Month: November 2018

What To Outsource A Month Before Christmas

MOMENTUM Business Support Business Support
Christmas tree in a town centre covered in blue lights

With only 5 working weeks to go before Christmas hits, what do you have left on your to do list?  

In between concentrating on serving your customers, providing your services and managing your workspace and teams, there’s an abundance of operations and management jobs that need to be done. Why not take some of the pressure off and ensure you finish the year with all these tasks completed too. Here’s some ideas about what you can outsource to ensure you rest easy this Christmas. 

Admin 

This time of year it’s always good to start getting ready for next, and an important part of that is organisation. You don’t want to come back to work in January with a messy inbox, unorganised filing systems and unruly databases. So why not enlist someone to help? It may only be a few hours work, but against providing your core services, it’s not necessarily a priority.  

An experienced personal assistant can expertly organise your emails, purging out of date or unnecessary correspondence, creating folders to file important emails, highlight important messages and much more. They can even send holding responses for you to give you more time to deal with key communications. 

When it comes to your digital filing systems – folders on your laptop/ computer, DropBox (or other file sharing platforms) or local servers – these can get out of hand after 12 months activity! It’s a task that you probably keep thinking about, but let’s face it, the prospect of sifting through and getting them sorted isn’t a fun one. Why not bite the bullet and recruit a helper? With an impartial view and no emotional attachment, they’ll quickly and efficiently tidy your files and likely make them much more user friendly too! 

The same goes with your databases. Over months of use and ongoing updating they’re prone to getting untidy. New names get added to notes, but not the ‘Contact’ section. Numbers and addresses aren’t always up to date. Old information and data entries are kept when they no longer need to be. Excel spreadsheets have formatting errors and inconsistencies. It’s a mess! Get a skilled administrator to have a look and take the stress of this task away. 

Whilst we’re on the subject of admin, have you sent your customers’ Christmas cards out yet? We can source, print, write and post them for you if you like? 

Finance 

This is so important. We can’t stress enough how little time there is until businesses start slowing or shutting down for the 2-week holiday period. Realistically you only have 4 weeks to get your outstanding invoices sent or followed up for payment. It’s nice getting the orders in and goods sent out, but it’s even better to start a new year with the cash in the bank and your finances in order. We understand one can’t happen without the other, but these processes don’t have to be independent. Hiring a capable Credit Controller to follow up older debts and keep on top of new ones is the best way to ensure you’re ahead of the game when January comes around. 

Bookkeeping is another key area that’s often left until it’s an absolute must. Incoming invoices, receipts and payments are a regular daily occurrence for most businesses and it’s easy for them to pile up quickly without being properly logged, making year end books a bit of a headache. Why not alleviate some of the pain and let a professional help you get it all organised? 

Quick question … When was the last time you reviewed your annual cashflow results and forecasts to look for expenditure savings? We’d be happy to help by producing simple summaries and overviews for you.  

Digital Marketing  

It’s easy to let marketing go a little when you have a busy period, but the problem with that is, when it gets quiet again there’s nothing in the pipeline! Don’t let your new year suffer because of your December successes. Employ an experienced digital marketer to help create and keep on top of your newsletters, mailshots, annual summaries and infographics. Keep the promotions going for January and get a plan in place for the rest of the year. 

Whether you currently use social media as a marketing channel or not, now is the time to start thinking about your strategy. If you use it already, you’ll know how important a good plan is and if you don’t, you should be! Seek the services of a digital marketing expert so it’s not all on your shoulders. The best way to interact and engage with prospects often changes, their help and advice will be invaluable – Not to mention they’ll take the daily workload that comes with social marketing away too!  

FYI – We’ve worked with over 30 industries on 100’s of accounts, across multiple social media channels. We’re always happy to answer questions and share ideas. 

So, whilst you’re taking care of order fulfilling; customer services; staff reviews; stock takes; desk clearing; and new year goal setting, let us help with everything in between. Allow yourself to make time for the most important thing of all – spending time with family and friends and taking some much-needed time off! 

We have been successfully providing services remotely for six years now. We are members of the ICO (Information Commissioners Office) and have been for 6 years. We work on our clients’ behalf as part of their team, and you can be confident that all services we provide are GDPR compliant, we take confidentiality seriously. 

If you’d like help with your admin, finance tasks or digital marketing, then please get in touch:  

T – 01903 688789  E – makeithappen@mbsmih.com 

What Social Platform Should You Be Using?

