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Introducing our new video series dedicatd to keeping you highly informed.
1 min read
At Green Entrepreneur, we're dedicated to giving you the news you need to make smart business decisions. "This Week in Weed" is a video series hosted by Conrad Martin that weeds through the top stories in the industry.
Here's what happened this week.:
FDA Greenlights Green Drug
On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first marijuana based drug. New medicine Epidiolex is an orally administered CBD treatment intended to prevent seizures.
Tuesday was a historic day in Oklahoma, as voters approved the legalization of medical marijuana. According to Marijuana Business Daily, the industry could generate $100-$150 million in annual sales.
Retired NBA players' knees rejoice as rapper, Ice Cube's Big3 basketball league has become only the second US professional sports league to allow CBD use for pain management and recovery.
Though the LGBTQ+ community has gained rights and recognition, the battle for equality is still far from over.
7 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
It may be 2018, yet people still ask: Why does Pride matter?
To understand why Pride celebrations exist and why they still matter, we need to remember history. At the time that most Pride parades started (during the 1970s and 1980s), the LGBTQ+ community lived in fear. Being arrested, attacked, ridiculed and fired from their job just for being who they were in public was a real threat. This caused the LGBTQ+ community to live secret lives that some knew little about.
But Pride was the one time that, en masse, LGBTQ+ individuals could break away from that fear and celebrate who they were, out in the open, for just one day. It was like a small release valve in a scary time, when there was little support from the world around them.
Over the past few decades, as the LGBTQ+ community has gained more recognition (and even more importantly, rights) those small celebrations became larger, and were often led by the private sector and allies. Since then, the number of allies that have joined hands with the LGTBQ+ community to support the push for equal rights and recognition has grown by leaps and bounds. And today, June is now recognized by many as Pride Month.
But, while we finally have quantity when it comes to allies showing up, that can’t compromise quality. Pride Month needs to be more than just a celebration; it needs to be a catalyst for continued support of the LGBTQ+ movement. For allies of the LGBTQ+ community, it’s important to acknowledge the fact that we live in a time when rights are still being questioned, and even taken away. The battle for equality is still far from over.
Use Pride as an opportunity to leverage the groundswell of support and awareness on LGBTQ+ issues across your workforce and encourage employees to keep their eyes open to experiences and conversations that may have previously been out of their scope of vision.
Here’s how.
Educate over lunch.
At Zendesk we believe creating empathy through education is key. Throughout Pride Month, we host weekly “Lunch & Learns” with LGBTQ+ organizations in an effort to educate employees on a broad spectrum of issues. We hear from organizations working to bring inclusive textbooks into public schools and organizations who paid witness to the darker chapters of the LGBTQ+ movement, such as the AIDS crisis. This helps us understand just what various LGBTQ+ generations endured. This year, we had speakers from the Tenderloin Museum, the SF AIDS Foundation, Our Family Coalition (a nonprofit working tirelessly to remove barriers and advance equity for LGBTQ families through support, education and advocacy) and Maven (a nonprofit that empowers LGBTQ+ youth through tech).
The conversation can also be opened up externally. The W Hotel rang in Pride with a speaker series open to the public called “Queer Me Out,” which brought together voices from the queer community spanning music, philanthropy, politics and more. With the goal of blending different outlooks within the vibrant LGBTQ+ community, the hope is to encourage discussions about important topics and inspire communication.
Business leaders should use the Pride parade as a way to partner with LGBTQ+ nonprofits and use resources to further their efforts.
Every year, we choose a theme for our contingent so that it feels meaningful and connected to our LGBTQ+ employees. The theme for this year’s contingent was “Dream In Color,” meant to evoke a look into a future where everyone belongs. Then, we invite our non-profit partners and community members to walk with us in the parade so the cost associated with participating is not one they have to incur. This year, we had a huge turnout from the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, Code Tenderloin and Compass Family Services as well as folks from Meals on Wheels, and the aforementioned Maven. We invite our community members to walk, celebrate with us and share their stories. We see our float as more than just a float, but rather a space for those who we wish to support and celebrate.
When it comes to a global company, it is critical that employees everywhere feel that Pride is a priority, not just in headquarters and not just where it’s easiest. In addition to San Francisco, we also recognize Pride in London; Dublin; Copenhagen, Denmark; Montpellier, France; Melbourne, Australia; Manila, Philippines; Singapore and Madison, Wis. In London, for example (but broadcasted to all EMEA offices), we hosted a talk by Bisi Alimi, a Nigerian LGBTQ+ activist, on the importance of the Pride Parade, illuminating that this fight is far from over in some areas.
We also try to scale out involvement with nonprofits and causes we love in other cities, which is great for creating a connective thread across your company’s global initiatives. Since we are big supporters of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus (our CEO sits on its Honorary Committee and chose to tour the South of the U.S. with the chorus last year), we’ve been happy to start similar partnerships with both the London Gay Men’s Chorus and the Dublin Gay Men’s Chorus.
Another way to maintain a united front across all global offices is to utilize monitors in each office to highlight LGBTQ+ activists and changemakers. WeWork, an incredible company that has great efforts around Pride Month, does this and it’s a fantastic way to showcase the community to companies who work out of WeWork spaces while also showing folks worldwide what WeWork stands for.
There is so much power in understanding the experiences of people who are not like us and have therefore encountered and endured struggles that we can barely begin to understand. Microsoft introduced sexual orientation in its non-discrimination policies back in 1989, and has been making a concerted effort since then to operate with empathy. This month, utilizing storytelling as a powerful tool, the company celebrated the unique perspectives of their LGBTQ+ community members with different employee spotlights that underscore how different everyone’s journeys really are. Creating space to appreciate those stories has a lasting effect on how employees see and show up for each other long after the month is over.
Finally, as we seek to build inclusive environments, it’s crucial to lift up nonprofit orgs that do the hard, boundary-pushing work that will change the course of history. A good one to keep our eye on is the Transgender Law Center, the largest national trans-led organization with a strong legal arm advocating self-determination for all people. Their efforts are robust and span policy and programming.
