Monthly Archives: August 2021

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3 Easy Hacks to Grow Organic Searches

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In the lazy waning days of summer, ambitious Freelancers (and we are all ambitious) can implement a few quick hacks to ramp up leadgen and bring fresh possibilities to our sales pipelines. Now is the time to energize your marketing tactics and push to bring in potential clients who have both motive and money to do business. Setting up for a healthy fourth quarter is everyone’s goal, whether your target clients will return to the office soon or delay until January. Freelance consultants would be wise to encourage local organic traffic to their website, that is, site visits that are not prompted by pay-per-click campaigns by way of Google adwords or some other paid advertising service and are made by bricks and mortar businesses in your geographic location. Enhancing your company’s presence in local organic searches is a potentially game-changing inbound marketing strategy for any company and it’s within your reach.

Let’s pause here for a minute and discuss what is known as referral traffic—- it has significant impact. When a visitor clicks a link to move from one website to another, the original site is considered the referrer. The referring site can be a search engine, a social media platform, a blog, or any website that contains links to other websites. So—-the more you post in digital publications, social media sites and whatever online forums, the more your company name and URL will appear in direct searches. A potential client who has your company on a short list for follow-up will probably visit a big search engine and type in your company name to see what comes up. You’ll want to have several impressive postings available.Organic local site traffic is sent from search engines, most often Bing, Google and Yahoo, and is influenced by Search Engine Optimization.

The better your website ranks for descriptive keywords common in your product or service category, the more readily will your business appear in local organic searches. Big businesses have the advantage, but small and mid-size companies should nevertheless strive to be found. Your digital presence, bolstered by relevant keywords, including long-tail keyword phrases that impact the increasingly important voice searches, will eventually produce an increase in your website’s local organic search traffic and improve your positioning in search results. Here are three free actions that you can take now.

I. Frequent posts

Blogging, writing articles that appear in digital publications and getting quoted in online media outlets will enhance both your credibility and visibility. Frequency is a big plus. If you can keep up and publish a blog or other article or get quoted about once a month, in a few weeks or months your company may show in organic searches, even if not in the coveted top 10 (first page). In 2018, we learned that powerhouse Google follows the E.A.T. algorithm—-Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. In other words, quality content counts.

Your use of key words and long-tail phrases should not be heavy-handed. Sprinkle them into your content where they fit, so when prospects type those words into a search box, or speak them into Alexa or Siri, you’ll increase the chance that your business name will appear in local searches, at least in the top 20 names for your locale.

II. Social media presence

Being active on social media is one of the best ways to communicate and engage with current and potential clients, as you become familiar with their priorities and also drive traffic back to your website. The website hosting service Go Daddy found that 61 % of its high-traffic sites had an attached Facebook page.

While having a Facebook page and Twitter account is more or less considered a requirement for most businesses, establish your company presence on platforms that your clients and prospects follow and trust. B2B likes LinkedIn and Alignable is growing, as is Clubhouse.

III. Search engine sign-up

Register your company on Google My Business and Bing’s Places for Business, free services that will give your organization a boost in local SEO. For best results, provide lots of descriptive info about your business, including optional categories.

Treat your Bing and Google listings like social media platforms. Update them at least quarterly by adding educational info, text. or video and discuss some aspect of a company product or service is a reliable and efficient solution for goals that users want to achieve (but not a sales pitch). If it will be politically correct, ask a couple of clients to write a (positive!) review. Rumor has it that both search engines ignore reviews and other content that is more than six months old.

Thanks reading and Happy Labor Day,

Kim

Image: Traffic gets heavy in a Venice canal, August 2013

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KPI Spotlight

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Good data supports good decision-making and good decisions lead to success in your endeavors. Trusting your gut and following intuition have their place but when evaluating the efficacy of business strategy, as you work to drive results in the near and long term, it’s imperative that you listen to the story the data tells. Why waste time and money on guess work?

The biggest question is, which metrics should you follow? Dozens of data points can be generated and examined, but which metrics will adequately address your questions and guide you? The ability to select KPI (Key Performance Indicator) metrics that reveal your company’s performance against objectives you’ve determined are relevant is the most critical factor of analysis. Tracking only the most important KPIs is meant to narrow your focus to those metrics that impact the objectives you want to achieve.

