Selling online How to make the most of your digital sales strategy

Selling online How to make the most of your digital sales strategy by Michael Cheary Looking to make more of your sales strategy? It’s time to go digital…As the number of digital tools and online sales platforms continues to grow, constructing a clear digital sales strategy is becoming crucial in helping businesses get ahead â€" not to mention make more money. And whether you’re looking to move up in your digital marketing career, develop your own business, or build an essential skillset to break into the industry, your approach is key.To find out more, we spoke to Nell Campbell of the Learning People, one of the UK’s biggest providers of digital qualifications, who gave us her top tips on how to improve your digital selling:Don’t forget about the messageEven with the best digital tools the market has to offer, your sales strategy will fall apart without a clear and compelling message, especially if they’re lacking the right Calls-To-Action (CTAs).Don’t get us wrong, what you write should always be effectively tailored to the c hannels you’re working with â€" but if you haven’t got your copy right you’re only setting yourself up to fail. No matter what medium you’re using to push it.Build the message first â€" then choose the right tools to help get it out there.Stop ignoring social mediaYour social media channels say a lot about you as a business.Not only are they often the first impression your clients get of your organisation, they’re also a great way to actively start engaging with your audience.Carry out an audit of your current social channels, clean out any unprofessional elements, and start learning how to leverage the features and functionality of platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to directly reach customers and generate leads.And with research suggesting that 82% of prospects can be reached via social media, ignoring them means you could be missing out on a large chunk of your prospective audience.Start listening to your customersSocial media shouldn’t just be about sellin g.There are a vast array of social listening tools out there that can help you find out when your products or services are being spoken about online, and really drill down into what people think about your brand.Keeping tabs on what people are saying will also allow you to engage better with your current customers, monitor complaints, make improvements, and even discover and approach those that are yet to interact with your brand.  Make the most of your CRMUnderstanding your CRM and its capabilities is a huge part of digital selling.And, with the right level of integration with your other channels, you’ll be able to deliver shorter sales cycles, increasing your sales opportunities and helping you build better relationships with your customers as a result.Just make sure you know the operational side of your CRM tools before you start, and how it fits with your current way of reporting. Extracting and acting upon these insights could revolutionise how you operate as a sales person.T rack your progressAnalytics should be at the heart of everything you do on your digital channels.Whatever activity you run, ensuring the right tags (e.g. GA, Webtrends) are put in place will help determine what works and what doesn’t, and help you optimise towards your best performing content.And, never underestimate the importance of proper targeting. Setting clear objectives from the beginning, and using KPIs and other key metrics to monitor success, is the only way you’ll be able to align your digital sales activity towards your business objectives.Get a comms plan in placeFinally, the proof is in the planning.Coming up with an effective content calendar is vital to increasing your digital sales potential. It’s also a great way to make sure all of your channels aren’t working in isolation.Plan everything that’s going out on each channel, include timescales, and ensure the message is consistent throughout. Then plan how you’ll keep engaging with your customers, through out the sales cycle as a whole.Remember: there’s more to effective selling than simply taking people’s money…Keep evolvingStill not sure you’ve got the skills?From digital techniques to industry trends and best practices, a professional diploma in digital selling will give you everything you need to refresh your skills and expand your market reach.Trusted by the experts at Apple, Facebook and IBM, the syllabus covers:Social media researchCommunications planningDigital sales messagingEngagementSocial account managementCRMDigital sales leadershipIntergrationIf you’re ready to take your career to the next level, find out more about a digital marketing diploma now.The Learning People are one of the UK’s leading eLearning providers, specialising in world-class certifications in project management, IT and digital marketing.  To find out more about getting certified, talk to the Learning People today.Find a job What Where Search JobsSign up for more Career AdviceSign up for moreCareer Advice Please enter a valid email addressmessage hereBy clicking Submit you agree to the