We’re going into July stronger and more inclusive than ever. We’re building bridges across communities and teams that will last long after the Pride Month. But it’s important that we continue to champion programming sponsored by our Pride employee resource group, support events standing up for LGBTQ+ rights and make our support of this movement a meaningful part of our DNA year round.
Try these subtle stress-busting exercises that take as little as five minutes.
5 min read
Let’s talk about the “s-word.”
While stress levels among American adults have remained consistent over the last two years (averaging 4.8 on a scale of 1 to 10), but people were more likely to feel the effects of stress in 2017 than the previous year. In fact, 45 percent of Americans reported their stress translated to lying awake at night during the past month, according to the American Psychological Association’s annual Stress in America survey. And about one-third said their stress led to feeling nervous/anxious, irritable/angry or fatigued.
Women have it even worse -- they’ve reported higher stress levels than men since the survey began, and in 2017, women’s stress levels increased slightly while men’s dropped.
What we can do to tame those cortisol levels? We’ve got a roundup of five quick exercises you can do anytime, anywhere to tap into your inner zen.
Focus on your breath.
Image credit: Merlas | Getty Images
Our breath patterns are known to change when we’re relaxed, stressed, fearful or excited, so it makes sense that the process often works in reverse -- in other words, breathing in a relaxed way usually promotes feelings of calm. Another perk of breathing exercises: You can do them anywhere, and they’re relatively subtle. One of the most common techniques is the 4-7-8 exercise developed by Dr. Andrew Weil, author of Breathing: The Master Key to Self Healing. To prepare for the exercise, rest the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth, and try to keep it there throughout the exercise (some people find this easier with lips slightly pursed). Let your lips part, and exhale completely.
Here’s how you get started: With your lips closed, breathe in through your nose over the course of four seconds, hold your breath for seven seconds and, with a “whooshing exhale,” release the air over a period of eight counts. You can repeat the process as many times as necessary -- it’s meant to serve as an oxygen boost and a method of slowing down heart rate.
Tense and release.
Image credit: Seb Oliver | Getty Images
Whether you carry tension in your shoulders, neck, or any other area, a 10- to 15-minute tense-and-release exercise is a prime way to relax. At your desk, systematically tense different parts of your body, hold for a few seconds, then release. Start with your toes and feet, and move all the way up to your neck and face. Each time you release a muscle group, notice the difference in how it feels. People with constant tension can become so used to the feeling that they no longer notice it, so this exercise aids in awareness for tension in the body. It can also help you to cue a relaxed state when you feel yourself starting to become stressed.
Get moving.
Image credit: LeoPatrizi | Getty Images
Try walking around the block to ward off stress. Physical activity -- even a brief, brisk walk -- amps up the brain’s production of positive neurotransmitters, also known as endorphins. Exercising regularly can help clear the mind, improve sleep and assuage mild depression and anxiety symptoms. Scheduling a half-hour walk amidst a day of calls and meetings can seem infeasible, but even taking three 10-minute walks over the period of one day can bring about similar benefits as one longer stint of exercise, according to the Mayo Clinic. Another perk? A recent TED Talk by behavioral and learning scientist Marily Oppezzo showed that exercising in the form of walking can boost creativity levels. In fact, people who brainstormed while walking on a treadmill averaged close to twice as many creative ideas as their seated counterparts.
Enlist a relaxation playlist.
Image credit: Merlas | Getty Images
Americans spent an average of about 32 hours a week listening to music in 2017, up 5.5 hours from the year before. One of the many reasons it’s a beloved pastime: Music can influence mood quickly and completely -- even when it comes to minimizing stress. According to an article published by the Public Library of Science, listening to music before a stressful situation helped the autonomic nervous system -- which is responsible for breathing, heartbeat and digestion -- recover faster from feelings of stress. Try creating your own playlist to de-stress, or turn to an existing one (for example, streaming platform Spotify has curated options like “Relax and Unwind,” “Nature Noise” and “Calm Down”).
Go for gratitude.
Image credit: spukkato | Getty Images
One of the simplest stress busters of all? Think about what you’re thankful for. Adding gratitude into your daily routine can take many forms, but however you introduce it, it could decrease stress levels and boost your general happiness. Research from University College London suggests that practicing gratitude can increase optimism and sleep quality -- as well as decrease diastolic blood pressure. Try incorporating gratitude into your daily routine by thinking up five to 10 things you’re grateful for just after waking up or before going to sleep. If you’re a visual learner, consider investing in a gratitude journal that prompts you to jot down your thankful thoughts.
Have you ever worked on a project and had all of the elements, but couldn't figure out how to put all of the puzzle pieces together? That's how I felt writing this book. I was sitting on years and years worth of personal stories; but, I wasn't publishing a diary. I had to figure out how to make sense of my own anecdotes, interviews with experts and the main themes I wanted to incorporate in this book. Whenever I hit a wall, I would take a step back and give myself time away from the project or I would share my ideas with other people to to get their feedback since they weren't as close to the material as I was.
In my first episode, I shared how I was working on the table of contents and sample chapters to submit to Jennifer Dorsey, Entrepreneur Press's editorial director. When I got back Dorsey's comments, I was surprised there weren't a ton of edits. She said I was on the right path and that I passed the "vision check." More constructive edits would come in time. This was hard for me initially because I spent so many years working in a newsroom. I was used to a producer reading a script and making changes on the spot. I wasn't afraid for Dorsey's edits and wanted to make sure I was submitting the best work I could at every stage. Dorsey reassured me to trust the process, and that was very helpful advice. By not telling me what to do right away, Dorsey allowed me to find my own direction for this book.
The table of contents were really important for me to get right because I wanted to make sure I was putting stories in the right order and using the interviews I did with experts in the chapter that made the most sense. So if you're stuck, don't be afraid to take a step away or share your work with someone who can give you a fresh take on your content. But don't be afraid, like I was, if it all doesn't come together overnight. Writing a book is a wonderful lesson in patience and in not only having faith in the process, but also having faith in yourself.
