No More Free Google Apps for Businesses

No More Free Google Apps for Businesses
Is Presenteeism Hurting Your Business?
Is Your Writing Nailing These 3 Stages?
5 Ways To Improve Your Social Marketing in 2013
Nine Inch Nails Singer To Launch Streaming Music Service

Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:00 PM PST

Since its initial introduction into the business world in 2005, Google Apps has been available to small business users for free. Even when the premium version was launched in 2007, Google still maintained a free standard version for individuals and small organizations.

But now, Google has announced that it will no longer offer the free version of Google Apps to new business customers. The premium version, now called Google Apps for Business, will continue to be available for $50 per user per year, regardless of company size. Free accounts will be reserved for personal users.

Google said that this change will not impact current Google Apps customers, even those using free business accounts. However, new businesses that sign up for Google Apps will have to sign up for a premium account.

Google Apps offers businesses many useful services, from Gmail accounts to Google Drive cloud storage. Premium accounts also offer a 25GB inbox, 24/7 phone support, and 99.9% uptime with no scheduled downtime.

Since the free version of Google Apps was previously available to both businesses and individuals, Google said that the overall user experience was lacking for both groups, and that's part of the reason why it chose to make these most recent changes. The company stated in a blog post that many business users tended to outgrow the basic version too quickly and personal users were left waiting on updated features that had to become business ready before launching.

Individual users will still be able to sign up for free personal Google accounts, which allow access to web apps across all of Google's services. In addition, Google Apps for Education will remain a free offering.

Google Apps is currently used by millions of businesses around the world, which, for now at least, won't be impacted by this news. But for the new startups launching daily and other businesses that haven't yet signed up for Google Apps, there will only be one account option available, and it is no longer free.

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Is Presenteeism Hurting Your Business?

Posted: 12 Dec 2012 11:00 AM PST

You've heard about employee absenteeism, but what about presenteeism? This new trend could be equally—or more—destructive to your business as employees calling in "sick" to work.

Presenteeism, where employees are so stressed that simply being present in the workplace is a higher priority than doing their jobs or improving their performances, has risen to 22 percent, according to the latest StressPulse^SM survey by ComPsych Corp.

stressed employee

The national survey of 1,880 workers found the number of employees who see "being present" as their top priority is up 3 points from 2011. That's not the only disturbing finding:

More than a third (36 percent) of employees report losing an hour or more per day at work due to stress.
Stress is the number one reason for absences, outpacing illness and caregiving as the most frequent reason employees miss work.
Just 24 percent of employees claim stress doesn't impinge on their ability to do an effective job at work.
About one-third (32 percent) report constant but manageable stress. However, 63 percent report high levels of stress causing extreme fatigue and feelings of being out of control.
What's behind stress? The top cause, cited by 39 percent, is workload.
How do employees handle it? While 36 percent say they just work harder, more than half (53 percent) are taking frequent “stress breaks” at work to talk with others.

Prolonged stress leads to burnout, or perhaps that has already taken hold. And with small business hiring showing no signs of a surge, the problem isn't likely to change soon.

Said Dr. Richard A. Chaifetz, Chairman and CEO of ComPsych, when announcing the survey results:

"As employers continue to take a wait-and-see approach when it comes to hiring, people who currently have jobs—many of whom have taken on extra work—are starting to show signs of prolonged stress."

How can you handle employee stress? It's not easy, especially when you're probably dealing with the same or greater stress levels. Here are some tips:

Communicate frequently. Assess workloads and stress levels on a regular basis. Be willing to adjust and juggle as needed to give employees a break.
Consider how stress impacts performance. If employees are working longer but less effectively, you reach a point of diminishing returns. Is it possible that hiring additional employees could pay for itself by removing bottlenecks and enabling your staff to get more accomplished?
If you can't hire, is there a free solution (a family member, or interns) that could fill in the gaps at least temporarily?
Could you "fire a client" who takes more time than they are worth, and use the "extra" time to service more profitable clients while also cutting down employee workload?

The best solution I've found for stress is simply acknowledging it exists and talking about it. Encourage employees to take breaks, get rest and otherwise stay in shape to keep feeling motivated — and not just “present.”

Stressed Employee Photo via Shutterstock

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Is Your Writing Nailing These 3 Stages?

Posted: 12 Dec 2012 08:00 AM PST

Good things seem to come in sets of three: dramatic structure, Star Wars (before 1999), and your B2B sales cycle content strategy. Okay, so those first two are clear, but let's talk about my third set of three.

Managing a writing service for marketing and SEO agencies, I've gotten a lot of practice in breaking down strategies and concepts into bite-sized pieces. Hang with me as we go through the three elements that your content strategy needs in order to turn window-shoppers into buyers.