The Importance of Online CV Writing

The Importance of Online CV WritingAn online CV is perhaps the most effective tool that you can have to promote your career in the current market scenario. It helps in putting you on the right path and ensures your success. However, if you are employing a skilled and talented CV writer, your job may be easy. The following article provides some valuable tips that will enable you to select a writer for your CV that can meet your needs.Firstly, the writers should understand your needs and don't suffer from your requirements. You should understand your CV as well. That way, you won't have to pay high prices for the services of a sub-standard CV writer. Your CV should also reflect your interests and talents.Write and construct your CV from scratch. Allowing a CV to be printed or typed is not a good idea. The online method of printing CV's is far more preferable. Print out your CV at least a year before you apply for a new job. This will ensure that you will be in a position to produce a h igh quality CV that will impress your prospective employer.A CV should be created according to the specific requirements of a certain job. Different jobs require different CV formats. You must select a template that will assist you to complete your desired CV form quickly and efficiently. Take help from the CV builder that is available with online CV writing.Many people have found that online CV writing saves time and money. Online CV writing provides an opportunity to learn more about this career skill at a reasonable cost. If you cannot get the kind of help you need from a professional, you can easily start a CV writing business and make easy money out of it.If you do not know how to create a CV, you can search for free templates that you can use for creating a CV. Once you have a free template that suits your needs, you can then download and print off the CV that will impress your future employer.Finally, it is imperative that the CV you make use of for creating it is easily down loadable. This is essential for putting it on the CV writer website. If the software is free, your chances of making a lot of money by marketing your CV are much higher.You can expect a lot of advantages from a quality online CV writer. Selecting a CV writer that meets your requirements is no different from doing research before appointing any person to deal with your financial affairs. Choose a professional that can effectively bring out the best from your skills and talents.

Yahoo kills telecommuting. Three cheers for Marissa Mayer!