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This is a great question often asked by the best bloggers within the industry. For those of you new to the world of blogging, “LP” stands for landing pages, which are often used to get visitors to opt in to a newsletter or subscription list. By having people opt-in, you are increasing the chances of sending follow-ups and building a more personal relationship with the visitor. This helps streamline your bottom line of creating conversions and profits more quickly. However, creating the right type of landing pages does take time and effort, which is why it is important you read case studies to find out what has worked in the past.
Over the years, I’ve had a lot of experience with landing pages and have tested what works compared to what doesn’t. Anyway, let’s look at a few key ingredients of a successful landing page so you can implement these into your blog going forward.
Meets the Expectations
What do I mean by this? The answer is very simple…
The visitor has arrived on your blog because they expect to find value and a solution to a common problem. It’s important that you meet all expectations when creating your landing page because this will increase the chances of getting a person to opt-in. For example, if I write content on “weight loss” and my audiences expects to find diet plans then I won’t be able to convert them with a landing page based on “automotive tips”…right? So, here is the first ingredient…
You have to make sure your landing page meets all requirements and expectations because this will help with conversions. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
Remember your purpose
Keep in mind the keywords bringing people to your LP
Always try to meet expectations
To capture the visitor’s attention quickly, you should focus on creative headlines focused on the topic and reason they have come to your landing page.
Trust and Value
Landing page conversions are increased when you provide trust and value to your readers. There are a few ways you can achieve this and I’d like to discuss the two most valuable:
First, trust and value is achieved when you are sending loyal readers to your LP and these people are already familiar with your brand. This means they trust your content and are more likely to opt-in to your form. You’ll have different offers throughout your blog so sending a quick follow-up or popup to existing visitors is a great way to produce conversions. Secondly, testimonials and reviews have worked well for huge brands and they continue to utilize this strategy going forward. For example, if you are selling a product, then think about how easy it is to convert visitors when they know others have had a great experience on your blog. Consider how easy it is to convert visitors when they see others have found your products and services useful.
Converting is Easy
An optimal way to increase conversions is by ONLY asking for the information you need when they arrive on your page. For example, if you are offering a FREE eBook, there is NO reason to ask for phone number and address. This just complicates the opt-in process and forces people to move away. I like to keep my forms simple and don’t even ask for a name on my forms. However, the form you choose should, and will, depend on your niche and what type of subscriber the visitors are becoming. If they are signing up for a FREE trial, then you might need to ask for more information than the normal opt-in form does.
Here are a few more tips you should consider going forward:
Keep your focus in mind when designing your landing page
Only ask for minimum name and email (depends on type of opt-in obviously).
Don’t be shy to split test different types of forms.
It's important to never lose sight of the fact that the businesses you serve are made up of people. And people can get bored.
6 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Companies today are spending a fortune on content to attract new customers. Businesses that sell primarily to consumers (B2C) in particular are creating dazzling ads and rich media communications. But some companies that sell to other businesses (B2B) are also creating videos to post on YouTube, as well interactive content on their company site.
Some of these B2B companies are launching engaging, personalized email campaigns to make a sale and maintain a robust social media presence, to promote their brand.
However, once a prospect becomes a customer, and the responsibility for communication shifts from marketing to customer support, the focus on creating content that wows the audience evaporates. This is especially true for B2B companies, which tend to adopt a businesslike tone when communicating with people at other companies. And the truth is, that tone is often dry and impersonal.
Dull, lifeless content isn’t painful only for the B2B customers who consume it -- it can hurt your bottom line. Failure to keep up with your customers’ content preferences can be a serious problem.On the B2C side, as the Salesforce blog has described,consumers expect personalization, but it’s important to realize that people who work at B2B companies are consumers in the workplace, too.
They deserve interesting, personalized content. So, why not give it to them?
What engaging B2B support content looks like.
If you lead an organization that provides B2B support, then retaining customers, driving product adoption and successfully handling customer training issues are tasks on your to-do list. One of the best ways to accomplish these goals is to take a page from the B2C marketer's’playbook and incorporate visual elements like images and video into your support communications.
Cisco research has estimated that video will account for 82 percent of online traffic by 2021, but many B2B support organizations still haven't incorporated video into their support communications. A predictive content technique, like suggesting applicable content based on self-service site-usage patterns, can be valuable to increase satisfaction and retain customers.
In addition, customer support software helps liven things up, with video, and achieves a greater degree of personalization and interactivity so you can hit your customer retention goals.
For instance, you can create content around a new product version, hosting a video tutorial in your knowledge base (technology used to store complex information) that walks customers through new features. Hewlett-Packard’s humorous “Propel” demo video is an example of funny, engaging B2B communications that break the “boring” mold.
You can, further, personalize such outreach efforts by sending the video only to companies that use that specific product, using data from the support software to identify those customers.
Customer-support software that incorporates video can also help agents resolve issues faster, which keeps those customers happy. A support platform that allows customers and agents to share screen and video recordings gives both parties a way to instantly convey an accurate picture of the issue or resolution. This technology eliminates the need to laboriously describe a multi-step process via email or phone.
Keep the focus on your customers' knowledge base.
Just as you do with tutorial videos, your company knowledge base is an ideal space from which to host support videos dealing with common issues. Support videos give customers a self-service option, providing a richer media experience and a more thorough and personal training session than a simple article could do.
The result can be strengthened ties between B2B companies and their customers, and increased customer retention. For example, Vidyard, a company that creates software to host and analyze video performance, includes videos in its knowledge base to walk users through the steps needed to execute more complex operations.
A knowledge base connected to your support-system tagging function can also display suggested solutions based on keywords so customers can find an answer to their question before they submit a ticket.
Interactive content such as calculators, templates and Q&As can be yet another valuable supplement to your support material. Intuit uses interactive content effectively to market its QuickBooks products to small business customers, providing currency converters, video tutorials and product overview content, online.
These assets increase user “stickiness,” which keeps them engaged, and you can use a similar strategy to help your support agents find answers quickly. B2B support teams, moreover, can use interactive content to personalize customer outreach and make it more engaging. For example, a financial company could create an interactive calculator where accountants input problematic data and the calculator helps troubleshoot the source of the problem.