Your company business model and the industry in which you operate will largely determine the KPIs that make sense for you to monitor. As usual, you’ll need to give the matter some thought. Ask yourself—what company goals should you pursue? Have you identified major areas in need of improvement? What are the top priorities? Answering those questions will bring you a step closer to identifying the right KPIs for your organization. Choose metrics that help you further understand and achieve company goals.

Below are a sampling of KPIs that give potentially useful insights into any business. Maybe you’ll find two or three that you’d like to include in your monthly review of business operations?

Overall company performance KPI metrics

Gross revenue (top line)

  • Total income generated from the sale of company goods and services. This value matters because it tells the unvarnished truth of what the company is selling. Gross revenue reporting excludes the cost of goods sold and includes only the money earned from sales. On the Income (Profit and Loss) Statement it is the first entry, the top line.

Net income (Bottom line)

  • Net income indicates a company’s profit after all of its expenses have been deducted from revenues. Net income is the uber metric for profitability and provides insight into how well all aspects of the business. Net income is often referred to as the “bottom line” due to its positioning at the bottom of the income statement.

Number of clients

  • The number of active (within the last three years) clients on your roster.

Lead conversion rate

  • This helpful metric points to the power of your leadgen marketing strategy and tactics, including your website landing page. For example, if your Call-to-Action invites visitors to register for a webinar or complete an online survey, learning the percentage of visitors who respond to the CTA, that is, those who were converted from a mere website browser to an actual lead by taking an action that signals engagement, is highly instructive.

Financial KPI metrics

Gross revenue

  • The sum total of the sales of all products and services, within a given period (day, week, month, quarter, year)

Net Income

  • After all fixed (operating) and variable (selling) expenses have been deducted, inventory has been added (if applicable) and interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization have been calculated and deducted, the net profit (income) or loss is revealed in the bottom line of the Income Statement.

Cash-flow

  • Operating cash-flow is the amount of cash generated by a company’s normal business operations and it indicates whether a company can generate sufficient positive money to stay in business. If making upgrades of some sort, scale or grow are a goal, operating cash-flow reveals whether borrowed financing will be needed. This figure confirms whether or not accounts receivable are paid to service providers.

Cost of Goods Sold

  • The sum total of all costs used to create a product or service that your company sells. This number is often a challenge for service providers to calculate. We sometimes forget that our time has a price tag attached. How many hours were devoted to revamping a client’s social media campaign? How many hours did you spend creating Power Point slides for a workshop that you’ll teach? This figure should be accurately reflected in the prices you charge. Along with being aware of the time spent on providing a service, there is also the matter of the wholesale value of your hourly rate. Basically, it is wise to consider the value your client will derive from the work you do, in addition to the hourly rate for your labor.

Client KPI

Client churn rate

  • The opposite of retaining clients is losing them through the process known as churn. It’s a disturbing metric but one that every business owner must confront and diminish. For many B2B service providers, as well as other business owners, a client will do business with an organization only once and it is not a negative judgment against the business. Some projects are one-off by nature. Still, it’s important to understand why certain clients are not returning. What can you do better? Along with your final project invoice, a brief client survey could yield valuable and actionable follow-up information.

Number of clients

  • How many active (within the past three years) names are on your list? Also, how many give you repeat business and how well known are they?

Client acquisition cost

  •  Assess the cost effectiveness of your marketing campaigns when you calculate the total sales and marketing cost needed to land a new client. Divide your marketing and other client courting activities contained in total acquisition costs by the number of new customers, in the time frame you’re examining.

Client retention rate

  •  The number, or percentage, of clients who return to do business with you. This is an indication of client satisfaction and a great compliment to you and your team.

Marketing KPI

Website traffic

  • Measuring the number of people who visit your website is one of the more basic KPI metrics, but it’s still important. Your website is home base home to everything that’s needed to inform, convert and close a sale with your buyer. If your marketing campaign isn’t getting people to visit your website, then you must rev up your marketing strategy and execution. Hubspot, Google Analytics and a few other can report the total traffic numbers, tell you how many new visitors are browsing and also show you where those visitors are coming from. If you operate marketing campaigns on different social media platforms, you can learn which ones send the most traffic to your website and which ones are failing to stir up any interest.