Yahoo kills telecommuting. Three cheers for Marissa Mayer! Thank goodness someone finally had the courage to stand up and say that telecommuting is officially banned. Because telecommuting has been implicitly banned for a long time in Silicon Valley, but only Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has the courage to say it, point blank, without apology.  And her honesty is going to help all of us. Telecommuting has been dead for a while. Facebook has something called lock-down, where no one can go home. Kids come to Facebook if they want to see their parents. Really. Which means that Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has also been promoting the end of telecommuting, but its actually more difficult for her to come out and say it when she is also championing the cause of women and encouraging them to lean in and have kids alongside a huge career. Both Mayer and Sandberg really want women to succeed in business. They dont want affirmative action for women. Mayer and Sandberg have young kids and they are giving up their time with their kids in an extreme way so that they can run big, important companies. The message here is that if you want to work at a company where people are doing big and important things, you have to give up everything. Its okay to say that. Sandberg and Mayer are giving up everything so why cant they ask that of everyone else? Telecommuting is for people who dont want to give up everything for their company. Mayer doesnt want to work with people like that. Companies move more efficiently if everyone is at the office. The reason flexible jobs are hard to find is that most companies demand that you show up and put in face time at the office. We have been clamoring for ages that women want flexible work, but companies dont want to give flexible work. (In fact, women are so fed up with the lack of flexible work that they are starting businesses at a higher rate than ever and Forbes called entrepreneurship the new womens movement.) The Harvard Business Review combines easily-found data to show that innovation happens faster if people work at the same office, and company culture is easier to control and more energizing if people share physical space. Also  face-time is linked to higher performance, which is linked to the idea of propinquity, the word to describe why people work better if they are in the same room. If you are near someone, you get along with them better. Its how human beings workits part of our social DNA that goes back millions of years. We understand each other if we see each other, which makes sense since we read so many nonverbal cues.   So people who are physically together are more efficient, more productive, and more innovative than people who are not physically together. This is the type of data Mayer is relying on to justify her demand that people work at the office. Sure, there is data that individual workers are more productive if you let them handle their personal life with flexible work. But there is also evidence that top firms dont need to accommodate those people. In Silicon Valley, home to Facebook, Google, Airbnb, none of most desirable companies make room for a personal life. They dont have to. They have plenty of people hoping to give up their whole life to the company. Telecommuting encourages a less dedicated workforce. The poster-child for flexible work is Deloitte. Vice chairman, Cathy Benko, wrote the book on flexible work, literally, and Deloitte even goes so far as to do consulting for other companies on how to make flexible work for women. But lets be real. Deloitte is a consulting firm, which means people with power and big careers there must travel. A lot. And they are flexible for the sake of the client, not for their employees kids. If you want to telecommute at Deloitte, your career is on a slow track. Its an alternative career. People telecommute so they can decrease the conflict between work and personal life. Brigham Young University shows that people can work sixty hours a week as a telecommuter and still maintain low conflict in this area because of the flexibility that telecommuting enables. Mayer doesnt want to work with anyone who is working sixty hours a week. She is in Silicon Valley where an 80-hour week is full-time and 50-hours is part-time. In fact, women who have taken the mommy track at big law firms have been saying for a decade that at top firms, 50 hours is a part-time week. This is true of startups as well. I have written before that the reason women are not startup founders is that startups require 120-hour workweeks. When I cut back at my own startup to 60 hours a week, my co-workers talked about how I had basically quit working. CEOs should get to choose who they work with. If you want to have a slower career, you deserve to be able to make that choice. But you shouldnt get to work with people who are giving up everything for their job. Its not fair. Of course its fine for you to leave work to eat dinner with your kids and put them to bed. Actually, I think its really nice. But its not fair to go home to your kids at 5 pm and start working again at 9 pm when your co-worker has been at the office those five hours. Your co-worker deserves more than that. Who do you know who has given up more of their life for work than Marissa Mayer? I cant think of one other person, actually. She was renowned as one of the hardest workers at Google, where hundred-hour weeks are de rigeur. And she is renowned for being the only CEO in US history to deliver a baby while running a Fortune 500 company. Marissa Mayer can tell anyone that they are not putting in enough hours. Shes giving up everything for work, she has a right to demand that her co-workers do the same. This is true for most firms where A-players work. People who want to be top in their field want to work with other top players. That seems fair. The future of work is better with Marissa Mayer running the show. Mayer is more honest than everyone else. The workforce divides into two sides: people who try very hard to decrease the conflict in their life between work and home, and people who try very hard to get to the top of the work world. You cant do both.  You know that, you just dont like that Mayer is institutionalizing it. Once we get honest about what you need to do to get to the top, we can start having a real discussion about how to make choices in adult life. The reality of todays workforce is that if you want to have a big job where you have prestige and money and power, you probably need a stay-at-home spouse. Or two full-time nannies. Which means most people dont have the option to go on the fast track, because most people have not set their lives up this way. So lets just admit that most of us are not on the fast-track. Stop bitching that people wont let slow people on the fast track. Stop saying that its bad for family. Its great for family. It means people will not continue operating under the delusion that you can be a hands-on parent and a top performer. People will make real choices and own those choices. This is true for men and women. There is no longer a gender divide at work. The declaration that Yahoo no longer allows telecommuting is monumental because Marissa Mayer smashed the last shard of the glass ceiling. Today anyone can rise to the top if they give up their life to do it. Women graduate college at a higher rate than men  and women earn more money than men. Until there are kids. Then women slow down.  By choice. Women tend to start slowing down at work around age 28  in order to be done having kids by the time they are 35. Generation Y women are well aware of this, and the pattern is so ubiquitous that business schools unofficially let women in earlier than men because women need to finish working at full-capacity so early in their career. Which means the top performers at work are mostly men. But its not a gender thing, its a time thing. Thats what Marissa Mayer is saying: dont think about coming to my company unless youll give everything for your job. Mayer is not saying parenting is bad. She is saying she doesnt want to work with hands-on parents. But look at the CEOs of any Fortune 500 company: they rarely meet anyone who is a hands-on parent aside from their spouse. Hands-on parents dont exist at the top of the Fortune 500. People still have lots of choices, you just cant have everything. Family historian Stephanie Coontz writes that todays workforce is so demanding that families can only handle having one person in the workforce. She shows how the average work week does not allow for people to take care of children, which means that one partner needs to drop out of the workforce and take care of kids. The Harvard Business Review reports that if someone works 60 hours a week, they are three times more likely to have a stay-at-home spouse. This workplace shift has already happened. Mayer is just forcing us to admit it. If you want to parentreally be there for your kidsthen you need an alternative career track. You can telecommute, you can work part-time, you can freelance, you just cant work with people who dont need those same accommodations. So today, people have choices, people have more control over their lives than ever, and people have good information to make intelligent decisions. Mayer is forcing you to make hard decisions. You dont like that. But dont blame her.