#1: Thought Leadership Stage

The first type of content that your B2B company has to establish is thought leadership. "Thought leadership" is not just a buzz phrase thrown around by inbound-marketing-loving gurus. It's been going on for decades, but with today's blogging platforms, thought leadership is something that everybody needs to get in on.

What is it?

I like how Michael Brenner at B2B Marketing Insider puts it:

"Thought Leadership allows us to define the category of our solution." Similar to branding, "it's all about being associated with the questions our buyers are asking."

To start on the road to becoming a Thought Leader, you don't have to have all the answers all the time. You just have to become associated with those questions. Consider driving a consistent content strategy with the help of a writing service if you can’t do this alone. They can take down your big ideas in a brief interview and then expand upon them through finely crafted blog posts. You stay busy doing the real work, while your writing service turns you into a Thought Leader.

Thought Leadership isn't exclusive to the blogosphere by any means. It should permeate your brand. Demonstrate your thought leadership in newsletters, social media pages, live Tweet chat sessions, and more.

#2: Real World Problem Solving Stage

As you establish yourself as a thought leader, B2B companies that could become your clients are going to naturally start consuming your media. (Sure, an SEO strategy is important, but I'm a big believer in the theory that good content trumps all other strategies.)

Now that you have people tuning into you and your blog, it's time to start offering them practical solutions. This is the second stage. Take your readers' problems, and show them solutions.

You probably already read a client, partner, or competitor's blog that does this. But if you want to see an example of what I'm talking about, check out Pardot’s blog. Pardot is a B2B marketing automation company that runs a first-class blog, which highlights real problems that real readers deal with.

The bottom line: in the world of blogging, fluff isn't going to get you very far. If you want to keep those leads moving through your sales cycle, you'd better be up to the challenge of writing informative content. If you don't have someone in-house who can commit to this, then consider a writing service. It could turn out to be your best friend – not to mention provide great ROI.

#3: Hard Sell Stage

By the time you've reached this third stage, you and your writing service are ready to hit the hard sell. Don't let those two words mislead you. A "hard sell" doesn't mean it's time to start talking like a telemarketer.

Rather, hard sells should be your chance to talk about yourself. Really, this is the first time in the three stages where you're talking about yourself. Everything up to now has been all about the prospective client.

Content to create and share with prospectives in this stage includes:

How-to guides
Case studies (of results you've achieved with clients)
Content that shares why you're the best
Detailed pricing plans
Information about the way your business operates/is structured

The Magic

You thought we were done? Well, there's just one last thing. In order to keep your sales cycle running smoothly, you must have "the magic." The magic trick to all of this is pushing all three stages simultaneously. That means you have different pieces of content that:

Demonstrate thought leadership
Solve real world problems
Push for the hard sell

All the time.

It's the only way to reach every type of lead that visits your company's site and interacts with your content. It may sound overwhelming, but consider a professional writing service to support you. This kind of content strategy can have an enormous ROI.

Blogging Photo via Shutterstock

The post Is Your Writing Nailing These 3 Stages? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

5 Ways To Improve Your Social Marketing in 2013

Posted: 12 Dec 2012 06:00 AM PST

Hold on, friends, because we're in the home stretch. The New Year will be here before you know it. And wouldn't it be nice to start 2013 off on the right social media foot? I like to this so.

Below are five things you can do to seriously boost your social efforts over the next 12 months.

Use Visual Content

If the hockey stick traffic growth of Pinterest has taught us anything it's that users seek out, consume, and go crazy for visual content. Marketo recently compiled an engaging infographic (see? Visual content) that showed how restructuring content to be more visual is the future of content marketing and a trend that your business should hop onto. That means trading in some of those weighty words for items like photos, videos, memes, motion graphics, and other engaging content types for your audience to share across social platforms. Our minds and attention are scattered. Find a way to present your message in a visual format and your audience will be more apt to listen.

Develop Real Metrics

If your social media efforts aren't currently tied to real business metrics, make this a priority in 2013. Get smarter about social media marketing by identifying your business purpose for engaging and the metrics that support that purpose.

For example, if your goal is to increase brand authority, then you'll want to document how many shares your brand is getting, where you're being cited, where you're being linked, etc. If you're trying to shorten your sales cycle, then you want to benchmark the cost per customer today vs. the cost per customers this time last year. Developing business goals and metrics is what takes social media from just "tweeting" to building a social company.

