That’s where customer relationship retargeting comes into play. With CRM retargeting, you can experiment with a variety of retargeting methods and use a wide array of user data to target customers in the most relevant ways. Here are some tips to help you lay out a structure for your retargeting strategy.

Use several different ads at once

Using three to five different ads simultaneously will ensure they aren’t overlooked. Fresh approaches increase your odds of maintaining high visibility with your targets. But using multiple ads at the same time also lets you evaluate their efficacy alongside one another. As you identify ads that are more effective than others, you can weed out less effective methods and use your successes to guide your future ad development. Ultimately, you should see the conversion rates for these ads increase, directly affecting your bottom-line.

Implement retargeting specific to each transactional phase

At various points during the opt-in or transactional process, you’re bound to experience would-be conversions that are abruptly abandoned. You can increase your odds of attracting those individuals back to your offerings and completing the purchase with creative retargeting. For example, if someone bails out of the checkout process when about to buy a product or service, you can attempt to get that customer back with an ad that offers a discount. That way, you’re only offering those discounts to people who came close, but didn’t quite pull the trigger, on the transaction. This strategy brings a sharper, narrower focus to your retargeting and will give you plenty of data to help you better understand your customers.

Don’t waste retargeting efforts on the wrong audience

Does your CRM retargeting continue to target consumers even if they’ve already opted in, made a purchase or completed your desired conversion? If so, you’re wasting valuable dollars trying to win over people who have already made the commitment. It isn’t hard to integrate a retargeting list that records everyone who has opted in to a campaign, so they can be removed from all targeting efforts. In doing so, you conserve your resources for the targets that are actually worth your while, and you avoid annoying those who have already taken the plunge.

Always aim to get better

When it comes to ad copy, your advertising approaches and other elements of your marketing, it’s important to keep questioning your approach and brainstorming new, fresh strategies that might prove more effective. It’s easy to get complacent when a strategy is successful, but if you sit on what you’ve currently got then you may be missing out on  other campaigns that could prove even more effective.

Over time, monitoring the success of these various moves – and eliminating ineffective retargeting measures – is what will continue to deliver strong results and a greater ROI. Campaigns should never be viewed as fixed processes; you want to test new methods and throw out the innovations that fall short of your expectations. If you continually prune your efforts down to the elements that produce the best results, you should continue to see upward progress and a more attractive ROI as the campaign wears on.

What is retargeting?

Before you can effectively retarget in sister industries, you need to have a basic understanding of this increasingly popular concept. In a nutshell, retargeting is a technique that involves tracking — more innocuous than it sounds — visitors to your website and showing specialized ads to those who leave your site without converting. This technique is useful for pulling people back in and guiding them further down the sales funnel. Instead of simply attracting someone to your website only to have them immediately leave, retargeting strives to attract those who have already expressed interest in your site, making them more likely to come back and see what your company has to offer.

Why retarget on other industries’ websites?

Companies utilizing online advertising mostly stick with platforms related to their own industry. The theory is that, by attracting users from a related website, the company is more likely to make much sought after conversions and keep customers returning again and again. While this idea certainly has merit, there are benefits to advertising on related sites, too. If you run a hotel, for instance, you can run retargeting ads on travel blogs, flight booking websites, car rental sites and tourist-centric sites in your area. This allows you to place your advertising across a wide array of industries, instead of sticking to just one or two.

Determining your audience

In order for retargeting to be effective, you will need to have a firm grasp on the demographics that make up the majority of your audience, as well as the websites those visitors are likely to visit. You may need to take some time to research the interests and online habits of your target audience, but this process will be well worth the effort. Once you understand the makeup of your audience, you will be better able to target your audience on various websites that do not necessarily pertain directly to your industry. Best of all, once a user from your target audience has made a purchase, you can further retarget him with related goods or services to turn a one-time customer into a valued return customer.

Retargeting continues to evolve, and what works at one time may not be the right tactic in the future. However, as of right now, companies choosing to retarget in related industries are seeing vast increases in conversions. If you are struggling to attract return visitors to your website, this new and improved form of retargeting just might be worth looking into.

It is that feeling of belonging that creates higher job satisfaction, encourages better performance and less turnover within a company. A new employee is melded into the company culture and has an opportunity to develop connections with coworkers, as well as those in management. By laying this foundation, new hires are able to perform their jobs more efficiently and with better communication.