Inspire, Inform and Instigate - Three Is of Vibrancy - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Inspire, Inform and Instigate - Three Is of Vibrancy - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Every day that you are granted the privilege of waking up, you are presented with a myriad of choices. Yet, there is one constant. From the richest person to the poorest. From every corner of the planet and right down to your desk, or hammock or wherever you decide to conduct business. Everyone starts out with the same and equal amount everyday. Deciding how to make the most of this constant is what helps you Stand Out in Your Career. If you havent guessed by now, Im talking about time. Everyone gets 86,400 seconds every day. Using them wisely can make a difference in your life and for those around you. When you get really good at using them wisely youll find your reach goes far beyond your immediate sphere of influence and can have an impact in far off places. Those are very good days. The 24/7 lifestyle is NOT a prerequisite You don’t need to be awake or active for each of them. However, I submit you can make the most of your 86,400 seconds if you strive to Inspire, Inform and Instigate… at least a little every day. I consider the act and effort required to Inspire, Inform and Instigate the Three Is of Vibrancy. By doing at least a little of each every day the 3 Is let us know we are alive. The great thing about the 3Is is that they work both on you and with you. There will be times when you are tired and need a boost. You may turn to a friend or a book or something else to get inspired, informed or instigated. There will also be times where you are wound up and ready to deliver the 3Is to yourself, your friends or to the world. And, of course, many times the two are very closely intertwined. Below are a few ways to think about the 3 Is that I hope will help you to Inspire, Inform and Instigate. Whether you are the agent of change or whether you are being acted upon by external forces you need to know that you CAN do at least a little of each every day. Inspire Whether you are being inspired or inspiring others there are amazing and wonderful things happening all around you. If you just take the time to look. Dont just see the world Notice it!  ~Jane Pauley Inform Everything is a Teachable Moment. You know a lot more than you think you do. Share what you know. You also cant know everything. Be curious. Seek knowledge when you can and share knowledge when you can. Leave the world just a little better every day. Instigate If you are feeling stagnant… shift things up. Be an Instigator. Make a change. Be a change agent. If you notice something has become blasé or passé see if you can breathe some life info it. What have you got to lose? The actions you create today may be like the Butterfly Effect  and have a far reaching impact The constant is a benchmark   We get the same amount of time every day. Its a yardstick by which we are all measured. No one gets more and some might get less, but it is our time and our choice. How we use our 86,400 defines us and lets us know we are alive. Take the 3 Is into consideration when you are building your career. The efforts you make today can have a long tail effect. Since no one is getting any unused time back tomorrow, you should strive to make the most of what you have today. How will you Inspire, Inform, and Instigate in your next 86,400 seconds? How about the next 86,400 seconds after that? Think about it. Then lather, rinse and repeat… Do at least a little every day. As you do this you will find that you really will Stand out in your Career and in your Life.

Rezume Guide - What You Need to Know About Rezume

Rezume Guide - What You Need to Know About RezumeRezume is a technology that was developed in collaboration with Microsoft Research that is used to update the Windows registry database of a computer system. It basically takes a look at a Windows registry and helps repair and enhance certain key Windows registry values.Rezume is primarily meant for people who do not have the technical expertise to repair their own computers, but still want to have a safe and efficient operating system and thus Rezume is used to help in large scale installations and modifications to the registry. However, Rezume can also be used by average computer users to make their computers run faster.Although Rezume can be considered as a replacement for a registry cleaner program like RegCure, it does not have any other features and functions that compare to RegCure. This is because the registry of a computer needs some complex and detailed specifications to be repaired and it cannot be effectively handled by ord inary registry cleaners.Rezume is basically a tool that is installed in a computer to give a user interface on how the windows registry should be looked after. It gives you a visualisation of the registry database and lets you easily create and configure repair rules. The editing feature is also fast and easy as it is similar to the editing capability of a word processor.Rezume is like other registry cleaners which use sophisticated scanning algorithms and a virus protection program to protect your computer from errors. However, Rezume has the added advantage of providing a simple and easy configuration tool for fixing your registry. It also contains a power-management feature to stop the computer from becoming slow.The primary function of the registry of your computer is to hold all the settings and information about the devices and applications that are present on your PC. It also stores the settings and options that you have set on your system.The registry of your computer contai ns quite a number of keys that are vital to the smooth functioning of your system. It acts as a central repository for all the data that is entered and stored in the system and therefore, this is the main reason why a registry cleaner program like Rezume is important in maintaining the cleanliness of your registry.To get the most out of the features of Rezume, it is strongly recommended that you go for a free trial version before you download it. The free trial version will give you an overview of the software in terms of what it can do for you.

