the interest. It is undeniable that most of the people now are using Google to find the services and products that they need.

Nowadays, businesses do not look for customers. Buyers look for products and services online and compare them before making an actual purchase. If your target market can’t find you online then you are invisible to them. Imagine people just walking pass by your store.

If you have a startup, you better have a functioning website. Not only a website with beauty, it must be an optimized website that the search engine can put in its index.

Let’s assume that you are selling a shaving cream that has the best quality in the market. You can’t rely solely on your family and friends to do word of mouth for you. You need a website that will come out of Google’s first-page result when people search the term “shaving cream”.

How can you convince Google that your website is the best answer to the inquiry of “shaving cream”? You have to use SEO. SEO does not only make sure that the target keywords are present in your website. It strategically makes your website genuinely useful for your target audience. Google loves helping searchers and with SEO, you can make your website the place where people can get what they need when they want it.

SEO will help you focus on your target market and their user experience. Once you can this done, be ready for the outpouring sales.

 

What Exactly is Search Engine Optimization?

adminSEO

Search Engine Optimization is usually defined as a set of systematic marketing strategies that makes your website land on the first page of Google or every search engine. It is not magic – it is purely driven by data, analytics, and tests.

It is not a one size fits all marketing, the set of strategies that is effective on one company may not be as effective on another.

It is a continuous process

People change and so are your target customers. You may be raking sales from people you are finding you on Google, but tomorrow may be another story. Google and other search engines update their algorithms more than a hundred times a year. It will be helpful if Google announces every time there is a change, but usually, SEO experts will just be surprised when they suddenly lose their rankings.

From there, they will start analyzing data again, tweak the link building and SEO strategies and conduct testing before they can get the website rank again. This may take hours to weeks (or even months). Add to that, customers also frequently change their shopping behaviors. In the past they just use Google, now they also use social media to look for products. Add to that, they are now shopping with smartphones.

SEO experts adapt to changes based on the data and analytical tools that they use. This is to make sure that you are visible online whether it is in search engines or on social media.

SEO makes evergreen results

Since SEO experts use information and tools, they also know how to make your website adaptable to changes. While there must be some tweaking to be done, there are benefits that can last up to years. If done properly, your SEO ranking can stay even for years to come.

This is because Google and people have begun to trust your brand. If you are able to become the thought leader in your industry, you will surely rank for a long time as people will search for you first should they need to know information about things related to your niche.

Roles of Data Entry To Your Business

adminBusiness

Business owners believed that data entry specialist is one of the essentials in a company. But as far as the other employees, and start-up founders is concern, this job is not limited. Data entry is vital when it comes to managing and updating your company information, for the clients and potential customers to get in touch with you, in case you have a new trunk line or physical address.

Aside from helping you to lessen your administrative work, they can help you in various ways such as the following tasks and responsibilities:

Uploading content and images to the website as soon as the developer has implemented the mock-up design for the client you cater. Gather and collect data like physical address, contact number, contact person, and email address for your lead process.

Keeping and laying out all the information from your survey forms. Maintain clients’ record as well as your partner companies with accurate data. Schedule your social media posts answering inquiries, and providing complete product details to potential online customers.

Compile an inventory list for the products and suppliers you have and how much revenue you have generated in a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis. In addition to that, having a data entry specialist in your company makes transferring of data into digital storage, forms possible and easy. Whereas, these data are useful when you’d like to run a digital marketing campaign.

They can conduct a quick competitor analysis for you to know if there are features within your business need improvements, and identify the missing factors that hinder you from outperforming your competitors.

Discussing the roles of data entry is endless, vague and surprising. You just have to decide on how you can take advantage of it, and believe in the capabilities of specialists to help you build a better business.

Millennials Are Perfect In Outsourcing for Startup Companies

adminStartup

Millennials are not job-hoppers, impatient and they are not fond of micromanagement. They’d like to work on their terms, they feel bored and stuck in an office set up working for 8 hours straight.

60% of Millennials are open to new opportunities and prefer to strike while the iron is hot. This makes them perfect in outsourcing, as they are more than willing to work in a contract, short-term jobs with a flexible schedule. Similarly to being their own boss and working on a flexible schedule with multiple clients.

Moreover, the unemployment rate of this generation has increased up to 12.8% that makes them struggle to nail a job. As it turns out, they are taking advantage of applying to any remote jobs and side gigs to make ends meet and to have a better life.

