General | The Blog Pros

July 25, 2021

ShopPop Review

With ShopPop, you can start customer conversations, manage customer support, and ultimately increase sales.

With pop-up widgets and messenger features, you can be sure to stay in touch with your customers every step of the buying process.

Whether ShopPop is crucial to business success or just another tool you won’t find much use for depends on the features you’re looking for and how you want to market your online store.

Below we go through the ins and outs of ShopPop, its best features, and how it stacks up against similar tools in the online marketing space.

First, let’s look at some quick pros and cons.

ShopPop Pros and Cons

Pros

Gives you immediate and direct access to your customers
Automates customer concern responses
Uses one inbox to manage all customer messages
Sends smart notifications to help reduce abandoned cart rates

Cons

Analytics features have their limitations
No direct link between a flow and the audience segment
Not the best tool for basic marketing

ShopPop Features

What features make ShopPop stand out from other messaging apps? Here’s an in-depth look at its key features:

Abandoned Cart Recovery

An effective abandoned cart recovery strategy can increase your sales margins significantly. But only if you’re equipped to execute one. With ShopPop, you can send abandoned cart reminders via Facebook Messenger.

This makes sure your message doesn’t get lost in spam (or a sea of other, more urgent emails), and you can also include links in your message that lead straight to the products they’ve left behind. The abandoned cart recovery feature is a surefire way to ensure your abandoned cart reminders are being seen.

According to ShopPop, the average Messenger open rates are anywhere from 80 – 90%. Clickthrough rates are a whopping 56%, and abandoned cart messenger conversion rates hover around 33%. If you’re a marketer that has experience with the classic abandoned cart email strategy, you know very well these Messenger numbers blow traditional email open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates right out of the water.

The best part is that ShopPop automates your Messenger cart strategy for you. Once you’ve set it up, you can set it and let it work in the background every time users abandon their cart.

Because of features like this, paired with many other robust tools powered by automation, ShopPop stands out as a frontrunner in the chat marketing space.

Retargeting Audiences

It’s getting a lot easier for marketers to reach their target audience. ShopPop makes it possible to reach your customers once they interact with your ads through automated conversations.

The downside? Using this powerful feature does require that you’re familiar with social media ads, specifically Facebook.

Once you grow your audience through the many touchpoints ShopPop offers—meaning through Messenger, pop-ups, or QR codes— you can then export your customer PSIDs to the Facebook ads manager and create a custom or lookalike audience. From there, you can start running ads to target known customers and reach new ones.

The cool thing is that once you get your ads out there, ShopPop’s click-to-messenger feature helps you connect and collect data for new customers once they opt-in.

The ads and messenger feature can be a solid tool for online businesses that depend on Facebook ads to make sales and grow their audience. The fact that you can automate a lot of this process makes it that much more appealing.

If you’re using methods other than Facebook ads to reach your target customer, this might not be the feature that sells you on ShopPop. It’s worth knowing it’s there if you decide to venture into Facebook ads in the future.

Message Automations

Automations make a lot of the online world go round. ShopPop knows this. And it’s why it has integrated automation into just about every feature that can use it. Through its pop-up widget, you can start conversations with customers with premade conversation templates.

You can automate offering a discount code so that your customers are enticed to click on the Messenger button and opt into your list.

On Facebook, you can create pretty simple rules for automating engagement with customers if they have questions, comments, or concerns. You can also automate the segmentation process. So once your audience opts-in through either Messenger, the chat widget, or pop-ups, they’ll get sorted into the correct categories to receive the right targeted messaging.

Chat Widget

As a chat marketing tool, you already know ShopPop also comes with the now-classic What Widget. It pops up on the corner of their screen and is always there available to answer any questions. A nice feature it comes with is that your customers can choose which channel to contact you through.

That can be by Messenger, Whatsapp, Twitter, Instagram, phone, or email. You can also link to external websites if you want to funnel audience traffic to specific landing pages.

If you’re stuck on how to create your automated interactions, ShopPop gives you templates so you can modify them for your business.

Comment-To-Messenger

ShopPop leaves no rock unturned as far as ways to get your ideal customer to interact and exchange information with your business. Its comment-to-messenger feature lets you set up rules that automatically message anyone who comments on your posts.

The more your automated process does this, the more of an audience your business builds over time (unless users opt-out). The usefulness of this feature is pretty self-evident.

We already know that open and click-through rates are much higher when you connect with your audience on Messenger. Once you craft your post and create a predetermined Messenger flow that it’ll send to commenters, it’s only a matter of connecting the two and letting ShopPop do the rest.

However, tinkering on Facebook might take more know-how. You’ll need to be sure you know the ins and outs of Facebook marketing to get the most out of this tool.

Additional Features

I’ve highlighted the top features ShopPop offers to help you grow your business with more personalized customer interactions. However, ShopPop’s list of features doesn’t stop there. Here’s a quick rundown of the additional perks of using such a powerful chat marketing tool:

Custom fields: ShopPop lets you collect data that then gets saved to individual user profiles. It also allows you to save emails and questions for qualifying leads.

Advanced statistics: ShopPop would be remiss not to include data that informs your marketing efforts through the app. With its analytics feature, you can learn more about your sales efforts, your open rates, and how well your audience is growing.

Persistent menu: Once your customers are interacting with ShopPop’s chat widget, it’ll automatically show them your dedicated menu options to help users browse and find answers faster. This is a helpful feature to make sure your pop-up widget is as useful as possible when people use it.

Audience filters: With audience filters, you can preset filters that’ll keep your customer data organized while also syncing with Zapier. Audience filters help take some of the work off your plate. Instead of having to sort incoming audience information manually, ShopPop takes care of it in the background.