Marketing ROI

  • Return on Investment metric reveals if the money spent on marketing activities is generating the desired sales revenue. Keeping track of your marketing ROI will make it easier for you to justify marketing budgets, calculate marketing efficiency and ultimately help you plan future marketing strategies. 

Referral traffic

  • Discover where website visitors are coming from, how potential prospects find your company. Learn which social media platforms bring in the most and the highest-quality leads. Does voice search show potential and should you invest time in long-tail phrases to grow this segment? Does your newsletter bring leads? This could be useful information when building your overall marketing strategy.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Nick Bassett (2014)

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Marketing and the B2B Buyer’s Journey

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A few years ago numerous authorities who research and report on the habits of those who purchase B2B products or services for their organizations noted that B2B buyers do a significant amount of online research to improve their understanding about the products or services they intend to buy before speaking with potential vendors. As prospective buyers move through the journey there are a series of touch points, that is, encounters with B2B product and service providers (you).

Opportunities to influence and shape the perceptions that prospective buyers form while they investigate your company and its offerings are strewn along the Buyer’s Journey path like Hansel and Gretel breadcrumbs. The point of this exercise is to remind Freelance consultants where and how in the journey your marketing tactics have the power to persuade (or discourage) a few to do business with your organization. The steps that B2B buyers take can be broadly categorized as follows:

I. Identify a need

The initial stage opens the opportunity for B2B companies to introduce themselves to potential buyers and position their organization as a credible provider of B2B solutions. Cultivating a positive impression and trust in their products, services and brand is the goal of the Freelancer (the seller).

  • Recognizing that a problem or pain must be resolved, or an objective achieved

Creating awareness of your company’s product and/or service-based solutions is your objective during the first stage of the Buyer’s Journey. Providing examples of the challenges or problems that your products and services might solve, or examples of goals or objectives that can be advanced, can be effectively discussed in your website, newsletter, email marketing campaigns, blog, webinar and podcast appearances and social media posts, serving to help prospects understand what your company is all about and whether your organization has the right stuff to deliver what is needed.

  • Research

Your potential buyer now investigate solutions that appear capable of providing a remedy for the problem, or could advance the objective or goal. Most will conduct online searches and 70% will use Google, according to Salesforce. The B2B Freelance consultant is advised to provide the potential buyer with information that is typically expected and appreciated, is considered relevant—yet another reason to know your customer. User reviews from a site like Yelp, statistics, facts and other hard numbers could be in order.

Focus your content around the buyer’s most likely goal, challenge, or pain. A white paper to inform and persuade potential buyers that your company’s products or services, expertise or technology, for example, is superior for solving a particular business problem or addressing a certain goal. A free 30-minute consultation with your prospective buyer will also be helpful as you’ll be able to propose customized solutions and discuss how they might be implemented and delivered in a way that the buyer prefers.

II. Evaluate and compare available options

Be advised that the potential buyer will also investigate at least a couple of your competitors—and who could blame them? The decision-maker or his/her appointed representative will at this point start talking to colleagues about what is “out there” in terms of services, products, pricing, add-ons, upgrades, delivery date, free trials and anything else that will matter in the comparison. Case studies tell a story that illustrate precisely how, in real time, your organization is able to expertly deliver a customized solution and create an experience that meets or exceeds customer expectations.

  • Prioritizing

At this point in the buyer’s journey, the term prospective customer can be used with confidence, as s/he has clearly defined the problem or goal, has confirmed who will be the end user for the product or service and is fully committed to choosing and paying for what is perceived to be the most appropriate solution. An opportunity to develop a relationship with prospective buyers who are interested in your company at this stage of the journey may present itself because you could receive a call or email.