In addition to that, Millennials are explorers and hungry for success. They are prepared to do whatever it takes just to find ways to adapt to a new workflow in outsourcing, improve their skills and most importantly widening their networks for more job opportunities.

As they build their skillsets, start-up companies now prefer to hire millennials as part of their outsourcing company. Then offer the generation a salary increase once they have proved their worth.

These philosophies and challenges, millennials are going through lead them to apply in outsourcing companies, as their way out of poverty.

In this generation, they just have to keep themselves motivated at all times, and keep their eyes on the goal. Since not all generations were born equal, it’s just a matter of who influenced them and stick to their goal to be financially stable.

3 Logo Design Tips for Small Businesses

adminWeb Design

Your company logo will be your customers’ first impression of your brand. It is a big part of your visual branding and will appear everything from your physical store and products to your website and social media ads. Simply, it is your company identity. It can make or break your potential customers’ view of your company or brand.

With this in mind, you would think that most business owners will give a lot of thought to their company logo. However, you will be surprised by how many small business owners don’t put as much thought into it. Unless your business belongs to the graphic design industry, it is best to leave it in the hands of a professional graphic artist.

Avoid the temptation to create your own logo or insisting on everything you want to your graphic artist if you are not well versed in this field. There is no shortage of professional graphic artists that you can hire for this task. After all, an effective logo takes professional skill to create.

It is important to consider the message your logo will be sending. Make sure that you are able to communicate what your brand is and who is your target market so the artist can visualize it perfectly in a logo. Here are some tips that you can discuss with your graphic artist.

Font

If you want your artist to include text in the logo, avoid highly stylized fonts. Small business owners’ mistakes include using fonts that are difficult to read. If the customers can’t read your logo, then they will not remember or recognize your name.

Simplicity

Simple logo works best. If your logo is complex, the potential customers will have a hard time knowing what your company actually does. Photo studios can use camera motif logos while flower shops can use floral themes.

Avoid wrong impressions

Make sure that the logo will not be misinterpreted. There are times when certain designs can be seen in different ways. As soon as the graphic artist is done, ask other people for their opinions.

Steps to Achieve Your Digital Marketing Goals

adminDigital Marketing

Goals are the keys to success. It serves as roadmaps that bring quick business growth. For digital marketers, they are crucial components that measure how effective their marketing campaigns are through social media channels. In the world of digital marketing, the rise of followers is significant as well as the brand attention that they receive.

Essential Steps to Achieve Digital Marketing Goals:

Step 1: Define your goals

If you know what you want, you win half of the battle. To quantify the success of your digital marketing initiatives, it is important to set clear goals. What do you want to accomplish in a month, a year, 5 years, or 10 years? What is your standard of business success? Your answers are the basis of the strategies that you are going to set up and the metrics that will measure success

Step 2: Establish Metrics

When you establish your metrics or the key performance indicators (KPIs), be specific as possible. It should be measurable, achievable, and realistic. Digital marketers usually look at the Google Analytics to determine the performance of their websites. The analytics show your website’s audience, the content’s performance, and the sources of the existing website traffic. These factors are necessary to your digital marketing activities.

Step 3: Review Your Previous Marketing Strategies

Analyze your previous digital marketing campaigns. Study the current size of your market. Are you ready to level up and offer products to more customers? What are the strengths and winning points of the old strategies? You can integrate them into your new strategies or innovate to gain more profits.

Step 4: Assess the Resources

Resources involve budget, team, and the digital marketing channels. How much can you allocate for the new digital marketing campaign? The budget determines how far are you going to promote your brand. Check which among the digital channels deliver your expected sales and profits. And finally, create a team that will work on the new strategies.

Step 5: Make a plan

Make a written plan for your marketing campaign. Write down your goals, KPIs, and the steps that you and your team will follow. Make a baseline report to gauge the results.

Step 6: Execute your digital marketing strategies.

Everytime you implement your strategies, make sure to measure with analytical tools to know which part to tweak and which works as expected.

Qualities That Digital Marketing Leaders Must Possess

adminDigital Marketing

Digital marketing leaders are responsible for developing and overseeing the marketing strategies of a business from the start to finish. They also act as key contacts in every digital marketing campaigns of the company. With many hats to wear in the highly complex and evolving field of digital marketing, it is vital that anybody who handles this department must possess excellent traits such as:

Tech Savvy

This is a given qualification considering the fact that digital marketing is rooted in technology. They must be tech savvy and knows how to utilize various online platforms to bring in sales and profits. It is vital that they know everything about CRM, loT, ESP, CMS, DMP, and other functions of the systems they use to provide services.

