MARKETING ACTUARY: productivity

Showing posts with label productivity. Show all posts

June 24, 2014

DUMP NEWSLETTERS TO BOOST YOUR PRODUCTIVITY (#CASL)

How many newsletters do you receive without noticing?

You may notice due to the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) which takes effect on July 1, 2014. Email lists are already meant to be opt-in already but some senders are asking subscribers to opt-in again.

Before you do, re-examine the value of each newsletter. You have the opportunity to reduce inbox clutter, focus your attention and boost your productivity.

Better Ways?

You get instant information whenever you want via a web search or social media. Those channels may be faster than searching through your email, especially if you have multiple accounts. In addition, you may find newer information or fresh sources.

If you’re following an organization in other ways (e.g., LinkedIn Company Page, LinkedIn Showcase Page, Twitter or Google Plus) you’ll often get the same information in an easily shareable way.

27 Typical Requests For Permission

Having to give permission feels like work. Notice the sameness in these subject lines:

Request for consent – time sensitive
LAST CALL – newsletter confirmation request
Stay informed. We need your consent.
Updating our email list
Reminder – Consent to Communicate
IMPORTANT – requesting your consent
Help Us Keep You Up To Date
One Minute Ask: Your Consent Is Required (CASL)
[COMPANY] requests your consent
[COMPANY] needs your consent!
[COMPANY] requires your consent
Consent requested to contact you by email
Stay Connected.
Keep us in your inbox
Email consent request from [PERSON’S NAME]
CASL – What you need to know
Update your e-mail preferences! Don’t miss out!
Deadline approaching
We request your consent
ACTION REQUIRED: We require your consent
Request for consent - time sensitive
Anti-spam is just around the corner
[COMPANY NAME] OPT-IN
[COMPANY NAME} doesn't want to lose you
Say Yes To Stay Connected
URGENT: [COMPANY NAME] Requires Your Consent
Don't lose out on great business information

The content suffers from sameness too. For example: “July 1 is approaching and we have not yet heard from you. We value our relationship with you and would like to stay connected, but we require your consent in accordance with new Canadian legislation.”

A Simple Way To Keep Subscribers

There’s a simple way for senders to entice subscribers to accept marginal newsletters: offer incentives like prizes or something useful for free. Even big companies aren’t doing this when they easily could. They must think their content is very special even when it’s really about them.

The Exceptions

Some senders aren’t asking for permission to continue sending their newsletters. Perhaps they feel they already have permission. Perhaps they’re reluctant to ask because they fear mass unsubscribes. Perhaps they interpret the laws differently. You can still unsubscribe.

The Sneaky Ones

Some senders are not asking for permission (and never really had it). One doesn’t even have an unsubscribe option. Instead, you’re to send them an email.
One company is saying

“if we don't receive explicit consent from you, in limited circumstances, we will continue to provide relevant communication to you under the implied consent provisions.”

The oddest example is Expedia, which just added me to a list without permission:

“As a subscriber to Groupon Getaways by Expedia, we are happy to start providing you with special travel deals and promotions. As a part of our ongoing commitment to bring you the best experience, we want to let you know that you are now automatically enrolled to receive emails directly from Expedia.”

The last Groupon email arrived on September 8, 2011.

Change Your Mind?

Chances are good that you won’t miss what you’ve stopped receiving. If you change your mind, you can always re-subscribe to a mailing list.

May 21, 2014

MANAGE YOUR PROJECTS WITH ASANA

In a successful small business, you don't have the expensive "checks and balances" (translation: redundancies) possible in larger organizations. Using the right tools helps assure quality while saving time.

When you're working with more than one other person on a project, communicating becomes a challenge. Email adds noise and wastes time. How do you manage your projects?

Many Options

You've got lots of choices for project management but no perfect solution. Your personal preferences matter. I seek solutions which are inviting and well-equipped for free users.
Asana stands out. It’s free for unlimited projects, each with a team of up to 15 people. The pricing for additional features and larger teams looks reasonable.

Why Asana?

Over the years, Asana has become more powerful and flexible but stayed simple. Your shared project can have sub-projects (called "Sections"). Your tasks can have subtasks. You can add descriptions and notes. Your tasks appear in an inbox.

Isn’t that enough to make quick progress?

Example

This screenshot shows two of my important priorities: Taxevity (the insurance advisory where I work) and Money 50/50 (a financial education initiative). The projects are underneath. The example under Networking shows the task of creating a permanent nametag to wear to events (no pins or adhesives to damage clothing!). Click to enlarge.

Other uses

Asana fits work-related projects well. For context-based tasks (e.g., remembering the bread), a smartphone app is more useful. You may find other uses as you become more familiar.
For client-related tasks, you might want to use a CRM like Contactually for tracking.

Since Asana is free, why not try?

March 19, 2014

HOW TO WORK FROM A HOME OFFICE (PART 2)

When you're working in a corporation, time gets wasted in less productive activities like meetings and memos. The best results come when you have time to think. That might be before co-workers arrive at work, when they’re at lunch or after they go home. Maybe you’re most productive at home before your family wakes or after your kids go to bed.

There’s more to life than extending the workday.

Enter the home office. You get many advantages but your productivity can suffer because you face many distractions too. Is that the fridge calling? In Part 1, we looked at basics of setting up your environment, tracking your time and stopping. This time we look at other tips for better results.