Custom shareable URLs: Want to share a URL that’ll funnel customers into your premade flows? ShopPop allows you to create custom URLs that are easy on the eyes.

QR Codes: You can create QR codes that help you build a direct messaging list to market to and share your latest products with. With ShopPop, you can easily create a QR code that connects to a designated chat flow. It’s yet another valuable and creative way to reach and stay in touch with your most valuable customers.

ShopPop Pricing and Package Options

If you want to try the perks of ShopPop without any commitment, you can try it free to chat with the first 50 people who come across your site. You get access to comment-to-messenger features, widgets and opt-ins, and an inbox where you can manage it all.

ShopPop charges by the number of people you come into contact with. You’ll get a better idea of how much it will cost once you estimate the average of how many messages you’ll receive. Then visit the pricing page to toggle through pricing options.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what the first few pricing tiers look like for its Creators, Services, and Brands plan and its Ecommerce option:

Creators, Services, and Brands

50 people for $0
5,000 people for $79
10,000 people for $49
15,000 people for $69
20,000 people for $89
30,000 people for $109

Ecommerce

50 people for $0
100 people for $8
500 people for $22
1,000 people for $45
2,500 people for $119
5,000 people for $179

ShopPop counts each person you interact with as ‘subscribers.’ Once your customer interacts with you through a platform like Messenger, they’re automatically subscribed. If you’re a smaller business that sees solid results by selling through direct messaging, a pricing tier based on the number of people you interact with can be more cost-effective.

ShopPop also boasts clients like Roc Nation, BBC, and Universal. So if you need enterprise-level solutions, you can get in touch with them here to strike a deal that works for you.

ShopPop Reputation

If you take the time to listen to what real ShopPop users are saying, the sentiment is generally positive. It’s easy to fall in love with ShopPop’s features because they take things beyond simply being able to chat with your customers through its widget to answer questions.

While more basic chat apps can be pretty cookie-cutter in nature, ShopPop makes sure your customers are met with many options to help them navigate any inquiries they may have. Users also love that ShopPop is a Facebook marketing partner and offers plenty of creative ways to reach out and connect with customers on social media.

Ecommerce store owners and online business creators love the fact that you can count on ShopPop’s customer support any time you have a question or an issue. It’s helped them find new and more intimate ways to connect with customers and meet them where they’re already hanging out.

Besides being praised for being user-friendly, ShopPop also has a reputation for being extremely easy to integrate with the rest of your tech stack through Zapier. Online, you’ll often find mixed reviews about a lot of tools, but ShopPop isn’t one of them.

All in all, ShopPop can be a great investment for online businesses trying to level up their sales and marketing game. It takes your marketing strategy beyond just being able to message and interact with your customers automatically if they land on your site.

ShopPop makes it a point to equip you with the tools to relentlessly go after your audience where it’s already hanging out. While it’s important to remember to use each tool carefully so as to not abuse its capabilities. ShopPop has taken merely being able to create automated chat features to a whole new level.

The cherry on top is that its pricing structure isn’t too bad either. It’s accessible for businesses barely getting their start and trying to make their first few sales. But it also delivers if you’re an established brand looking for new ways to market to its customers and stay top of mind. After all, it’s called the All-In-One Chat Marketing App for a reason.

You can quickly start using ShopPop for free. Once you go over the customer limit, it’ll simply charge you the next tier up. Get started with ShopPop for free here to make more sales and grow your brand’s audience.

June 22, 2020

The Best Agile Project Management Tools

Agile project management has become increasingly popular over the last decade or so. While this project management methodology was initially created for software development teams, the principles can be applied to any large-scale project across any industry.

Traditional project management is rigid. It follows a linear path and offers little to no room for making changes.

Agile project management is much more flexible. The methodology makes it significantly easier to make changes to the product throughout the process.

With an agile operation, teams can manage projects by breaking the process up into multiple stages. There is constant collaboration and continuous improvement at each step as well. The final deliverable of an agile project might be different than the initial plan.

Any business or project team that handles fast-changing deliverables can benefit from an agile project management system. That’s why this methodology is so popular for technology and software projects.

Regardless of the type of projects you’re managing, you need to have an agile project management tool to implement this methodology properly. Use this guide to find the best project management software for your team.

The Top 7 Best Agile Project Management Tools

Jira Software – Best Overall Agile Project Management Tool
Monday.com – Best Simple Agile Project Management Tool
Toggl – Best Project Management Tool for Creative Teams
Pivotal Tracker – Best Agile Project Management Tool for Integrations
CollabNet VersionOne – Best Agile Project Management Tool for Scalability
Targetprocess – Best Agile Project Management Tool for Enterprise Security
ActiveCollab – Best Agile Project Management Tool for Time Tracking

After researching dozens of agile project management tools on the market today, I narrowed down the list to seven that I can confidently recommend. Continue below to learn more about the features, benefits, use cases, prices, and potential drawbacks for each tool.

#1 – Jira Software — Best Overall Agile Project Management Tools

• Supports any agile framework
• Starts at $10 per month
• Add up to 5,000 users
• Data-driven reporting
• Compare Quotes

Jira Software by Atlassian is our top overall recommendation for agile project management. Regardless of your team size, industry, or project type, Jira can accommodate your needs.

One of the reasons why we like Jira so much is its ability to fit any agile framework. This agile project management tool supports scrum, kanban, mixed methodologies, and agile at scale.

For those of you who use scrum, you’ll benefit from tools for sprint planning like story points, version management, backlog grooming, and a scrum board. Jira makes it easy to track your sprints with sprint permissions, custom issue types, workflows, and a release hub.