Onboarding strategy

In the fourth quarter of the business calendar, there is often extra pressure for a business to be efficient. When this happens, the mechanics of onboarding can seem like a waste of time. The temptation can easily arise to give new employees their job description, minimal instruction and simply have them get to work. But Q4 is no time to abandon onboarding policies. When stresses arise from the pressure to make year-end goals, it’s especially important to get new employees to quickly feel as if they are a true part of an organization. That type of investment not only helps Q4 figures, but can also help the company reach its goals in the coming year. When a company has trouble meeting sales and other goals near the end of the year, having additional employees who feel vested in the company can be a great asset. They can help with special projects such as an email marketing boost or may be encouraged to brainstorm to come up with other ideas to move the company forward.

In order to stay efficient but still invest time and attention in new employees, consider using onboarding software. Streamline functions like getting employees set up in the payroll system or enrolling them in benefit programs. Software programs make tasks that have traditionally been a monotonous part of the hiring process much smoother with autofill options and notification reminders when data needs to be updated. These tools also help with the assessment of current employees and identify ideal characteristics for future employees.

Long-term benefits

Although much of the pomp and circumstance present during a new employee’s orientation process can feel tedious and overwhelming, the overall message to the employee is that he is worth your time and attention. It’s hard to get started at a new job no matter the training strategy. Employees will ask the right questions of managers they’ve had a chance to speak with more readily than personnel who handed them a training manual before running back to their office.

Developing and maintaining a welcome feeling and an air of approachability goes a long way towards keeping employees long term, preventing additional training expenses and even encouraging employees to participate in the training and selection of new staff. Management can make the onboarding process seamless, making sure to meet with their recruits, answer questions and make the new employee feel as welcome as possible.

About Search Retargeting

Search retargeting is a way of focusing your advertising tactics on potential customers who have already shown an interest in the product or services your company has to offer. A search retargeting campaign will place a cookie on the browser of those who search the Internet for products and services you have to offer. Then, when they visit partnering sites you advertise with, your ad will appear.

What Can Retargeting Do For You?

Since you already know the potential customer is looking for items similar to what can be found on your website, the chances of them converting is higher. They already need or want what you have to offer, so it’s just a matter of getting them to your site. Search retargeting will introduce consumers to your site through banner ads on other sites and all they have to do is click on the ad and they are directed to your page. This will not only increase the amount of visitors to your site, it will bring those who are more likely to make a purchase.

For example, if you sell an organic household cleaner, you can target those who search for ways to clean organically, have previously purchased cleaners online or do a generic organic search online. When conducting an online search, the consumer may never see your company’s name in the results. However, once their computer has been tagged and they visit a partnering site, they’ll see your ad flash before their eyes and click to see what you have to offer them.

How to Use Retargeting

When you’re starting a search retargeting campaign, you need to select keywords that not only represent what your company offers, but also are more likely to be searched for when browsing the Internet. For example, if you sell lawn mowers you may want to have browsers tagged who search for lawn equipment, lawn maintenance and of course, lawn mowers. Search retargeting campaigns work best when you team up with other advertising sites and popular search engines.

A search retargeting campaign will focus your online advertising efforts on those who already have an interest in what you need. Search retargeting takes advantage of tagging and searching an Internet browser’s history. This history is used by many marketers as a way of focusing their attention on those consumers who are more likely to take advantage of what a company has to offer. See how search retargeting can boost the number of hits and conversions your company’s website receives by launching a search retargeting campaign today.

Strengths
Strengths are a great place to start any internal company analysis. After all, you’d much rather talk about how great your company is than how badly it’s performing. Your main strength is your competitive advantage; that is, the one thing you have to offer that your competition doesn’t. Start with your main competitive advantage, then go from there.

Questions to ask yourself:

· What do we do best?

· What do our customers think we do best?

· What are the things that we do well, but gloss over or take for granted?

Weaknesses
After patting yourself on the back, it’s time to take a cold look in the mirror and figure out the things you don’t do quite as well. It’s important that you don’t take the easy way out with this part, since it may be the most important part of your analysis. The truth is, every business has weaknesses, but it’s only when they’re identified and properly analyzed that they get resolved.

Questions to ask yourself:

· What problems do we always seem to have?

· What can we do better?

· What do I always complain about when talking with outsiders?

· What do our customers perceive to be our weaknesses?

Opportunities
Now that you’ve looked inside your company, it’s time to take a look at the outside world. Opportunities are those things that exist, or even those that don’t, that your company doesn’t currently take advantage of. An opportunity can be anything – a money-saving measure, a socially conscious initiative or simply a way to retarget customers and get them to re-evaluate your company.

Questions to ask yourself:

· What external changes or advances can we use to move our company forward?

· Where do we want the company to be in five years?

· How can we get ahead of our competition?