Create engaging content for all customers.
It’s important to never lose sight of the fact that the businesses you serve are made up of people. Your business customers are consumers just like you, and they aren’t immune to the trends that drive modern B2C communications. So, if keeping customers happy, upselling them on new products and quickly resolving any issues they encounter with current products are part of your agenda, consider giving B2B customers the same level of excellence in content that they receive away from the job:
Make B2B content personalized to increase customer satisfaction; harness customer data to shape offers and extend assistance.
Use predictive content to engage customers and resolve issues quickly, applying data (such as product information) to understand the context of the support request.
Include rich media elements like video in ticket resolution and customer-training processes to humanize interactions.
Offer interactive content to speed issue resolution and improve stickiness.
Customers are empowered today, and they expect high-quality content ailored to their needs. This is true whether they are B2C or B2B customers. By providing engaging content for all customers, you can ensure that your company’s support interactions are more immediate and human.
Thursday afternoon, journalists at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland faced a gunman in their own newsroom and lost five of their colleagues. But the newspaper staff was determined to put out the next day's paper as scheduled, and they did -- reporting on the attack and writing detailed obituaries for the dead.
If you're traveling for Fourth of July, it's likely smart to arrive at the airport early: Today could set a new record for the single busiest travel day ever, according to the TSA, which expects to screen about 2.7 million passengers and crew.
And there seems to be no end in sight to Facebook's continuous data saga. The company's internal probe into the user data debacle concluded they can’t track where much of the data went after it left Facebook or determine where it is now.
The co-founder of The Honest Company discusses the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, what she's learned and what she sees happening next.
5 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Editor’s note: Builders Series features no-holds-barred in-depth interviews with female leaders in different industries to give you insight into what successful women have done to push through feeling stuck, frustrated and uncreative in order to build incredible brands and businesses.
A lot of entrepreneurs, myself included, have enjoyed watching Jessica Alba’s pivot from the big screen to co-founder of The Honest Company. While she is still an actress, she is also a leading businesswoman, having landed the cover of Forbes’ “Self-Made Women” issue and being named in the top 20 of Fast Company’s "Most Creative People in Business." She’s also an advocate and a New York Times bestselling author.
She was at the top of my list of women to interview on their journeys as builders, so dive in below to learn about the ups and downs of founding The Honest Company, what she’s learned and what she sees happening next.
What have you built, and what inspired you to build it?
A mission-driven company that offers more than 100 safe and effective products – across a range of categories including diapers and baby, personal care, household cleaning and beauty – designed for families everywhere.
The idea came from my authentic experiences as a conscious consumer and a new parent. Making a happy, healthy home for my loved ones became my priority. Like many entrepreneurs, I saw there was a need that wasn’t being met, so I had to create the company I was looking for.
Were you born a builder, or did you have to learn to be one?
I am a born builder. I grew up pretty fearless with an understanding that if you want something in life, you have to be creative in going about achieving it. You’re not always going to have an easy path to success, but if it’s important enough you’ll figure out a way to make it work.
Who was the first woman you looked up to, and why?
That would undoubtedly be my mom and my grandmother, who are some of the toughest and most resilient women I know. When it comes to building my business, I’ve looked to lessons learned from Eleanor Roosevelt. Her perseverance in the face of insurmountable challenges was really inspiring. She didn’t let any hurdles get in her way, she was so committed to the need for social justice and had such a clarity of purpose that she pushed through against all odds. Seeing the impact that she has had gave me an incredible amount of hope and determination that I could be successful.
What’s the greatest risk you’ve taken?
Having the courage and tenacity to believe I could start a consumer products company. Pitching Honest to potential investors was one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced, but even in the face of rejection, I was constantly motivated by my desire to create this company. No one had any expectations of me in business, and it made me more fearless.
When have you broken down, personally or professionally, and how did you break through?
A lot of my major breakdowns happened before I started the company. I hit many roadblocks, false starts, had to find the right business partners and spent time and money on different iterations of the business that didn’t come to fruition. It took about four years of struggling before I was able to find the right business partners to even start Honest and get it off the ground. In hindsight, I realize that each lesson that I learned during these years brought me one step closer to making Honest a reality. With every challenge comes an opportunity to grow and learn.
What makes you doubt yourself, and how do you manage it?
I’ve had to get over my own insecurity about not having the typical business trajectory or schooling. My education has always come from learning as I go, and jumping into tasks headfirst, whether it be in entertainment or in business. I’ve overcome that by leaning in and being realistic about what I’m good at and not good at, and making a point of partnering with people who have experience and expertise in fields that I don’t.
How do you know when to leave someone or something?
I sometimes second-guess my gut when it comes to parting ways with a person or an idea. Even if I have a gut feeling or an inkling, I need to have a lot of evidence to point me in a new direction. It takes me a long time for me to wrap my head around leaving, so there has to be many different ways that it sinks in -- it’s not something that happens immediately or linearly.
How do you practice being brave?
Anytime I step outside of my comfort zone and into unknown territory, that feels brave to me. It’s brave to know that you're not always going to be successful, but you do it anyways.
Building Honest into a truly global brand. That means continuing the journey of taking Honest from what was once a startup into a brand that meets the everyday needs of the modern customer who cares about quality, transparency and effectiveness -- no matter where they live.
This week’s roundup includes tips to optimize your Email Marketing campaigns, build links effectively for SEO, and improve your Social Media strategy.
Learn how to improve the Conversion rate of your website, and create valuable Content for achieving business goals. We’ve covered all of this news and, much more, below!
From the UpCity Blog:
This week’sAgency Framework discusses the importance of a mission statement and the role it plays in defining your agency.
Jolissa Skow goes over how long it takes to rank on the first page of Google results.
Hamid Mahmood details how to build a better Web Designer and client relationship.
Bob Bekian shares how to reduce Video Production costs by using digital backgrounds.
Content Marketing:
Cari Twitchell highlights the benefits of hiring a professional to write website Content.