Understand Promotion

The biggest mistake I see business owners make with social media is they spend all this time creating content and building cool stuff, and zero time getting it out there to their audience. Get comfortable with self-promotion and go out there and find your audience. Build your email list, use tools to find your followers on Twitter, get people to subscribe to your Facebook page, show yourself off at local events, etc. Make sure people are aware of your business and of the content that you're spending hours producing. Create your media list and get serious about blogging outreach. The only way to grow your business is to be actively making people aware of it.

Expand Your Efforts

If you're like many other small business owners, you probably have a Facebook page. And maybe even a Twitter account. That's great. But why not look to some other channels this year and test the waters? If you're a local florist or a wedding planner, why not get involved with Instagram to help you spark that visual content and show off your assets? If you're a consultant, maybe this is the year you start that blog or participate in Q&A sites based in your expertise. Social media is extending past Facebook and traditional screens. Find new ways to get in front of and engage your audience.

Get Help

If social media still looks like a giant question mark to you, consider getting help. Consult an outside agency or bring someone into your team who understands social media from a business perspective. Someone who will help the company to create a social media plan to guide the company's interaction for the rest of the year. For SMBs watching their budgets (and who isn't?) this may be as simple and cost-effective as hiring a social media company to give you an audit to help you understand the opportunity and the strategies you should be using to take advantage of it. Once you have your roadmap in your hand, social media becomes a lot easier to implement and see value from.

Above are five powerful ways any business can improve t heir social media power over the next twelve months. What's on your list?

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Nine Inch Nails Singer To Launch Streaming Music Service

Posted: 12 Dec 2012 02:30 AM PST

Entrepreneurs know the importance of content for marketing, communications, and even as a product. Chances are your business produces content of some kind, even if you’re primarily a service provider. You may not realize the implications that the latest streaming music service, scheduled to be launched in 2013, has for your business. But the proliferation of streaming content services demonstrates one thing: Content remains king. The demand for content among your customers is clear. Here are the latest trends you should watch.

Content Marketing Trends

Hitting the nail on the head. News that Trent Reznor, lead singer of the band Nine Inch Nails, will launch a new streaming music service called Daisy to compete with Spotify, demonstrates the insatiable demand for content among online consumers. This demand stretches beyond streaming music to video, blog posts, podcasts, and e-books too. Your business should be looking for ways to leverage the popularity of many different types of content to attract a loyal audience and establish a customer base that will continue returning again and again. The Verge

Return of the podcast. An old favorite is returning to prominence as a medium of online content, says blogger and marketing professional Rachel Parker. Upstaged for a while by YouTube, podcasts also seemed to fall out of popularity when content creators realized how labor intensive planning and recording a show could be. Now, however, the podcast is making a comeback, and can be an excellent component of your online business. Read more to learn why their popularity is again on the rise. Resonance

The Art of Communication

The basics of video. Video remains the most popular content on the Internet. If you aren’t using this format yet to create content for your brand, it’s time to give online video some serious consideration. Blogger Patrick Schaber insists you don’t need to be a professional producer or in possession of a lot of high tech equipment to create video your audience and customers will love. Here are some steps you should consider for creating quality video content, even if you lack the tools and experience of a seasoned pro. The Lonely Marketer

The death of inbound marketing. One of the best kinds of content marketing on the Web is still the guest post. But if you’re under the impression guest blogging is just the latest, safest form of inbound marketing since Google’s Penguin update, then you don’t really get it, says blogger and marketer Adam Connell. Guest blogging isn’t about sending someone worthless content laced with keyworded anchor text to boost your site, it’s about making connections and giving your best efforts a chance to shine! Blogging Wizard

Author, Author

Credit where credit is due. The entrepreneur is getting more like an author every day as creating content becomes a more important part of what we do. An essential aspect of online branding for you and your business is to take credit for the content you create on the Web. Google has an authorship feature that makes this easy. Use it to see that your content is always associated with your business and brand in all searches. Marketing blogger Sherryl Perry teaches you how to get started. Keep Up with the Web

How to create an e-book. Writing an e-book is another great way to create strong content for your business. E-books establish your expertise in a particular field, but they can also be a great way to create information products that your online business can sell, too. Here, blogger Martin Lindeskog gives us some solid resources to help even the novice create a first e-book. Think about topics that might appeal to your audience, clients, or customers. An e-book is a great way of sharing these topics with them. Ego Sole Trader

Simple e-book marketing tips. Marketing your e-book need not be complicated. Again, the most important consideration is that you focus on quality. Center your e-book on a topic in which you have expertise and provide valuable information of interest to your target audience. Here, blogger and online publisher Tristan Higbee gives us the simple steps he used to successfully market his e-book without much of a following or the use of social media. The Backlight

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