6 Things Entrepreneurs Need to Know
By Rieva Lesonsky
1—Happy Employees are Full Employees
According to a new survey from Peapod, a leading online grocer targeting both businesses and homes, free office snacks have a huge impact on employee morale. The survey shows 66% of workers who say their office is always nicely stocked with free food or beverages are “extremely or very happy” with their current jobs.
Offering free food also helps you attract Millennial workers, who are nearly 3 times as likely to value the availability of in-office treats compared to those 45 and older.
Providing snacks is relatively inexpensive, so you really ought to consider it. Check out the infographic below for more details.
2—Protect Your Documents
With more and more cyberattacks reported nearly every day, most of us are concerned about the security of our data. In its 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report, Verizon found 63% of confirmed data breaches involved leveraging weak, stolen or default passwords. So it’s no surprise 68% of consumers want companies to provide an extra layer of security to online transactions. One easy way for you to do this is to implement multi-factor authentication.
Check out the infographic below from SIGNiX to learn more.
3—Is Your Website Driving Away Consumers?
Consumers are judging your website. Nearly 70% say the most important factor in having a positive website experience is seeing up-to-date and accurate content. Perhaps that means you should look at your site and give it a “spring cleaning.” These insights come from The Small Business Consumer Expectations Report from Vistaprint Digital.
The report shows consumers are expecting a lot from small business websites—42% say they’re not likely to visit or purchase something from a small business if it has a poorly designed or unprofessional website. And 21% are not at all likely to buy.
Worried your site is leaving a bad impression? Outdated contact information (nearly 50%) and a lack of address/directions/business hours (42%) are the top reasons consumers leave a small business website with a bad impression. And nearly 60% of would be less likely to purchase from a small business if they had a bad impression of the website. A mere 7.5% say it would have no impact at all.
As D. Scott Bowen, vice president and general manager of Vistaprint Digital, points out, “Based on a recent poll of our customers, we know that lack of time and limited resources are the top challenges for micro business owners as they look to grow their businesses. With 68% of consumers saying that up-to-date and accurate website content is most important when it comes to having a positive experience with a small business site, allocating time to regular site updates is critically important.”
Additional key insights
- 50% have the same expectations of a small business site as they do a large chain
- 29% of consumers consider a website e outdated if it hasn’t been updated in six months; 25% say if it hasn’t been updated in one month
- 45% of those who have visited a small business site primarily are searching for product information, followed by 21% who are looking for hours
You can learn see more on the Vistaprint Digital blog.
4—Boost Your Google AdWords Campaigns
According to previous Manta research many small business owners don’t know how to start paid search campaigns for their businesses. To help, Manta released a new report showing small business owners how to create successful Google AdWords campaigns.
John Swanciger, CEO of Manta, shares a few tips to help you bolster your Google AdWords campaigns:
- Enforce a strong keyword branding strategy: To start campaigns off on the right foot, small business owners should familiarize themselves with the different options for keyword branding: branded, non-branded and competitive conquesting.
- Adopt broad match when beginning a campaign: Using broad match helps small business owners report which keywords work best, which helps them refine their strategies over time.
- Limit ad targeting to locations with current or planned reach: Location is highly important for paid searches, and the best way for small business owners to take advantage of it is by identifying the areas their businesses service and the areas they want to serve in the future.
- Make the most of ad copy for conversions and clicks: Optimizing ad copy is key to garnering clicks and conversions, so small business owners should become educated on expanded text ads and ad extensions as well as keeping messaging concise and clear.
You can get a copy of the white paper here.
Quick Links
5—An Easier Way to Collect Leads
LinkedIn recently introduced LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms, to make it easier to collect quality leads for your small business.
Part of the problem is the more people rely on mobile devices, the harder it is to file out forms. Product manager Divye Khilnani explains how LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms “make it easy to collect leads from the nearly 500 million professionals, influencers, and business decision-makers who use LinkedIn.”
You can learn more on Khilnani’s blog here.
6—Network & Learn
There’s an amazing lineup of speakers featured in the Benzinga Global Fintech Awards (BZ Awards) on May 11 in New York City, including Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank fame. The Awards were originally created “to recognize innovation and excellence throughout the capital markets industry and to seek out the most innovative companies that are improving the way we create wealth within the capital markets.”
The event is expected to be a networking mecca offering attendees “access to founders, directors of Fintech companies, brokerages, banks, quants, hedge funds, VCs and more.
The BZ Awards itself is a competition that showcases “the companies with the most impressive technology, that are paving the future in financial services and capital markets.” If you’re interested in finance and entrepreneurship, you can register here.
Even better, there’s an open bar.