Threats
The opposite of opportunities, threats are those things that aren’t hurting you now, but could damage your company in the future. Threats range from global concerns (struggling economy) to local (weather, traffic) and everything in between. Becoming aware of the threats around you is crucial to any company’s success; identifying threats before they strike can result in opportunities for the company to gain a further advantage in the market.

Questions to ask yourself:

· What are our competitors doing that we’re not?

· What obstacles stand in our way?

· Are we taking advantage of the technology available to us?

· What potential legal and social changes can hurt the company?

Trends
The newest addition to the SWOTT analysis involves trends. Just as social media can track what is currently “trending”, a good company tracks the surrounding world and acts accordingly. After all, if you don’t understand trends, then you don’t understand your customers – and that means you don’t know anything.

Questions to ask yourself:

· How do our customers want to receive updates about our company?

· Are customers buying more or less now than they were last year?

· How well are we tracking and analyzing prior data?

· Are there any recent changes to the landscape of our particular industry?

Doing a SWOTT analysis might be college-level coursework, but it’s certainly not easy. It requires a great deal of honesty and humility. However, the benefits by far outweigh any amount of humble pie you have to eat as you dig into your company’s core. The results you come up can drastically improve the prospects of your business, both short-term and long-term.

Companies like Apple are masters of keeping their customers loyal. They develop such excellent products and provide such exceptional customer service that their satisfied fans can’t help but sing Apple’s praises. And each time a user pulls out their iPhone to make a call, it’s a mini endorsement for the product line. They also engage their users online, which only helps their reputation. In addition to providing excellent products and services, here are three strategies that you can get started on today:

Use Social Media and Technology to Connect

One of the most valuable things you can get from customers is their trust. You want them to recognize your business as an industry leader and trust that you always provide top-of-the-line products and services. One way to form a connection and develop trust is to interact with them online. Twitter and Facebook are excellent ways in which you can engage customers and “talk” to them daily. It only takes minutes to send out and respond to messages, but customers will be impressed that a real person would take time to ask them about how to improve products, answer questions or just offer discount codes. And it’s a way in which customers can choose to engage.

…But Don’t Forget the Power of Personalization

Some people choose not to use social media and others don’t use computers, so sending out notices of upcoming promotions and tips on how to effectively use your products will be worth the time and monetary investment. Sending out cards at the holidays, or on customers’ birthdays, will go a long way in making them loyal. It’s one thing to get a preprinted holiday postcard, but if your database isn’t too large, why not go a step further and hand write a short note and sign them yourself? Sweeten the message by enclosing a coupon which will bring them back to the store or to your site.

Use Site Retargeting

It takes considerable work to get people to your website, and you want to keep them there–and coming back–until they buy something. Site retargeting is a great way in which you can keep people “in the loop,” so to say. Using a site retargeting service ensures your potential customers won’t be lost once they leave your site. As they catch up on the news and read their favorite blogs, they’ll be shown ads prompting them to return to your site. Of course it’s not so obvious as that, they’ll see a personalized ad for one of your products. They’ll then be reminded of how they were looking for a product at your site, and hopefully realize how much they need it and then click the photo to return to your site. This strategy will help visitors remember to return, and if you’re providing new content or offering discounts, they’ll be happy to oblige.

Don’t go out and try to implement all three of these strategies today. Choose the one that you feel will fit best with your business model, and your target audience, and start working on that. After you’ve got a handle on it, add another one that will be a good match. If one doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to give it up in favor of another one; let your strategies evolve with your company. But remember, never stop reaching out to your customers–they’re the lifeblood of your business.

An effective first step in setting up and successfully implementing an effective onboarding program is to go back to the beginning — the very beginning. Disclosure of vital employee information starts with the application and interview stage of the hiring process. If a system were in place that kept track of prospective employee information and was capable of easily transferring it electronically to the appropriate departments and automatically populating required documentation, a new employee’s first week would go much smoother.

The Right Documents at the Right Time

Employee onboarding software can be customized for your business so that the information your HR and other departments require is efficiently stored in a database that also automatically transfers that information to the necessary hiring and employee forms, no matter how unique they are to your company. It saves time and money since your new hire doesn’t have to spend so much of her first few days filling out forms and your managers and HR staff don’t have to spend so much of their time chasing down missing information.

Give New Hires All the Info They Need

Aside from data gathering, there’s the dilemma of trying to smooth out the transition process. Educating your new employee on company culture helps him slide as seamlessly as possible into his new role. Many companies consider this the responsibility of an orientation program, but like data collection, orientation tasks can also begin before the hire.

In a list of onboarding tips for Inc., Fred Cooper of Compass HR Consulting recommends tying certain aspects of the orientation in with the recruiting program. If your company requires things like drug testing or background checks, for instance, applicants can be told so before you’ve made a decision or an offer. Allowing applicants to bring up concerns about their background or to decline a drug test can narrow the pool down, saving time and money.