Jennifer Zottola emphasizes the need for using an editorial calendar and aligning your Content strategy to your business goals, to create powerful Content.
Nicolas Finet discusses how the length of the Content and usage of real time Content would impact Content Marketing in the year 2018.
Mike Murray draws special attention to evergreen Content formats that can help marketers achieve long term success.
Learn how strategies such as sharing website Content with social media and using visuals, can enhance your Content Marketing efforts, from Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead’s blog.
Conversion Optimization:
Jennifer Lawrence draws special attention to the basics of Conversion Rate Optimization.
Will Chou highlights the common CRO mistakes made by beginners and offers guidance to take your CRO efforts to a new high.
Neil Patel discusses how tactics such as optimizing Conversion funnel, revamping the design of your pages and using testimonials to build trust, can increase your website’s Conversion rate.
Jeff Rajeck draws special attention to the trends that are driving Conversion Rate Optimization today.
Email Marketing:
Learn how to optimize your Email Marketing campaigns, from Amir Nia’s blog.
Kristy Tran highlights the significance of Email Marketing in digital marketing and discusses how it can help marketers to increase the ROI of their businesses.
Sam Dey offers Email Marketing tips for beginners to boost Email sign ups and build an engaged list of subscribers.
Ana Maria De La Cruz offers valuable Email Marketing tips to increase business sales and revenue.
Susan Gunelius outlines the process to help marketers avoid mistakes in Email Marketing and achieve tangible results.
Local Optimization:
Jeff Williams emphasizes the need for verifying your Google My Business listing and building Local citations, to rank higher in Local Search.
Follow the valuable tips from Jim Bader to rank high in Local Search.
Mobile Optimization:
Maran Kavin highlights the importance of Mobile Optimization in today’s scenario.
Reputation Management:
Learn how to proactively manage the reputation of your brand and overcome negative sentiments, from Carolyn Kopf’s blog.
Michelle Morgan’s blog accentuates the need to monitor the use of social media, for creating a positive impression and improving the Online Reputation of your business.
Search Engine Optimization:
Follow the tips from John Locke to improve the performance of your SEO campaigns.
Ellie Batchiyska highlights the strategies for successful link building and draws special attention to the tactics that must be avoided.
Manon Declosmesnil discusses how voice search is important for your business and highlights how it holds the future of SEO.
Social Optimization:
Frederic Gonzalo emphasizes the need to define KPIs and use cross promotion, for improving your Social Media strategy.
Brent Barnhart offers helpful tips to create an effective Social Media presence.
UX/UI:
Sam Romain highlights how the synergy of UX and SEO is important to rank high in search engines and showcase what your business has got to offer.
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Opheila Chong wants to alter the image of marijuana with her company StockPot Images.
5 min read
Opinions expressed by Green Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
What brought you into the cannabis industry?
I began my career as a photographer for Raygun Magazine, the penultimate design and music magazine of the 90’s. From there I was recruited to be the creative director for Strand Releasing and I went on to launch over 30 films across the U.S. that were featured at Sundance, TIFF, and Outfest. I was also the creative director for Slamdance for a decade.
I genuinely believe that we all have six careers in our lifetime, each one sets the foundation for the next. Entertainment and image making created my pathway for a career in cannabis. And it was not a natural curiosity or interest in the plant that brought me here, it was my own prejudice.
My sister was medicating with cannabis at the time, and I remember looking at her one day and thinking, She’s a stoner!?” My heart broke with the realization that I was actually stereotyping her. As a person of color, I was appalled at my behavior. So I began to do some digging into what it was all about.
Four months later, I launched StockPot Images, LLC. I was on a mission to educate people through imagery, like myself, who had long-standing misperceptions of the plant, its properties, and the industry as a whole based on the propaganda forwarded by anti-drug groups and the government our entire lives.
What obstacles and challenges have you experienced in operating within this industry?
Once I launched StockPot Images, the biggest challenge came from within the industry. For decades the industry operated undercover. With the advent of social media there was an opening for online promotion of cannabis, which required images.
As the industry was in its regulated infancy, outside of the collection we created and housed, there were no cannabis-centric imagery banks to pull from. And as flattering as it was to be the main source of the imagery that became the face of the industry throughout these social media and online campaigns, our images, and intellectual property were being taken and used without any sort of licensing rights or payment.
With no education on intellectual property, and an industry essentially operating with no rules, we were at a loss and disadvantaged. It became a game of “whack-a-mole” with cease and desist letters.
So what did you do?
After six months of conducting research and seeking the proper routes and options for protection, I partnered with Image Protect. This partnership provided us with embedded metadata in each image to track and trace each image. Since then we have had little to no copyright issues.
Another feature on my site to protect our IP is based on a partnership with SmartFrame. This technology protects our images from “drag and drop” and screen caps. When attempted, the screen will go grey and a message about copyright laws then appears.
The industry as a whole is undergoing a crash course on intellectual property throughout every area. However, numerous lawsuits exist by major corporations for “similar” or outright infringement on logo and packaging designs. (Tincture Belle, Hershey, Mars, RC Cola, General Foods). As we evolve as an industry, IP law will as well.
It is my nature to be open and caring. I have learned those to be two of the most important traits one can have in this industry. I have also learned to be an advocate for what is right and for those who need a hand up. But I have learned to do so in a way that adds value without damaging anything I am involved in. As an entrepreneur and a business owner, I have responsibilities.
If I could share something with entrepreneurs everywhere, it would be the lesson to always be aware of the value in your personal image and that your behavior reflects not only on you but on your brand. For me, my reputation, behavior, and work reflect on StockPot Images, the Bevel Group and on all my contributors and partners in business.
Be your best, even when you are tired, stressed, angry, or exhausted. If you are aware that you are not feeling or performing at your best, take a step back, go somewhere, sit and breathe. Your actions will be noticed if not, and you will be called out for them and remembered for them. Be careful how you manage your surroundings as an entrepreneur, you have a responsibility to everyone involved with what you have created.
What trait do you rely on most when making business decisions and why is this useful for you?
I trust my instinct, whether it turns out to be right or not, I trust myself. I have come this far with over six different successful careers behind me to know that my gut is my guide.