Business Acumen

Digital marketing leaders should know how business operates as a whole, not only the marketing aspect. It is an advantage if they have a degree in business or other related courses and obtain professional experiences that will help them in the job.

Analytical

Marketing strategists use their left-brain more often, thus their uncanny ability to ask critical questions, spot trends in data, put systems in place in measuring success, and lay out the key indicators of performance. Digital marketing leaders create test plans using various channels, know how to sift through numerous data before the procurement of what is essential, and everything about finance-related metrics.

Bilingual

In digital marketing, being bilingual means the ability to explain technology and marketing strategies articulately to people who are not familiar with the concepts. Outstanding leaders can speak in a language that everybody understands.

Digital Channel Savvy

They know how to utilize the online marketing channels using the best techniques to execute their strategies. They can build a multi-channel ecosystem that supports the companies’ marketing goals and overall business operations.

Creative

Creativity is a defining factor that makes leaders stand out from the rest. The innovative, highly creative digital marketing leaders can quickly design strategies that give their companies edge on the competition. They know how to create systems using today’s technologies and make great impacts that promise potential growth not only now but in the future.

And most important of all, great digital marketing leaders not only change the economic environment of the business but also train others to do the same.

5 Basic Web Design Skills Small Business Owners Should Know

adminWeb Design

As an owner of a business owner with a limited budget, you may have to opt to create your own website as a start. However, creating your company website can be overwhelming with hundreds of themes and tools to choose from.

If you don’t know where to start, here are the basic skills that you have to learn first.

  1. Changing a typo/text/etc.

As simple as it may seem, many business owners couldn’t change a simple typo. You may be able to hire a web developer to put up your website, but they can’t do every single typo correction forever. As a website owner, you may want to do some minor changes in text, captions or fonts. You can do it yourself if you actually know how to do it. Spend some time learning how to tweak your website’s content.

  1. Posting a blog article

Many companies who want to be established as the thought-leader in the industry keep informative and helpful blogs for customers and visitors. Some would post a new article every day, others post every week, while a handful would post every month. No matter how frequent you want to make a blog post, it is important to know how to do it yourself. How will you put the article, featured image, date and even edit your desired URL may be simple but important skills.

  1. Posting a YouTube video

Videos are powerful content that you can use in your homepage, product pages, and blog posts. Knowing how to put it in your website is a skill that is easy to learn, yet many are still not capable to do. With videos, more visitors will stay longer on your web pages and this will help your website rank in Google.

  1. Uploading a photo

Photos are important on every webpage. Whether it be a homepage or a contact page, you must be able to know how to upload the photos and how you will position it on a page. Remember that photos can make or break your web design. You must learn how to properly upload your photos on the right page at the right spot.

  1. Rearranging a webpage

There are various themes with different designs that you can choose from. For expert webmasters and web developers, they can rearrange the whole website in just a few minutes. Rearranging can depend on what seems to be the most effective way to convert sales.

How to Build a Startup Online Business From Scratch

adminStartup

People used to think that you have to be rich before you can build a business. The truth is you don’t have to be filthy rich to start a business from scratch. The idea of starting a business must not scare an ordinary person especially if there is a bright idea that needs to be made into a reality.

If you have a business idea that you want to work on to earn a fortune, here are some tips to get started.

Start with what you currently have.

We are now in the 21st century. Money shouldn’t be an excuse. No matter how little you have, you can still build your investment. Start by brainstorming on your business name. Find a freelancer who can create you a logo or create it yourself if you have a flair for art.

Get a domain name for the site from Godaddy and get a cheap hosting. You need a website to start having an online presence. Work from home, but make sure to have a good internet connection.

Follow systematic routines.

To be on the right track, you need to psych up yourself. Own the feeling that you are now an entrepreneur. Start a business routine and stick with it.

Join groups

You may start a sole propriety, but you must not forget to make connections in your industry. Join groups, attend organization events and be active in forums. People who have been longer in the industry can share a lot from their experience. You will not only learn, but you will able be motivated.

Identify your problems

Though you may need a lot to have your online business operational, you must make a list to be organized. You will not be able to find a solution if you do not know the real challenges.