Jira Software also has tools to help prepare your team for daily scrums or stand ups. This makes these quick meetings more efficient for everyone.

Teams that prefer kanban will enjoy flexible workflows, swimlanes and columns, story cards, WIP limit configuration, and full visibility to everything on your kanban boards.

Whether you’re using scrum, kanban, or a mixed methodology (like scrumban or kanplan), Jira gives you insightful reports to help project managers and teams make data-driven decisions related to the project.

There is a bit of a learning curve for Jira Software. If you’re new to agile project management, this isn’t a tool that you’ll master in your first hour of use.

Pricing for Jira starts at $10 per month for up to 10 users. Plans for teams of 11+ start at $7 per month per user. Rates adjust based on your team size; the per-user prices decrease as more users get added to your plan. Whether you have a team of five or 5,000, Jira can accommodate your needs.

You can try Jira Software free forever with up to 10 users.

For those of you who want to deploy Jira on your own servers, there’s a self-managed option as well.

#2 – Monday.com — Best Simple Agile Project Management Tool

Visit Monday.com

• Starts at $39 per month
• Trusted by 100,000+ teams
• Product launches and bug tracking
• 14 day free trial
• Get started for free

For teams looking for a simple agile project management solution, look no further than Monday.com. More than 100,00+ organizations across the globe trust this platform, including big names like GE, Adobe, Uber, Hulu, and Costco.

Teams with remote workers rely on Monday.com as a project management solution. It’s a centralized project management hub as well as team collaboration space.

Monday.com is great for product launches, sprint planning, and bug tracking.

The solution is flexible enough to keep improving your project with real-time reporting, insights, and updates. But it’s easy enough for any of the non-technical users on your team.

If you’ve outgrown your basic project management software, you can upgrade to Monday.com and still benefit from a simple kanban view with other advanced features.

Pricing for Monday.com depends on the plan you select, the number of users on your team, and the length of your contract. Plans start at $39 for 5 users. Try it free for 14 days.

#3 – Toggl — Best Agile Project Management Tool For Creative Teams

• Free plan supports up to 5 users
• Great for creative teams
• Drag-and-drop boards
• Premium plan is just $9/user
• Compare Quotes

Toggl is a incredibly intuitive and easy-to-use tool for agile project management. In fact, it has everything you might need to handle an agile project—while leaving enough flexibility for you to choose your own methodology.

That’s why orgs like The New York Times, Amazon, and Netflix use it.

Its simplicity and flexibility make it perfect for creative teams that use agile processes—but aren’t married to the “rules” of agile. After all, many marketing, editorial, and web design teams have their own work process. Toggl allows you to supplement them into their project management system.

It doesn’t matter if you follow Scrum, Kanban, or whatever else. Toggl will adapt with YOU and not force the other way around.

Assigning tasks to team members is a snap with Toggl too. Once you do, you’ll be able to see all the goals and responsibilities laid out in a timeline calendar. This gives you a sense of when things will be finished and whether or not you need to reprioritize certain tasks. The timelines also include any vacation days or PTO your team member might have planned and takes them into account for you.

If you’re still not sure, there’s good news: You and your team can start using Toggl for free. After that, prices start at just $9/user per month.

#4 – Pivotal Tracker — Best Agile Management Tool For Integrations

• Free for up to 3 users
• Paid plans start at $12.50
• 140+ integrations
• 30 day free trial
• Compare Quotes

Pivotal Tracker is another agile project management solution designed for teams who build software. It has specific features for guided iteration, which allows you to break down your projects into manageable tasks and subprojects.

This tool gives you a clear overview of real-time work status for everyone on the team.

I’d recommend Pivotal Tracker to teams working on multiple projects simultaneously. It’s a great option for users on multiple teams as well.

Pivotal Tracker supports file sharing and a powerful search syntax to find what you need within complex projects. You can add labels to projects to make your workflow more visible.

The tool has a detailed breadcrumb trail of the project history so you can see how code changes were mapped out from day one to the final solution.

There is one area where Pivotal Tracker really stands out compared to other tools on the market today—integrations.

The platform seamlessly integrates with third-party apps like Slack, Zendesk, Zapier, GitHub, and more. You can browse the Pivotal Tracker Integrations Gallery to view more than 140+ apps to extend your agile project management functionality.

They have integrations for every category you can imagine. From analytics to issue tracking, roadmapping, API, customer support, testing, and more, Pivotal Tracker has it all.

The drawback of this tool is the fact that it relies on these third-party apps for full functionality. It’s not as feature-rich and robust out of the box, like other agile tools on our list.

Here’s a quick overview of the pricing for Pivotal Tracker:

Free — 3 collaborators and 2 projects
$12.50 per month — 5 collaborators and 5 projects
$29.17 per month — 10 collaborators and 10 projects
$62.50 per month — 15 collaborators and unlimited projects
$125 per month — 25 collaborators and unlimited projects
$250 per month — 50 collaborators and unlimited projects

All rates are based on an annual contract. For teams of 50 or more, you’ll need to contact Pivotal Tracker’s sales team for enterprise pricing.

Try any Pivotal Tracker plan free for 30 days. The trial comes with unlimited collaborators, unlimited projects, and unlimited storage.

#5 – CollabNet VersionOne — Best Agile Project Management Tool For Scalability

• Trusted by 50,000+ teams
• 70+ integrations
• Supports scrum, kanban, and SAFe
• 30 day free trial
• Compare Quotes

CollabNet VersionOne is an enterprise-grade agile project management tool built for scaling teams across every department. It’s trusted by 50,000+ teams, making it one of the most popular agile project management solutions on the market today.