Have Morning Rituals

Do you touch your smartphone or tablet before you brush your teeth? Don’t. Leave your radio and TV off too. Control the way you start your day. Defer distractions until you’re ready for breakfast. Let the news, weather, traffic, sports, email, and tweets wait.

If you use your gadget as your alarm clock, get a real clock instead. Let your gadgets sleep in silent mode in another room, if possible. You don’t need to wake to a clock radio either.

Put Health First

Have a health regime which you ideally follow before breakfast. Since you've eliminated commuting, you have time (say for the seven minute workout). I allocate 30 minutes for ashtanga yoga, with a focus on breathing and stretching.

A proper breakfast helps too. We often eat leftovers from yesterday’s dinner – quick, nutritious, hot.

Ditch The Entertainment

You might think you’re more productive with the radio or TV on. Are you? We are not good at multitasking and get distracted easily (a reason to use time tracking tools). If you prefer background noise like a coffee shop, rain or birds, try soundrown.

I’m currently watching The Shield on Netflix. It’s tempting to sneak a peek over lunch. I don’t because it would be tough to return to the right frame of mind for work. Instead, I tend to read business articles or listen to a nonfiction audiobook.

Plan Your Activities

Plan your week and day in advance. Putting key activities into your calendar looks like the easiest way to schedule your priorities. That’s part of the first things first approach in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. There’s also the Getting Things Done process. You might find an amalgam works best.

Stay Accountable

When you’re working from home, who holds you accountable? Consider getting a private peer mentor. You help each other for free. That’s a win/win if you find the right person. If that’s not enough, you might want to hire a coach.

Use a CRM system

Are you following up on commitments and opportunities? The ideal CRM option helps you organize, take action and track results. It’s like having an assistant (or boss) — without working in a corporation.

March 4, 2014

MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS: DO THE PAINFUL PREPARATION FOR TOMORROW

Preparation takes time.
Preparation takes money.
Preparation causes disruption.
Preparation takes planning.
Preparation is essential.
Customers demand preparation.
While Toronto is a major city, we suffer from inadequate upgrades to infrastructure.

Internet

Our Rogers Ultimate Hi-Speed Internet tops out at 150 Mbps (a review), even though others pay the same price for 250 Mbps and four times the data. Why? The preparation isn’t in place.

We can’t switch to a competitor. Bell Fibe Internet reaches 175 Mbps but we can only get 25 Mbps.

Powerlines

Toronto Hydro is replacing the electrical system in our neighborhood. They’ve installed new taller street poles and new wiring. That’s taken weeks of elapsed time. Perhaps the new system would have spared us 90 hours without electricity during the latest ice storm. The height of the poles makes damage by tree limbs less likely.

It's another extra-cold day. We may be without electricity for 3.5 hours as the wiring switches over to the new system. The disruption is annoying but necessary. That's how preparation is.
We can’t switch to a competitor because there are none.

Your Situation

Your car reminds when maintenance is required. Your business doesn’t. The costs may not be large.

What preparations should you be doing? There's never a good time. If you plan, at least you have control over the schedule and disruption. You can make arrangements to minimize the impact.

Maintenance is necessary, especially if your customers can easily switch to your competitor. Maybe that’s why Google has been spending heavily on infrastructure — even more than GM.

Links

PS You might even get the credit you deserve for being proactive.

January 21, 2014

HOW TO EMAIL ALL YOUR LINKEDIN CONNECTIONS

You've been working hard building a nice quality LinkedIn network. Now you have a meaningful message for all your connections. How do you reach them?

Why Not Post An Update?

Posting an update is quick and easy, but will enough connections see it? The chances decrease if their network is large and they don’t visit LinkedIn often. You can post your update more than once but risk annoying your connections with smaller networks who visit LinkedIn regularly.

Email Through LinkedIn

LinkedIn limits your message to 50 recipients at a time. If you have 500+ connections, you can be spending a long time reaching them. The process of selecting the names is a hassle too.

LinkedIn’s limits are probably designed to discourage spam but most of the messages I receive this way are spammy. Also, you lose basic formatting options like bold, italics and bullets and friendly links (e.g., this instead of http://www.marketingactuary.com/2012/10/building-trust-with-linkedin-your-30.html).

What happens if LinkedIn limits the number of emails you can send in a day?

Email Through Your CRM

You can send email through your CRM system like Contactually (the best option for small business). Again. you may face limits on how many emails you can send at a time (e.g., 50) and in a day (e.g., 300). These systems aren’t designed for mass emails.

Perhaps they have concerns over spam even though the messages go through your own email provider (which may also have daily limits).

Your CRM likely holds non-LinkedIn connections too. Selecting the ideal recipients takes time, but is a worthwhile exercise. For instance, you might want to only reach people who live in the same city.

Email Through an Email Service

The ultimate solution is to use an email service like Mad Mimi (review). A free account may be all you need. These services give you a quick, fast way to reach your connections. You also see who’s opening the emails and what they’re clicking on.

Here’s the one-time process

Prune your LinkedIn network (now’s an ideal time)
Export the connections from LinkedIn
Import the list (instructions for Mad Mimi)

You’re now ready to compose and send your email.

Do You Have Permission?

Are you allowed to send messages to all your LinkedIn connections? I’ve asked around. This isn’t legal advice but the answer looks like yes if you

build a quality network
send messages infrequently
have meaningful content (e.g, skip generic messages like “Happy New Year”)

Your LinkedIn connections gave you permission to establish a business relationship with them. You can’t without communication. You’re simply finding a efficient, considerate way to reach them.