Why Having a Hobby Is Great for Business
Prioritizing a hobby might seem impossible when you’re focused on running a business, but it can actually benefit both you and your work. Hobbies enhance creativity and innovation, allowing you to approach your business with fresh ideas. They also relieve stress, improve mental well-being, and offer networking opportunities, where you can meet new people and potential clients. Engaging in a hobby helps develop new skills, from problem-solving to time management, and can even validate new business ideas. You
Christine Metcalf
How to Get More Love for Your Business on Social Media
Social media is becoming more and more frustrating, right? If you have used it to connect with your audience for ten years or so, you undoubtedly have seen crazy changes in your reach. If you’re new to the social media for business scene, reaching 2% of your audience probably feels pretty normal. But if you’re not reaching your audience, how are they going to know who you are and all the wonderful things your business can bring them?
Christina Metcalf
The Missing Key That Could Help with Employee Retention
While benefits are an added cost for businesses, not providing them could impact employee productivity, satisfaction, and retention. It’s not an easy call as you’re considering your offerings but this survey underlines how important benefits are to employees regardless of the size of your business.
Christina Metcalf
The 5 Most Common Mistakes Email Marketers Make
In email marketing, avoiding common pitfalls can significantly enhance your engagement rates. This blog identifies five critical mistakes often made by email marketers. First, using generic sender names reduces open rates; a humanized or brand-specific sender name is crucial. Second, failing to clearly identify your business in the email confuses recipients, diminishing effectiveness. Personalization, such as using the recipient’s name, is a simple yet often overlooked strategy to grab attention.
Christina Metcalf
Is Teaching the New Gold for Small Businesses?
Creating an educational component to your business can be a valuable addition to your marketing strategy. If done thoughtfully, it offers opportunities for revenue, brand building, and customer engagement. However, it's important to carefully consider the time, resources, and marketing efforts required. By evaluating your expertise, understanding your audience, and setting clear goals, you can make an informed decision about whether to move from doer to teacher.
Christina Metcalf
Breaking the Burnout Cycle for Small Business Success
Your mental health is an investment in your business’ greatest employee—you. It is not an expense. By prioritizing your emotional well-being, you're safeguarding your own health and setting your business up for long-term success as you are modeling the type of behavior that will make your company culture a more productive and happy one.
Christina Metcalf
Is AI Ushering in the Death of the Blog?
If you’ve ever spent any time creating or consuming content, you have either written or read a piece that proclaims some marketing trend is dead or something is “king.” Be it a social media platform, marketing activity, way of doing things—one thing is always going out of fashion, and something is lauded as taking its place. This article is no different. Today, we’re asking the riveting question—Are blogs dead (or dying) and can we blame AI? Of course, I had to turn to AI for the answers. First, let’s see
Christina Metcalf
Fast-Track Trust: How to Win Customers Quickly
Trust is the cornerstone of customer relationships, driving sales and fostering loyalty. Yet, building that trust swiftly, especially in a competitive landscape filled with countless options for consumers, can be hard. Establishing credibility and rapport takes time and effort. (It’s the one thing you can’t buy at Costco.) But strategic actions can accelerate trust building. By focusing on transparency, communication, and consistently exceeding expectations, you can cultivate trust quickly and effectively.
Christina Metcalf
Feeling Stuck? Try These Content Ideas for Small Businesses.
Content helps you connect, right? It gives insights into your business, your personality, and your culture. But boy, can it be draining. And as awesome as AI is there are only so many times you can ask it for blog ideas for the exact same audience before it starts to sound the same. So where do you get new content ideas and inspiration to attract and retain customers? And how do you keep your content fresh and relevant? Let’s dig into some sources and strategies to generate, curate, and hybridize content
Christina Metcalf
Digital Etiquette Tips
Internetting ain’t easy. There are all sorts of digital quagmires we get ourselves into putting words onto a screen and hitting send or post. It’s a tricky time navigating communication across the digital world. Since Emily Post is busy sorting out which fork goes where, it’s time we turn to her predecessor “Emily Posted,” your digital etiquette guru. Here are her top suggestions for better relationships in the virtual world.
Christina Metcalf