For those of you starting from scratch with agile and lean software development, VersionOne will be a top option for you to consider. It’s easy to scale your teams, project workplaces, portfolios, and locations throughout your entire organization.

VersionOne makes it easy for large organizations to collaborate and work together in real-time.

The VersionOne tool supports scrum, kanban, XP, SAFe, and hybrid development.

It integrates with other tools that you’re using, like Salesforce, Microsoft TFS, HP, GIT, Jira, CA Agile, and more. Overall, there are 70+ integrations for this project management tool.

VersionOne is an all-in-one agile ALM (application lifecycle management) platform. It comes with key features for things like:

Team collaboration
Portfolio and team kanban
Agile portfolio planning
Release and iteration tracking
Customer idea management
Executive dashboards
Test case management
Product roadmapping
Defect tracking
Agile metrics and analytics
Budget and allocation management

For smaller teams, the features of VersionOne will be a bit overwhelming. The price likely won’t be worth it for you either.

Like most enterprise solutions, pricing for VersionOne is not available online. You can try it free for 30 days or request a demo.

#6 – Targetprocess — Best Agile Project Management Tool For Enterprise Security

• Cloud and on-premise
• Visual project management
• 24/7/365 support and monitoring
• Industry leading security
• Compare Quotes

Similar to VersionOne, Targetprocess is another agile project management tool for enterprises. Targetprocess puts a stronger emphasis on visual portfolios and work management tools for agile organizations.

In fact, the tool is branded more as a visual platform than a project management solution.

With that said, it still has all of the tools and features you need for enterprise project management. Targetprocess supports kanban, portfolio dashboards, portfolio backlogs, roadmapping and milestones management, budgeting, process tracking, conflict resolution, workspaces, and workflow customization.

Overall, it’s a single source of truth for agile enterprises.

Targetprocess has an ideas intake solution for customers and stakeholders in projects. It has enterprise-grade security features as well.

While most organizations use Targetprocess as a cloud-based SaaS, on-premise hosting is available for enterprises that want a solution on their own servers.

The tool is compliant with GDPR and ISO27001. So if data privacy is a top priority for your organization, you can trust Targetprocess to take those needs seriously. They offer private cloud hosting packages for industries with strict regulations as well.

You’ll also benefit from one of the best customer support teams in the industry. Targetprocess has 24/7/365 monitoring and response.

The tool integrates with third-party apps like Salesforce, Zendesk, GitLab, Azure DevOps, and more.

Pricing for Targetprocess is not available online. Contact their sales team to request a live demo, free trial, or price quote.

#7 – ActiveCollab — Best Agile Project Management Tool For Time Tracking

• Starts at $7 per month
• Trusted by 50,000+ teams
• Built in time tracking
• 90 day free trial
• Compare Quotes

With so many agile project management tools on the market geared toward larger organizations and enterprises, it’s nice to see ActiveCollab accommodate the needs of smaller teams and small businesses.

For the last 10+ years, more than 50,000 teams have used ActiveCollab as a project management solution.

In addition to basic agile management tools, this platform puts a strong emphasis on time tracking software. It’s ideal for teams that charge by the hour for their work.

Starting at $7 per month per user, ActiveCollab is an affordable solution for any business or team. Save 15% with an annual contract.

Unfortunately, not every feature comes standard out of the box. To access the time tracking features, integrations, workload management tools, and more, you’ll need to pay an additional $4 per month per user. But it’s still relatively cheap compared to other options on the market.

You won’t have as much flexibility in terms of the agile methodology that you’re using either. The dashboards for task management are limited to just column views and timelines.

For a limited time, try ActiveCollab free for 90 days. This is significantly longer than the normal 14-day free trial period.

How to Find the Best Agile Project Management Tools For You

With so many agile project management tools to choose from, how can you determine which one is the best for your business?

This is the methodology that I used to pick the top options on the list above. I’ll explain what’s important about these factors in greater detail below. Generally speaking, there is no “best for everyone” solution. So you’ll have to weight these elements against your personal needs.

Agile Framework

Are you currently using an existing agile methodology to manage your team? Do you prefer one framework method over another? Not every agile project management tool supports each methodology.

For example, Jira Software supports scrum, kanban, and mixed methodologies. SprintGround supports scrum and kanban, while also offering support for the waterfall methodology (linear approach).

Some of the enterprise-grade solutions, like Targetprocess, have frameworks for LeSS (large scale scrum), DAD (disciplined agile delivery), scrum at scale, lean-agile, SAFe (scaled agile framework), and more.

Make sure you choose a tool that supports your preferred agile framework.

Team Size

Project managers overseeing five or six developers won’t need the same project management tool as an organization with hundreds or thousands of team members.

CollabNet VersionOne and Targetprocess are ideal for larger organizations and enterprises. Monday.com and ActiveCollab support smaller teams. Jira Software can accommodate teams of all shapes and sizes, up to 5,000 users.

Ease of Use

As I said before, agile project management tools are usually geared towards the tech industry. Web developers, app developers, and teams working on software releases use agile methodologies the most.

But with that said, some solutions are more technologically advanced than others.

You need to make sure that users on your team who aren’t technically inclined can still navigate through the platform. By requesting a demo and taking advantage of a free trial, you can test the ease of use before committing to a paid subscription.

Price

You don’t need to spend a fortune on an agile project management solution. We’ve seen rates starting as low as $7 per month.

When you’re pricing out a solution, just make sure to read the fine print. In some instances, lower rates require a minimum number of users or an annual contract.