III. Decision and contract

Are you still in the game? Hope so! Prospective customers at this juncture have consulted with the project stakeholders at his/her company and are looking to get a deal that pleases as many as possible. This could be the time to tempt your prospect with deal clinching sweeteners—options, pricing, add-ons or (apparently) gratis upgrades that s/he and the influencers and end-users will appreciate and that cost you next to nothing. You want wrap this thing up and motivate your prospect to sign with your team. Surprise and delight.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: The kids are alright. Goat farmers in Champaign, IL supply artisanal cheese to Chicago restaurants and gourmet shops

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Freelancer Health Insurance DEADLINE: August 15,2021

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Heads-up Freelancer friends—-the Health Insurance Marketplace (Healthcare.gov) special enrollment period will end on Sunday August 15, 2021. If you find yourself without health insurance, or you’d like to modify or renew the plan you have, now is the time to buy what you need.

According to data from a survey of independently employed American workers released in July 2021 by Stride Health, a provider of health and other types of insurance marketed to Freelancers, 31% of respondents were uninsured—a rate that is more than twice that of traditionally employed Americans (12%). Cost was the top reason that caused Freelancers in the survey to decline health insurance, with 64% of uninsured respondents reporting that they didn’t think health insurance was affordable. The seventh annual survey of American workers, conducted by Upwork and The Freelancer’s Union in 2020, reported that 59 million workers freelanced part-time or full-time, representing 36% of the American workforce.

Managing cash-flow while depending on a sometimes unpredictable amount of billable hours or payment of accounts receivable, as is the case with many Freelancers, can be a struggle. We are often loathe to commit to fixed expenses that might be perceived as “optional,” especially those who are single.

That said, acquiring health insurance is a prudent investment. Consider it risk management and therefore, good for business. One never knows when a health crisis will occur. Unexpectedly large medical expenses have been known to cause financial havoc and that scary possibility makes health insurance worth the expense. Fortunately, health insurance on the Marketplace became more accessible when Congress approved the American Rescue Plan on March 11.

The new law expands eligibility for Affordable Care Act benefits and provides subsidies to ensure that no Marketplace buyer pays more than 8.5% of annual income on their health insurance premium. The American Rescue Plan also increases the subsidy for lower-income Americans who already qualified for that benefit. Furthermore, those currently receiving health insurance through the Marketplace can expect to save an average $50 a month and some may save more.

According to President Biden, “For millions who are out of work and have no coverage, thanks to this law there’s an Obamacare (ACA) plan that most folks can get with zero-dollar premiums. Four out of five Americans shopping on the Obamacare Marketplace can get quality healthcare with a premium of $10 dollars a month or less (after tax credits).”

Better still for Freelancers, the Stride Health survey showed that 93% of us who enrolled for health insurance via the Healthcare.gov Marketplace qualified for a subsidy that will offset the cost of health insurance, up from 87% who qualified for a subsidy in March 2021. As a result, health insurance enrollment increased sixfold between April 2020 and April 2021. Year to date, nearly as many people have signed up for health insurance as did during the annual open enrollment period at the end of 2020, the Stride Health reported.

Over the next few days, those who need health insurance will want to visit Healthcare.gov or call the national hotline at 800-318-2596. Some states have their own health insurance platforms and if you live in one of those jurisdictions, you’ll be routed to the appropriate registration platform.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Luis Jimenez Aranda The Visit of the Doctor (1897), courtesy of El Cason del Buen Retiro/ Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain

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How Would an Investor Judge Your Company?

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Recently, I was invited to judge a pitch contest for start-up entrepreneurs that will be hosted by the business incubator where I teach courses and workshops—-business plan writing, branding, selling skills and marketing. As I reviewed the list of questions that pitch contestants will address, I realized that those same questions mostly apply to those who already operate a business.

Every Freelance consultant and business owner should be able to answer pitch contest questions because when you think about it, selling products and services to clients isn’t altogether different from pitching a start-up to investors. So why don’t we flip the script and imagine that you’re an investor who’ll hear a pitch about your own business, delivered by your alter ego self?

An investor pitch outline is a useful guide to metrics and other critical elements that have a big impact. When business owners and leaders address these key performance indicators, a powerful enterprise will result.

Introduction–Who are you?

Introduce yourself with a 30-60 second elevator pitch. Give a brief overview of the type of solutions—products and/ or services—that the business provides and the primary benefits derived. Identify also one or two major client groups.

Purpose–What is the company’s reason for being?