Whether you’re just starting out with an SEO campaign or you’re adding a new service or product to your site and starting to promote it, you’re probably wondering how long it’s going to take to get more organic visibility for your targeted keywords.
There are a lot of factors that determine that answer, but if we look at those factors, an industry study, and just study our own successes, we can predict a ballpark for how long it might take.
How long does it take to rank on the first page of Google results?
For the sake of this article, we’re just going to look at the first page of Google results. It’s great to see your site crawling up the results on the 3rd and 2nd pages, but does that really get you any traffic? Not really.
To understand how long it takes and why it takes that amount of time, let’s look at some of the factors that determine how long it takes to rank.
Competitiveness of Your Keywords
Keywords come with different competitiveness levels. If you’re in an industry and/or a market that’s super saturated with competition, your keywords are going to be more competitive and, therefore, harder to rank for.
If you’re in an industry or market that’s less saturated, you’re going to have an easier time with ranking.
For instance, let’s say you’re a software company and you’ve just launched a new solution to sign documents electronically. Your audience isn’t just in one area, but rather country (and even world) wide.
This is what we’d call a super-saturated market. Not only are there many companies that provide that same kind of software, but there are the big guns at the top like DocuSign and HelloSign that are going to be incredibly hard to beat. Plus, much of the first page of results is saturated by software review and listing sites like Capterra and G2 Crowd..
Instead, let’s say you’re a women’s clothing boutique in downtown Austin, TX. How many competitors do you have now? This is an example of a market that would be easier to rank in.
How Well You Currently Rank
This is another factor that influences how long it’ll take to drive your keywords up further in search.
If you’re coming into an SEO campaign with keywords that are at least on the radar in Google and a service or product that you’ve had for some time, it can be easier to drive them up than it would be if you just released a new product and had no rankings whatsoever.
Study by Ahrefs Shows Only 22% of Pages That Currently Rank in the Top 10 Were Created Within 1 Year
In February of 2016, Ahrefs, a provider of data-driven marketing tools, did a study to determine how long it takes on average to get to the top 10 rankings (the first page of results) in Google. What they found confirmed our suspicions: It takes a long time.
SEOs have watched over the past several years as Google has gotten much more sophisticated and much more trust-driven, making those coveted top rankings both harder to get and take longer to do so.
As someone who uses Google to find trustworthy, valuable results, the fact that it takes a while to rank is great. Those sites at the top have gained trust and recognition over time, making them (most likely) the best results for me to look at.
As an SEO, it’s a little more frustrating. When you have a product or service you know is great and could easily compete with the “big guys” but you have to wait a long time to get it to rank can be difficult.
This graph by Ahrefs shows just how old a majority of the pages are in Google’s top 10 results:
A Real-Life Example
At Thrive, our SEO team works with clients facing all different kinds of competitive situations. We’ve seen first-had how easy to is to get some clients to rank much faster than others. This is especially true with the client’s who’ve been with us for a long time, whose rankings and website visits we’ve been tracking for years.
One of our clients installs and repairs garage doors as their primary services. If you live in a metropolitan area and you’ve ever searched for garage door companies, you can see there are dozens of them, all vying for your business, Plus, on the first page of results, some real estate is taken up by sites like HomeAdvisor and Yelp, making those top spots even harder to earn.
We’ve seen first-hand how, with a consistent SEO campaign, keywords and pages we’ve been working on for a year or more climb Google’s Results pages.
Here’s a graph of the company’s number of keywords that rank in the top 5 results on Google’s search engine results pages:
Ranking on the First Page Takes a Year or More in Most Cases
From the Ahrefs study and from our own results with the garage door company, it’s clear that ranking on the first page of Google takes time and patience. SEO is not instantaneous, but with elbow grease applied over time, you can see awesome results in rankings, website visits, and leads.
Jolissa is a Content Strategist at Thrive, a full-service web marketing agency headquartered in Arlington, TX. Thrive's team is largely remote, so Jolissa lives in Minneapolis, MN. She's a content nerd, and loves using data and research to create winning content strategies. She also loves reading and writing and is a regular blogger.
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Don’t choke on your milk here, but today alone people published 2 million blog posts. That’s right. If you’re thinking of starting a blog, you have to compete with 2 million other people every day.
This is why you absolutely can’t just write a personal blog and hope someone will read it. Sure, someone might read it (likely your mother), but you’ll never drive traffic and you’re certainly not going to make any money.
What you need is a solid grasp of what people want and how to get them to care about what you know or have. Below you’ll learn exactly how to get them to care.
1. Who is Your Audience?
There are two common problems among new bloggers. They either turn their blog into a journal or they write “for the whole world.”
The journalers think people want to “share in their adventures.” This particular blog format only works for people actually having interesting adventures. If you’re a company selling traffic cones, there is no adventure in making traffic cones.
Your audience doesn’t care.
The “for the whole world” bloggers just aren’t specific enough. They generalize and write fluff nobody will read anyway. Then they wonder why nobody is reading their fluff.
To write for an audience, you must have useful information and specific information. It must be relevant to your audience and address their problems.
2. Promote Nothing
If you’re hoping to drive people away, then by all means, write one long product description and ask your audience to buy said product at the end. Then write another version next week. Do that over and over again without ceasing.
You’ll guarantee a low spot on any Google ranking.
Unless you’ve written a product review article or a gift guide, your readers aren’t there for advertisements. They’re there looking for answers to life’s problems.
Unless buying a construction safety harness is going to solve their problems, you’d better not write a post about how great and useful that safety harness you sell could be.
3. Learn How Google Sees Your Blog
Google is getting scary good at making machines able to “read” your blog like a human would. And some extremely smart people have figured out how to stay ahead of the Google bot.
This is called Search Engine Optimization. While we don’t have time to go into detail here, you should know a few things before we go on.
Keywords Are Still Relevant
While you don’t necessarily need to use a specific keyword strategy if your social media game is strong, keyword SEO could lubricate the wheels. If you rank for a specific high traffic keyword, not only will your traffic soar, but your audience will grow.