For some enterprise solutions, you’ll have to request a custom quote for your team.

Conclusion

What’s the best agile project management tool on the market today? It depends on what you’re looking for.

Jira Software is our top overall recommendation, but it’s not for everyone.

For those of you who want as many different third-party integrations as possible, try Pivotal Tracker. Development teams should lean toward SprintGround. VersionOne and Targetprocess are better for larger organizations. Use ActiveCollab for the best built-in time tracking.

If simplicity is the most important feature to you, try Monday.com.

Regardless of what you’re looking for, you can find it on our list. I made sure to include something for everyone.

June 1, 2020

The Best Data Visualization Tools

As the name implies, data visualization tools help you take raw data and turn it into something visually appealing. The benefits and use cases for data visualization are plentiful.

Businesses can use data visualization to analyze complex data. Rather than scanning large data queries and complex reports, you can leverage data visualization software to create a graph, chart, map, infographic, table, etc. that’s easier to understand.

By viewing a pictorial representation of data, it can give your business hidden insights while making it easier to detect trends and patterns. In many cases, it would be near impossible to recognize some patterns if you’re viewing a raw data sample in non-graphic form.

But the use cases for data visualization go beyond analytics and business intelligence.

You can use a data visualization tool to create charts or infographics to share on your website or social media accounts. People landing on your website don’t want to view spreadsheets on your landing pages; they want to see visual content.

Regardless of your data visualization needs, you can use this guide to find the best tool for your business.

The Top 9 Best Data Visualization Tools

After extensive research, I’ve narrowed down the top nine data visualization tools on the market today. Each review below contains the features, benefits, pricing, use cases, and potential drawbacks for the tools on our list.

#1 – Zoho Analytics — Best Overall Data Visualization Tool

Visit Zoho Analyitcs

• Starts at $22 per month
• Unlimited reports and dashboards
• Easy to use
• 15 day free trial
• Get started for free

Zoho Analytics is a reporting and analytics software for business intelligence. It’s trusted by top brands like HP, Ikea, Hyundai, Philips, and thousands of others.

The software makes it easy for non-technical users to create visually appealing data and insightful dashboards in minutes.

Simply upload your data to Zoho Analytics from any data source. Whether it be a local file, cloud drive, business application, or web URL, the import process is very straightforward.

Zoho Analytics allows you to create charts, pivot tables, and tabular view components for insightful reporting and dashboards. It has a drag and drop interface so you can make custom changes as well.

It’s easy to collaborate with co-workers and colleagues with the Zoho Analytics online collaboration tools. Embed the reports on your website, make them available for offline access, or schedule them to be emailed automatically.

Here’s a quick overview of the pricing for Zoho Analytics:

Basic — $22 per month
Standard — $45 per month
Premium — $112 per month
Enterprise — $445 per month

Even the basic plan comes with unlimited reports and dashboards. Zoho Analytics also has a free forever plan, but most business users will find it extremely limited.

Try any Zoho Analytics plan for free with a 15-day trial; no credit card required.

#2 – Tableau — Best Data Visualization Tool For Business Intelligence

Visit Tableau

• Analyze big data
• Starts at $70
• Advanced visual reports
• 14 day free trial
• Start for free

Tableau is best known for its BI capabilities. In fact, it ranks first on our list of the best business intelligence software on the market today.

But data visualization is a component of business intelligence. For larger businesses with complex data sets, Tableau will help you analyze that information. Ultimately, this tool makes it much easier for businesses to make data-driven decisions based on large sets of data.

With Tableau, you’ll have the ability to create basic types of data visualizations, like:

Charts
Tables
Infographics
Maps
Graphs
Dashboards

But Tableau also provides more complex and use-case specific methodologies for visualizing your data. Examples include:

Area charts
Box and Whisker Plots
Bubble Clouds
Cartograms
Dot Distribution Maps
Gantt Charts
Heat Maps
Histograms
Radical Trees
Timelines
Treemaps
Stack Graphs

The list goes on and on. You’ll also be able to any mix-and-match combinations of these visual data representations in a dashboard.

For basic users, Tableau is probably overkill. But it’s ideal for larger businesses with big data to analyze.

Pricing for Tableau starts at $70 per month, per user, with an annual contract. Try it free for 14 days.

#3 – Infogram — Best For DIY Infographics and Visual Reports

Visit Infogram

• Free for up to 10 projects
• Paid plans start at $19
• Special rates for startups & nonprofits
• Visuals optimized for mobile
• Get started for free

For those of you looking for a simple and straightforward way to make infographics on your own, Infogram is your best bet. This intuitive visualization tool is an excellent choice for individual users and small teams in need of beautiful visual content.

Design your reports in minutes and collaborate the visuals in real-time. It’s easy to download your content, share it, and publish everything online.

Infogram has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop builder that non-technical users can figure out.

You can create custom templates with colors, fonts, and logos that match your company’s brand image.

Infogram also allows you to create interactive visuals, so your content can zoom, bounce, flip, fade, slide, and more. The interactive charts and maps allow you to set up tabs, clickable legends, links, and more.

This tool is designed for people who want to share visual content online. Everything is optimized for mobile devices as well.

But if you’re looking for a data visualization tool that’s intended for data-driven business insights, you’ll find Infogram to be a bit limited. It’s not really a business intelligence solution.

You can use Infogram free for up to ten projects. Here’s a quick overview of the price points for the paid plans:

Pro — $19 per month
Business — $67 per month
Team — $149 per month

Infogram offers special pricing for startups, nonprofits, and educational organizations. Just contact their sales team to request a custom quote.