Name the pain that the solution provided by your company’s products and services will eliminate. Paint a verbal picture to make the problem your products or services solve understandable to prospective clients. Give a succinct yet compelling description of the detrimental impact of not having your solution available, which could include loss of market share or dominance, diminished revenue, or even legal penalties.

Solutions–The value proposition that motivates clients to pay

What is the “fix” that resolves the pain or problem and therefore brings value that clients are willing to pay for? Describe or demonstrate how your solution resolves the pain and solves problem—how will the product or service directly address the problem and deliver the solution?

Detail two or three noteworthy benefits that your clients, or the client’s customers, will derive when your company’s solution is used. Benefits speak to most clients, whereas features appeal to technophiles. Overall, benefits are a more powerful sell, especially those that directly address the pain points you described. Be careful to limit industry-specific jargon so that your prospect will not feel intimidated.

Function–Prove that your product or service works

If you sell a technical solution, for example software as a service, explain in layman’s terms a brief summary of how the product works and why it’s useful. Include, as appropriate and helpful, product photos, screen shots, diagrams, drawings, etc.

Market reach–How much demand for your solutions?

Purely an FYI question and the answers you discover will benefit your business tremendously. Conduct some basic market research and reconfirm the size of your target market. Post-pandemic data could be available in some cases and that’s the data you want to examine. In order to make an intelligent plan for the future of your organization, you need to know, as confirmed by objective data, where your market is going and what’s trending.

If you’ve been thinking that a pivot might make sense, you’d be wise to know in advance what you can successfully pivot into—ideally, a sector that’s growing and that you have the expertise and contacts to enter.

Credible sources of business data include Forrester Research, Gartner Global Research, local trade journals, professional association research, the business section of The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and other newspapers that address business issues in depth and also business data published by the U.S. Census/ Business and Economy data. Show your potential investor that there is a growing and sustainable group of potential buyers for your products or services.

Business (revenue) model—How will you find customers and make money?

Here’s another FYI question that you should periodically revisit, especially in the post-COVID era. The shutdown caused massive turmoil for the independently employed, fueled by the hollowing out of major industries. The work from home culture (which is waning) has made accessing potential clients tremendously difficult.

Now seems like an ideal time to re-examine how you expect to make money over the next 12-24 months. Determining what clients are willing to pay to do business with you is another question you need to address. Price to profit.

Focus on how the company generates its primary revenue stream(s). Review and clarify the usual steps of the buying process, including how long that process usually takes. Think about the job title of the decision-maker on the client’s team, as well as the usual job titles of the end user of the product or service. Furthermore, consider who the key influencers might be in the buying decision process, the steps are needed to achieve a sale and the usual length of time involved in the sales cycle.

Go-to-market—What’s the sales strategy?

Update the strategy you’ll follow for lead generation, inbound and outbound marketing outreach tactics. Discuss how product and service sales are executed—at your company office or retail location, at the client’s office (because you work from home), e-commerce via your website or other platform.

Identify whatever strategic partnerships or consignment arrangements that are in place (or are being negotiated). Identify who is responsible for selling—is it you, Freelancer friend, or do you split the sales function with a co-founder, or has the company hired sales reps?

The team—Who’s running the show?

If your company has co-founders or a management team, name them and describe everyone’s role. Describe also the job titles and functions of any part-time or full-time employees. If certain functions are outsourced, e.g., accounting, legal, payroll, or bookkeeping, document and describe their roles.

The purpose here is to reassure the prospective investor that your company is well-managed, that your solutions will be delivered as promised and that the company is capable of routinely meeting or exceeding client expectations.

Financial projections—Show me the money

Absolutely, your potential investor will take a keen interest in the state of your venture’s finances. You, the owner, must clearly demonstrate that you are reasonably adept at managing the company’s finances (even if your real talent is marketing and sales). At the very least, learn to get comfortable with interpreting the Profit & Loss (Income) statement, the Balance Sheet and the Cash-flow Statement.

Hiring an accountant, as well as a bookkeeper who is more than a record keeper and has a feel for financial management, will be tremendously helpful regardless of your talent for handling finances.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: A resident of the New England Aquarium shark tank in Boston, MA.