Reverse Your Thinking about Job Search

Reverse Your Thinking about Job Search Do you understand how employers are filling jobs? Why are there so few jobs posted on-line right now? Why isnt your resume getting hits? To answer these questions, put yourself in the position of a person who has a vacancy on their team. Painful is an understatement. Everyone is probably already working 2-3 jobs within the team. Lean and mean is the new operating standard. When there is one less person, it reallycan havean impact on the whole operation. With so many people out there looking, you would think the hiring manager would just post a job, sift through resumes, interview and hire. Thats not usually the case. They want to hire someone they know or who comes referred. Theres a good post on this topic at CareerRocketeer. What this article points out is that filling a position is about sourcing the right candidates (from a recruiting firms view). The take away is that being a sourced candidate means that you are not a well kept secret internally or externally. People must know what you are good at doing. Coworkers, vendors/suppliers, managers and higher are great places to create this awareness. You need to be well respected in your field and outside. Professional associations, industry groups, community organizations all are great ways to help spread your reputation. What it comes down to is developing a reputation for being very good at something a future employer will need, not something that is obsolete ortoo specific to only one company.

Whats on Your Bucket List - CareerAlley

Whats on Your Bucket List - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. If youre like everyone else, you have a list of dreams that you want to fulfill before you die. For some, its a personal goal, like writing a book. Others want to travel the world, stand on a Hollywood red carpet during a premier, pet a tiger or go scuba-diving off the Florida Keys. There are as many different bucket lists as there are people. The real question here isnt whats on your bucket list; rather, its what are you doing to fulfill those dreams? You need to write down your bucket list and prioritize it in two ways. First, write down things that are easy to start right now, especially things that may take time. Compiling a family history, for example, is a long-term project that is easy to start immediately. The second set of priorities is for things you want to do above all others, even though they are much harder to do right away. Items that involve travel generally take up a large part of this section. Next, create an action plan. A bucket list is useless if you just set it up and look at it. Financing is a big part of this. Leverage your accounting and finance background to determine how to pay for the items on your bucket list. Time management will be another large section of your action plan. Look for ways you can do the inexpensive and simple items now to keep you motivated and excited about doing all the other big things later. Do not ignore personal health in your action plan. It does you no good to put off that big trip to Europe only to find that your health and stamina are not up to the challenge. Share your new plans with the people you care about. If youre married, you will probably include your spouse in these plans anyway, and you may want to create your bucket list as a couple. Dont ignore other people in your life, though. Talk to your children, siblings, dear friends and others about the things that you long to do. This accomplishes two purposes. First, you can get moral support for your bucket list. Second, you never know who can help you fulfill the list items. Review your list on a regular basis. Mark off the things youve done and add new items. Organize your memories of the fulfilled items and think about how you want to preserve them. You could start a bucket list photo album, scrapbook or blog. Think about new things you havent included and how you can put your next major item in motion. Bucket lists shouldnt be static. Record your dreams, prioritize them, act on them, share them and change them. The most important step to creating and acting on your bucket list is to get started now. Time slips past faster than any of us want to admit. Byline:Nancy Anderson is the communities and article Editor for Beyond.com. Nancy has 10 years experience in the online job search business with Beyond. Nancys team produces dozens of articles every month for top internet sites. Follow Nancy and the Beyond team on https://twitter.com/BeyondJobs. This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search. Visit me on Facebook