MOMENTUM Business Support Digital Marketing
An open Iphone mobile displaying a Social networks folder with apps

When it comes to getting social and marketing your products and services there are so many platforms to choose from. To avoid falling into the trap of wasting valuable time and effort, it’s best to stick to the ones that produce the greatest results for your business.

Without taking the time to trial and test the various social media platforms, it can be hard to know which one/s are right for you. This blog works through the most popularly used sites in the business community, with the aim of helping you to identify which are best to use for your business.

Facebook

Facebook is still the most popular and widely used social media platform and despite negative press and general opinion, it continues to grow. It has the broadest audience and in particular boasts the largest ‘65 or older’ group. It has a fairly even gender, income and location (rural, urban, suburban) split too. The types of posts preferred by Facebook users are also reasonably evenly divided across video, image and text.

It is however one of the more difficult audiences to grow, with an average of 6 interactions per post, per 1000 followers! Don’t let this put you off though, just understand it may be a slow burn as you build your audience and you might have to put a little more effort into getting seen and heard.

Twitter

Whilst Twitter’s overall worldwide user numbers are lower than Facebook, this social network is one of the more popular in the UK. Again, the gender split is quite even but the age of users is generally younger; 18 – 50yrs with the biggest segment being 18 – 29yrs. Twitter users tend to be in the higher income brackets (although this is considered to be due to an increase in high profile users such as celebrities and politicians) and are more likely to have college or university degree level education.

With it’s high use of #hashtags, ‘twitter hours’ and daily trends, this is one of the easiest platforms to get noticed on. It’s fast paced though, so you’ll need to put out much more content and keep an eye on when your audience are most active to ensure your content is reaching its full potential.

LinkedIn

The most ‘professional’ of the social channels, LinkedIn’s audience tends to be more urban and the higher income earners have more presence and activity levels on here. There are slightly more male users, but not significantly, and whilst the highest number of users are 18 – 29yrs, there’s also a good number in between and in the 65+ group here too. The UK has one of the highest user counts on LinkedIn worldwide, so this is a very popular platform.

LinkedIn personal profiles are about growing your direct network. It’s personal – no business names or brands to hide behind. Bear this in mind when sharing content and when giving opinions on others’ posts. It’s a great way to build your network within your industry as well as with potential customers.

Instagram

Instagram has 12% more female users than male, and the largest 18 – 29yr user base. There are few differences between the location, income and education levels of its users. Behind Facebook (in the UK) it’s the second most popular social channel and the next fastest growing platform with more than half of the accounts being accessed daily. Instagram supersedes all other networks with a massive 5% post interaction rate (yes – massive! The other platforms here averagely achieve between 0.1 – 0.5%).

This platform is ideal if you have products or high-quality images to share – it’s all about pictures! Like Twitter, the high use of #hashtags help get your content seen. It’s also easy to find and follow accounts that you’re interested in seeing or to help them see you.

Pinterest

Income and education levels aren’t significant on Pinterest. The key demographics to consider here are; the user base is predominantly female, and the age range is quite broad, 18 – 64yrs. Users also tend to be from urban or suburban locations. Although one of the less commonly used networks when compared with others, it’s still considered one of the more engaging and is accessed more regularly than LinkedIn!

Similar to Instagram, Pinterest is about pictures and imagery. However, it’s actually used more as a ‘how-to’, DIY or creative source. Careful use of keywords and good descriptions for each of your posts will help them get found by users searching your topic. The more unique, relevant and helpful they are, the more they will get ‘pinned’.

Summary

All social media channels offer an effective way to connect with your potential clients and customers, but with only a limited amount of time, it’s best to stick to the ones that are likely to produce the greatest results for your efforts. We would recommend focussing on one first, then maybe adding 1 or 2 more as you become more proficient.

  • Facebook – the most varied demographics, particularly ideal if you have a mature crowd to please.
  • Twitter – great to attract higher income earners and easiest to get noticed on.
  • LinkedIn – personal network building with a larger male user base.
  • Instagram – images, images, images!! With a focus on younger audiences.
  • Pinterest – great for engaging with crafty and creative women.

Regardless of the platform you choose, it’s really important to interact and not just offload or ‘shout’ – keep the social in social! Be responsive, offer relevant promotions and provide educational content. Be genuine, add value and be courteous (unsurprisingly, the thing least likely to attract fans and followers is bad mouthing competitors!).

If you have any questions or would like to chat through your social media plans, we’d love to hear from you: Call 01903 688789 or Email makeithappen@mbsmih.com .

Facts and figures supported by research from Informatics, Sprout Social and Smart Insights.