#4 – ChartBlocks — Best Online Chart Builder

Visit ChartBlocks

• Free for 50 charts
• Paid plans start at $20
• HTML5 charts
• Easy to embed and share
• Sign up for free

As the name implies, ChatBlocks specializes in making charts. This online chart building tool is easy for anyone to use, regardless of your technical skill level.

Simply import your data, pick the type of chart you want to create, and make your visuals unique with hundreds of customizable options.

By using ChartBlocks to create HTML5 charts, they’ll work on any browser and device. The charts will automatically respond to different devices and screen sizes.

Once your chart has been designed, it’s easy to embed the code on your own website or share it on social media.

ChartBlocks is free for personal use, with up to 50 active charts. However, the free charts will have ChartBlocks branding on them, so it’s not ideal for business users.

Paid plans start at $20 per month, which gives you up to 75 active charts and 500,000 monthly views. For $65 per month, you’ll get up to 200 active charts, 2.5 million monthly views, and API access.

The downside of ChartBlocks is the way the plans are structured based on active charts and chart views. But for most of you, 500,000 views per month is more than enough.

#5 – Sisense — Best For Developers and Data Engineers

Visit Sisense

• Transform complex data
• Create custom applications
• Powerful visuals
• Live or cached data models
• Request a free quote

Sisense is another business intelligence data visualization tool. But unlike Zoho Analytics and Tableau, this platform has a very specific niche. Sisense is designed for developers and data engineers.

The API-first cloud-based technology makes it easy for developers to create analytics apps and embed the content anywhere.

This self-service analytics platform allows businesses to leverage crucial insights, no matter where you have the data stored.

Sisense definitely isn’t for everyone. Basic users and people who aren’t very tech-savvy will find the platform overwhelming.

But developers and data engineers will love the ability to use a combination of live or cached data models to fully optimize the performance of analytics apps. Use Sisense to transform complex data into high-powered visuals and actionable components for custom applications.

You can deploy your apps on-premises, on the cloud, or use Linux or Windows for hybrid deployment.

As with most enterprise-grade technology, pricing for Sisense isn’t available online.

Request a quote by filling out a simple form with information about your data volume, project type, project timeline, users, and more.

#6 – Datawrapper — Best Data Visualization For Interactive Maps

Visit Datawrapper

• Free for unlimited use
• Create maps, charts, and tables
• Trusted by major publications
• Paid plans start at $599
• Start for free

Datawrapper is a way for non-technical users to create interactive visuals with various data sets. It’s commonly used by publications like The New York Times, Fortune Magazine, Vox, Buzzfeed News, and more.

This data visualization tool helps you tell stories using maps, charts, and tables. So if you run a blog or news publication, Datawrapper will be a top option for you to consider.

The interactive maps feature is the offering that really separates Datawrapper from the crowd.

Other data visualization tools on the market, including some options in this guide, also offer the ability to create interactive maps. But Datawrapper blows them all out of the water.

Create symbol maps, choropleth maps, basemaps, locator maps, and more.

Whether it’s the entire globe, a country, region, or something specific, like a subway station, you can take your data and use Datawrapper to create a visually appealing interactive map.

Datawrapper is free to use for unlimited charts and tables.

To remove Datawrapper attributions from your visuals and benefit from more advanced features, pricing starts at $599 per month.

While the price tag is definitely steep compared to some of the others on our list, it’s justifiable if your website has a large reach.

#7 – Chartio — Best Data Visualization Tool For Team Collaboration

Visit Chartio

• Cloud-based data visualization
• Team collaboration features
• Starts at $40 per user
• 14 day free trial
• Try Chartio for free

Chartio is a cloud-based data visualization tool that’s ideal for gaining insights with your company’s data. The powerful interface is an excellent source for all your most critical metrics.

Companies like DoorDash, Udacity, Squarespace, and Shazam all use Chartio to stay informed.

The platform is perfect for team collaboration across every department in your organization. Your sales teams, project managers, and customer success representatives can all create custom charts and dashboards without having to rely on engineers or data analysts.

From sales reps to your C-level executives, everyone in your organization can benefit from Chartio. You can share visualizations via Slack, email them as PDF reports, and even embed them into web pages.

Chartio also acts as a strategic partner for your organization. They provide services for live training and have data advisors that will help you get the most out of your company’s data.

Here’s a quick overview of the Chartio pricing:

Startup — $40 per user per month
Growth — $60 per user per month
Premium — Custom pricing for 25+ users

Chartio is billed annually, with a minimum of five users per plan. Try it free for 14 days.

#8 – Cluvio — Best For Data-Driven Startups

Visit Cluvio

• Create interactive dashboards
• Free for 3 dashboards
• Ideal for small teams
• 14 day free trial
• Start for free

Cluvio isn’t quite as popular as some of the other data visualization tools on our list. It’s only used by about 900 businesses.

With that said, Cluvio is designed for ulta-specific use cases—data-driven startups.

The platform allows your small team to analyze and create beautiful, interactive dashboards using SQL and R programming language.

Use Cluvio to transform your raw company data into professional charts and graphs that tell a story. It’s easy for teams to share dashboards and collaborate with each other while using Cluvio.

Since the Cluvio visual dashboards are interactive, you can change the data you’re viewing in real-time by adjusting filters based on custom time ranges and more.

Cluvio is free for up to three dashboards. Paid plans start at $279 per month for up to 50 dashboards and two analytics users.

While Cluvio is equipped to scale with your team as it grows, the price tag does get high. For unlimited dashboards and unlimited analysts, pricing starts at $2,250 per month. It’s more affordable for teams of up to five analysts.

Try Cluvio for free with a 14-day trial.