Orientation should be visual and precise

Making actual orientation activities more efficient can be accomplished by providing the information via video. Being visual creatures, we can often retain more information by watching it rather than reading it. In his article about onboarding for Huffington Post’s Blog, Brian Kelly points out that video creates an emotional connection that isn’t established with a pamphlet or through a lecture. With videos, you can control the delivery and the feel of the content, making the presentations more concise and consistent. You can also eliminate the risks of omitted information or a negative impression. And with current technology, digital video can be delivered through email, stored on the company’s website or even loaded on YouTube for access anytime.

Presenting company policies, department overviews, job expectations and vacation and benefits information in a positive format along with proactive data gathering and storage will make the hiring and transition processes flow smoothly. Your new hire isn’t the only one out to make a good first impression; making a positive impression and retaining new employees is easier when you implement efficient onboarding procedures.

• Clean up your Facebook account, and use it as a living, breathing résumé. Make sure all the photographs you are tagged in and post are something you wouldn’t mind your future boss seeing. Keep future employers in mind when posting any statuses. And above all, promote yourself. List your employment history, your interests and of course, all your other social media accounts. Most potential employers are going to attempt to find you on Facebook to learn a bit more about you — show them you have nothing to hide, and reveal your best self.
• Make sure you have a profile on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the largest business social media networking site, and it is being used more by HR professionals to pre-screen candidates and subsequently recruit them. Make sure your profile is as detailed as possible, and try to get as many recommendations from past coworkers, colleagues and employers as possible.
• Utilizing cloud-based file sharing websites in order to easily transfer your résumé to any potential employers. The easier they can retrieve your résumé, the more likely you will be to get that interview and with a little bit of luck, the job.
• Write your résumé so that employers can easily find it. This means in addition to having a well-designed résumé, there should also be keywords placed strategically throughout it so that it comes up first in an employer’s search. Keywords should include words in the original job description, so that your résumé appears relevant.
• Include your social networking information on your business card. This way, when you are at a live networking event or you meet a new colleague in town, they will know how to connect with you online. The more connections you build through social networking, the more likely you are to be considered for the job you’ve always dreamed of.

Today’s global economy provides a competitive market, no matter what type of industry you are in or what your specialization is. It’s important to stay on top of the latest social media techniques, and to keep up with the ever-changing technology of today. It’s likely that you’ll never pick up a newspaper and flip through the classifieds again, and you may even be shying away from online job search engines. Social networking is not only the key to the future of business, but it may also be the key to your future employment and career as well. By utilizing social media — and doing it well — you will more than likely stand out as one of the best candidates for any given job. Not only will you prove you are qualified, you’ll show your future employer you are willing to stay on top of the changing times.

How Microsoft Went Pro with the Surface

The consumer level of this tablet and the business version might look the same at a quick glance at the specification sheets, but there are several pointed differences that show that Microsoft has the business world in mind with the pro version. The main draw is that the battery is much bigger in the business version, so you can have a more extended amount of time out and about on the field before you have to find an outlet. The other change is that it uses a core i5 processor instead of the default option, which provides it with a more powerful system overall.

Replacing the Laptop

Unlike other common tablet options, the Surface Pro does have a touchscreen, but it also has a full-fledged keyboard that makes it easy to use for business purposes. You don’t have to lug around a full laptop if you’re out on the road for business. You have a tablet that neatly situates itself in between the smartphone and laptop market niche, and it has a number of useful applications. The Surface is also going to be heavily integrated with Windows 8 technology, allowing it to be easily maintained by your current IT department. You’ll be able to use it to send email attachments of cats wearing funny hats just as if you’d been using a laptop or desktop computer.

Usage

Tools that can be used on Windows will work on the Surface Pro, so you don’t have to worry about finding the proper apps. Instead, you can use the same software that you’re using when you’re at the office. This provides a major advantage, especially for businesses like graphic designers and artists, or your departments that handle these functions. Other traditional tablet functions also apply, so you’re getting the best of both worlds for your business.

Why It Wins Out

Only two other business tablets were ever put on the market, and while the iPad has plenty of traction, it’s not specifically designed for business environments. The Microsoft Surface Pro has a business focus from the ground up, and that shows through every step of the way. You’re going to really be able to tell the difference when you get in to the keyboard and software compatibility, since these are not things that you’re getting with a standard tablet. The cost savings of being able to use tablets instead of laptops is rather massive, especially when the tablets aren’t going to incur additional specialized support costs. It might be the time to start looking at business tablets on a serious basis.