Do your research. There are plenty of basic tools out there to help you find easy-to-rank-for long-tail keywords.
It’s Easier Than You Think
Essentially, writing a blog post everyone will read is simple. Give your audience what they want. Write it well (use the Hemmingway editor if you have to). Optimize for search. And publish!
After you’ve done this, and if your social media game is on fleek, you’ll see people flock to your content.
Frida Polli, the CEO and co-founder of pymetrics, uses technology to take bias out of the recruiting process.
6 min read
In this series, Open Every Door, Entrepreneur staff writer Nina Zipkin shares her conversations with leaders about understanding what you have to offer, navigating the obstacles that will block your path, identifying opportunity and creating it for yourself and for others.
When you’re looking for a job, you're thinking about the future of your career. So why are you applying for new roles just based on a list of things you did in the past? Five years ago, that was question that Frida Polli couldn’t get out of her head.
Polli was working toward an MBA at Harvard after she spent a decade as a cognitive neuroscientist. But thrust into the world of recruiting as she and her classmates were on the hunt for their post–business school gig, she was struck by how outdated the process seemed.
So she started pymetrics, a platform that would marry her interests in neuroscience and artificial intelligence to help job seekers find the roles they are best suited for and help employers take bias out of the equation. Prospective candidates go through a series of computer activities that help figure out their cognitive and emotional personality traits and styles, and then companies look at that data, rather than just a resume, to make a determination about whom to hire.
Part of what spurred her on was the fact that her background didn’t look a lot like the standard MBA student's or typical tech CEO's. A hoodie-wearing college dropout Polli was not. When she got to Harvard, she was a 38-year-old single mother coming from a completely different industry.
When she was launching the business, she learned quickly that the only way she would succeed on her own terms was to bring her whole self to the table.
“When I didn't [have a] babysitter, I would have to bring my daughter to investor meetings or events,” Polli says. “I could have just been sheepish [about it]. But I'll never forget bringing my daughter, and [saying], ‘Yep, here's my co-founder.’ She was 10 at the time, obviously not my co-founder. I just owned it, and didn't say sorry.”
Polli says that she didn’t want to be limited by the perceptions of her past, and she figured many people felt similarly.
“I had a lot of self-doubt around if I could do this,” Polli tells Entrepreneur about deciding to start the company. “I definitely feel like it was just a question of deciding this is something I was passionate about, and wanting to follow my passion rather than what my resume said I should do.”
In the six years pymetrics has been in business, it has grown to a team of 78 employees, raised $16 million and has offices in New York, London and Singapore. The company serves more than 60 employer clients including Accenture, LinkedIn, Tesla and Unilever, and more than one million job candidates in 68 countries have used pymetrics to find new opportunities.
“We've essentially created a system which is audited to be lacking in any gender or ethnic bias. Women and people of color are much more fairly represented in the process. And then another type of diversity that we really don't talk about a lot is socioeconomic diversity,”Polli explains. “If you don't use a resume, you stop going to your eight core schools that you recruit at. Now you're going to 2,500 schools across the U.S.… It's creating a blind audition process where everybody has the same chance.”
Polli shared her insights about the importance of listening to move things forward.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How do you deal with setbacks?
Setbacks usually [happen when people say] what you're doing isn't important or it doesn't have value. You [say] that's not true, this is valuable. Reconnect with the other people that can encourage you to [remember why it’s important], whether it's your colleagues that are also bought into the mission or whether it's people that you're helping with the product you're building. Those elements will help you overcome whatever the setback is.
Was there a blind spot you had about leadership that you had to change within yourself?
One that has become more apparent to me, which is very counterintuitive, was do less and listen more. Especially in the early days of the company, you literally have to do everything. As the company grows, your job becomes to listen. It's a communication job more than it is that you have to do every single thing. And sometimes I do still fall back into that, I can give off the perception that I'm not listening, and it can be off-putting. It's so counterintuitive, because you always think of a CEO as being the person that's driving the business.
So to step back and say, "I'm actually going to spend time talking to people and listening to them and hearing what they have to have to say," it was a change for me. Rather than just thinking I had to do it all myself, it was actually creating a lot more opportunities for not only a happier work environment but also greater productivity.
What is your advice for being your own best advocate?
I used to struggle with this. You undersell what it is that you're doing and you try to be more measured. You try to be realistic, but at the end of the day people are looking for the big, inspiring, world-changing technology or company. If you truly believe that about what you're doing, you have to really project that. Whether it was being a neuroscientist or being a woman or some combination of the two, I had a hard time doing that.
Saying "I'm going to change the world" is not something most scientists are trained to do. But that's what being entrepreneur is all about. It's seeing a big problem in the world and wanting to put all of your energy and muscle behind trying to fix it and make it better.
In addition to guest posting on the UpCity blog, HTML Pro is featured as one of the Top Web Designers in New York. Check out their profile here.
The world of web design is a systematic cohesion of people skills and skilled developers. The sole dependability on a skilled developer to generate an effective website that appeals to the client is a crucial judgment error. To understand the true nature of what is required by the client from the developer and from the website, requires a flow of communication that effectively caters the needs of clients as well as the developer. Hence the presence of efficacious communication skills in a developer are vital to the assurance of long-term benefits.
The companies that are focused on the establishment of long term healthy relationships with their clients reap the most outcome. The balance in this correspondence is extremely delicate as a better relationship is often equated to the “client is always right” policy. However, the understanding of the fact that the client is the subject matter expert and the designer is the technical expert serves towards the establishment of a healthy relationship.
This is especially true in a setup where the subject matter happens to be unchartered waters for the developer, such as the beauty or the fashion industry.
These e-commerce platforms cater to an audience that are almost entirely foreign to the technicality of web design but are highly critical towards the ‘aesthetics’ of a website.
The following techniques if incorporated in the requirement analysis phase of a project will go a long for the comfort of the client, understanding of the developer and the efficiency of the project.