#9 – Whatagraph — Best Data Visualization Tool For Agencies

Visit Whatagraph

• Starts at $99
• Agency tools
• White label tools
• Automated reporting
• Free for 5 days

Whatagraph is a visual reporting tool for marketers, agencies, and businesses. You can collect data sources from multiple platforms and connect them to a single resource with Whatagraph.

This data visualization tool is trusted by well-known brands like Colgate, Holiday Inn, FILA, Chili’s and more.

Whatagraph is the best way to visualize the results of your marketing campaigns with data-driven graphs.

Agencies can use Whatagraph to generate automated multi-source reports for clients on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis.

Another benefit of the agency features is the ability to white-label your reports. Upload your logo and customize the color scheme to deliver branded visuals to your clients.

Here’s a quick look at the Whatagraph price points:

Professional — $99 per month
Premium — $239 per month
Growth — $599 per month

Small businesses and single marketers can use the Professional plan for basic marketing data. But agencies will be better off with the Premium or Growth options.

Try any Whatagraph plan free for five days.

How to Find the Best Data Visualization Tools For You

What’s the best data visualization tool for your business? Generally speaking, there is no “best for everyone” solution.

There are certain factors that must be taken into consideration as you’re evaluating a prospective tool. This is the methodology that we used to come up with the winners on our list.

Data Formats

The first thing you need to look for is the type of data formats that the tools support. Make sure that your data sources can easily connect to the platform without having to do any complex file conversions.

This is crucial for organizations that are using a data visualization tool to analyze big data.

Visualization Methods

Some solutions will just create simple tables, charts, and graphs. For many businesses, this is more than enough to meet their needs.

But other organizations need much more. Interactive maps, advanced visual reports, and interactive dashboards are just a handful of visual components to keep an eye out for.

Specialty Solutions

Not every data visualization tool is created equally. Some tools are made with specific use cases in mind.

For example, there are certain tools made for developers and data analysis. Other tools are designed for agencies, or they specialize in a specific type of visualization, such as maps or charts.

Sharing and Collaboration

What happens after your data has been turned into a visual format?

If you want to embed it on your website, collaborate with team members, share it on social media, or email it to your clients, you need to make sure that the tool supports your needs.

Conclusion

Zoho Analytics is our top overall recommendation for data visualization tools. But it’s not for everyone.

For those of you who want to leverage business intelligence for big data, use Tableau. Data engineers and developers should lean towards a solution like Sisense. Whatagraph is our top recommendation for agencies. Non-technical users that just want to create simple charts should lean towards ChartBlocks or Infogram.

Refer to the “best for” qualifiers that I highlighted in this guide for other use-case specific tools for your business.

May 30, 2020

The Best Practice Management Software

A good practice management software can turn an inefficient medical practice into a great one.

After all, your focus is to help patients feel better, enhance their quality of life, and improve their health. But to do that, you need to also track appointments, stay on top of billing, stay in contact with patients, and manage all your employees.

Luckily, the best practice management software helps you do all that—while saving time and effort.

Compare Quotes From The Best Practice Management Software

Get matched up with the practice management software that fits your needs.

Why you need a practice management software

You need to present a professional appearance to the patients at your medical practice. Management software does this by enhancing your ability to manage your practice’s day-to-day operations. Some of the key components of this software include:

Scheduling of appointments
Generating bills
Creating insurance claims
Generating financial reports for the practice
Generating financial reports for individual patients

If your practice cannot generate accurate bills or cannot book appointments without making errors, patients will begin to lose trust in the medical practice. They may wonder whether the practice can care for their health properly if employees cannot even file insurance claims properly.

The 10 Best Practice Management Software Solutions

When you want to create a professional appearance for your medical office, using any of the 10 best practice management software solutions on our list will help.

But if the management software for your medical practice is difficult to use, any timesaving benefits disappear. To save the sanity of employees and to allow your practice to run at the best possible efficiency, consider one of our best practice management software recommendations.

AdvancedMD

• Excellent feature set
• Simplifies scheduling
• Clean interface
• Verification system
• Compare Quotes

For those who already own the AdvancedMD EMR software, its compatibility with AdvancedMD’s practice management software is seamless, creating a powerful combination.

But even if you use a different EMR software, you still can use AdvancedMD as your best practice management software, as it has compatibility with many EMR systems.

AdvancedMD’s interface is clean and well-organized, but some users will find it time consuming to figure out all of the various features, especially the advanced features.

Pros

Has an excellent feature set
Software’s verification system catches simple coding errors on insurance claims
Clean interface that simplifies scheduling
Strong interaction with same brand’s EMR

Cons

Does take quite a bit of time to learn all of the features
Overall cost is above average

Advanced Data Systems MedicsPremier

• Reasonable prices
• Easily customizable
• Helps you reduce errors
• Extensive training services
• Compare Quotes

For the right medical practice, MedicsPremier will be an excellent choice. But this is a software package that you must choose carefully, because it doesn’t work for everyone.

It will especially help a medical practice that needs customization options at a reasonable price. It also has strong insurance claim generation features. However, training is expensive, and some users will find the navigation features difficult to understand.

Pros

Easily customizable for your particular practice
Tracking insurance claims progress is easy
Able to help you reduce errors in insurance claim coding
Extensive training services that are helpful

Cons

Training is extremely expensive
Interface is dated and really needs a refresh to make it easier to use

AthenaHealth

• Streamline billing & claims
• Patient portal feature
• Detailed reports
• Great customer service
• Compare Quotes

If your practice struggles when it comes to billing, the creators of athenahealth had you in mind. This software streamlines your billing processes, as well as submission of insurance claims. It even generates highly detailed reports that show areas where your practice’s billing results are lagging behind others in the industry.