Listen Keenly
Listening is the key to establishment of a healthy, respectful relationship with any client let alone the clients that belong to the fashion or the beauty industry. The traits these clients share in common are artistic expression and attention to detail. Whereas these are exactly the things that need to be depicted in a web platform that represents them. Complete satisfaction of a client can only be achieved if a developer has the keen sense to infer the basic elements of the web design from a casual discussion with the client. The layout, theme and other front end elements of the design can be easily understood by the designer in an initial sitting by simply observing the body language and paying close attention to the words of the client.
Mere listening, however, will not get you the functional requirements essential for an efficient web platform. Hence communicating with the client in lay man terms and explaining the limitations of the design where necessary is highly crucial as it sets a tone that prevents unrealistic expectations over the clients’ part.
Top Rated Trends:
Familiarizing your client with the current trends of the web designing industry would develop a mutual interest and will also provide as a tool for informative conversation between the designer and the clients. The latest trends of the industry such as:
Animated Typography
“Corrupted” Images
Clean Layouts
These design elements coincide with the ever evolving trends of the beauty and fashion industry which would be conducive to the development of an up-to-date, tasteful web design.
Be Empathetic
The process of interviewing and communicating with a client must not be reduced to a professional procedure which is a necessary step in the completion of the development process. Business relationships are not that different from personal relationships, especially when it comes to communication. Any form of effective communication requires understanding of the subject and respect for the individuals involved. This entails that a developer be well researched in the field of the client while incorporating that understanding in communication with the client. Communication on a level higher than the professional bounds while maintaining professional courtesy requires empathy and patience from the developer. A relationship built in light of the aforementioned techniques would establish a trust between both the parties benefiting every stakeholder in the long run.
Agree With Your Client On Their Goals
As a developer you must be able to identify the clients’ requirements and preferences by the initial correspondence. However, the clients that are specifically dependant on the layout and outlook of the website for their livelihood would require special attention to detail from the developer on such matters. A developer must be extremely cautious in terms of these interpretations and must identify the details that are simply too unrealistic for implementation. Clients that have limited knowledge of the technical aspect must be dealt with extreme caution and explained the limitations in layman terms as to not be dismissive of their goals. The fact has to be kept in mind that the client is the field expert and is more aware of the output that is required of the web design. For instance clients from the beauty or fashion industry prefer micro interactions of the user with their website as the market is highly saturated and the user of the website is bombarded with diverse options. Any hindrance or extra clicks will be detrimental to the business.
Keep Your Client Updated
All the mentioned techniques have been focused on communication with the client, which makes it apparent that communication is the holy grail of relationships. The quality and efficiency of the conversation is not the only aspect that must be kept in a developer-client relationship. The frequency of this conversation is also important. The client must be aware of the progress of the project as well as any setbacks that have been encountered. This practice strengthens the trust that has been already established with the client. Constant communication will also ensure the relativity of the project as there may be changes in the requirement due to the rapid pace of the industry. Hence honesty and a healthy flow of communication is essential to the execution of the project and a satisfied client.
This article paints an idealistic scenario that every client seeks in a web design firm. Idealism is certainly strived for but seldom achieved. A web and graphic design company that provides you with a functional product while providing a pleasureful work experience is what every client needs.
Hamid is Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer at HTML Pro -NYC's Top Digital Marketing & Web Design Agency. A master at multitasking, is why Hamid was able to work successfully in multiple ventures during nine years gaining experience and making a name for himself in the IT community. Last few of those years, he spent growing HTML Pro, a current contender in becoming one of the World’s top notch providers in the web industry.
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Yesterday, I told you the story of how Google nuked me from their search engine and how I was able to survive it. In this blog post I want to share with you how I got back into Google’s good graces and the lessons learned from it.
Since the challenge of building a blog without Google was pretty much done and proven, the new challenge was trying to get back into Google. Would Google even talk to me after I’ve made them look bad for three years?
The normal way for getting a banned/slapped site back into Google is to correct whatever got you banned in the first place and then send a reconsideration request using Google Webmaster Tools.
There is no assurance or guarantee that Google will reconsider you and let you back in. You just basically have to hope and pray.
This was something I didn’t want to do.
Instead, I talked to my friend Neil Patel. Neil told me the best way to get back into Google was just to talk to Matt Cutts, head of Google’s webspam team at that time. Neil told me that Matt is an extremely fair guy and would be open to the idea of letting me back in even after all those violations I pulled.
Neil facilitated an introduction and Matt and I exchanged several emails. I got the feeling that Matt must work 24 hours a day because every time he emailed me, it was after 10PM.
Neil was correct in saying that Matt was extremely fair and after correcting one misunderstanding, Matt informed me that a member of his team had submitted a reconsideration request on my behalf. The next day, I was back in Google!
There are two take-away lessons you can learn from this.
The first one is… It’s not what you know, it’s who you know!
Without Neil Patel, I would have never got an audience with Matt Cutts. Instead, I’ll be hoping and praying like every webmaster who submitted a reconsideration request. Neil allowed me to go straight to The Man and get my blog back in Google almost instantly.
This is why networking is so important to me, and why I attend a lot of industry events. Your network is your net worth!
The second take away is… Have an email list!
If I didn’t have an email list when Google slapped hit, I wouldn’t be around today. The list allowed me to survived three years with no Google traffic.
My email list is the foundation of my entire online business. Without it, I would be just another broke blogger making peanuts, instead of of a millionaire blogger living the Dot Com Lifestyle.
If you truly want to make money online and live the Dot Com Lifestyle, you MUST have a list. And you MUST start it from day 1 (that’s today).
My friends over at Constant Contact would like to offer you a free 60 day trial to test out their world class list building service.
The free trial will allow you to explore all the campaign types and features that Constant Contact has to offer. You can create as many campaigns as you want, and try out all the different campaign types available.
And, unlike other trials, you don’t need a credit card to sign up. Test it out for a full 60 days and then decide if you want to be a customer. I’m sure you will once you see how powerful the service is.
In upcoming post seris, I will show you how to take full advantage of all the unique features Constant Contact has to offer. Go set up your free trial now so you learn can along with the training. Remember, it’s free and no credit card is required.