We also rank athenahealth highly in terms of the training it provides to its customers, getting them up to speed faster than some other software packages.

Pros

Excels in billing and insurance claim generation
Good customer service
Has a strong patient portal feature
If you like generating detailed reports, this software excels in this area

Cons

Doesn’t work as well for practices that fully outsource medical billing
Takes some time to figure out the advanced features

CareCloud

• Easy to use
• Well designed patient portal
• Extremely detailed reports
• Verification to reduce errors
• Compare Quotes

When you want ease of use above everything else in your practice management software, CareCloud delivers. It has a well-organized interface, making all of the key features easily accessible.

We really like CareCloud’s patient portal, which patients will find easy to use. This encourages them to spend more time entering their own data, saving your employees time in the long run.

CareCloud also offers a strong EMR system, so you can mesh the two easily, if you’re in the market for an EMR system too.

Pros

Generates extremely detailed reports to help your practice
Patient portal is well-designed and easy for patients to use
Calendar feature allows for generation of many kinds of reports
Has verification features to reduce insurance claim filing errors

Cons

High initial investment required
Some key insurance monitoring features require an add-on fee service

DrChrono

• Very versatile software
• Minimal upfront costs
• Highly efficient patient portal
• Streamlined scheduling
• Compare Quotes

With DrChrono, you’ll receive a versatile type of software that can handle the needs of small and large medical practices, offering an efficient interface that will save your employees time. It also has the ability to match any specialty needs that you may have, giving you customization options.

Its cost is below other management software solutions, especially the startup costs.

Pros

Versatile software for all office sizes
Includes a highly efficient patient portal
Upfront costs are minimal
Streamlined scheduling of patients and employees

Cons

Customer service responsiveness is hit and miss
Report generation isn’t as detailed as some others

eClinicalWorks

• Best for smaller practices
• Easy to use patient portal
• Helpful onsite training
• Reasonably priced
• Compare Quotes

When you want a reasonably priced best practice management software that also provides high end billing services, eClinicalWorks is well worth considering. It fits nicely with practices that need extra help with verifying insurance claim codes before submission, which should reduce the number of rejected claims.

If you’d like a software package that can grow with you as your medical practice expands and needs extra services, the multiple customization features in this software give you that option.

Pros

Nice patient portal that is highly efficient
Especially strong in billing services and insurance claims
Reasonably priced, especially for smaller practices
Delivers helpful onsite training for new customers

Cons

Has some extra costs for those who need more features
Customer service responsiveness could be better

Greenway Health Intergy

• Multiple customization options
• Versatile interface
• Compatible with Excel
• No hidden fees
• Compare Quotes

For a medical practice where you’ll have multiple people entering data and using the interface, the Greenway Health Intergy software is helpful.

It allows people to enter data and perform tasks in several different ways, so they can work in the manner that makes the most sense to them. This will confuse some people, but it’s perfect for practices where employees like to learn to use software by jumping in and exploring on their own.

Pros

Versatile interface that allows for creativity in solving problems
Multiple customization options
Reporting feature is compatible with Microsoft Excel
Doesn’t have hidden fees

Cons

Training is long and involved
Interface could use a design update

Kareo

• Easy to learn to use
• No long term contracts
• Great reporting
• Very reasonably priced
• Compare Quotes

When a smaller practice is looking for practice management software that isn’t going to break the bank or require a long subscription commitment, Kareo is an excellent choice. The interface is easy to use, but the design is a little older than some others.

For those who need full billing services, Kareo has an EMR that works seamlessly with its practice management software.

Pros

Very reasonably priced
Easy to learn to use, so you’ll be up and running quickly
Reporting feature outperforms some other low priced options
Good billing generation features, but they do cost extra

Cons

Interface is a little dated
Starter package is basic, so it may not fit those with complex needs

NextGen Healthcare

• Great for smaller practices
• Easy to setup and use
• Competitively priced
• Very good customer service
• Compare Quotes

Small practices that need multiple services will appreciate NextGen Healthcare. Its customer service is better than what you typically find for smaller practices, especially considering this software’s low price point.

If you also need EMR software, NextGen Healthcare’s EMR will mesh well with the brand’s practice management software.

Pros

Very good customer service
Works nicely for smaller practices
Handles all of the basic features that you need in practice management software
Competitively priced

Cons

May not be complex enough for larger practices
Report generation features lag behind other options

SimplePractice

• Best for specialty practices
• Wide range of features
• Simple interface
• Strong brand loyalty
• Compare Quotes

For specialty practices, SimplePractice has features that will help them manage their specific and unique needs versus general practitioners. This is a popular software package among its customers, generating quite a bit of brand loyalty.

It has a competitive price for the small practice, and it has plenty of features to help you stay in contact with patients.

Pros

Good management features for patient interactions
Simple interface that still lets you get a lot done
Has a decent insurance claim generation feature
Easy to ignore parts of the software that don’t fit your needs

Cons

Extremely basic, so it may not meet the needs of large offices.
Customer service responsiveness is below average.

How to Choose The Best Practice Management Software For You

What you’ll quickly learn with practice management software is one product does not fit all clients. With so many choices on the market for helping you manage your medical practice, it’s important to focus in on the features that will help your practice deal with its particular needs.

Calculating Payments

With the billing and patient management information all in one location with practice management software, you have the ability to calculate the out-of-pocket cost for a procedure before it happens. A patient will be able to make smarter financial choices about when and how he or she would like to have a procedure done.

Additionally, when the patient knows exactly what he or she will have to pay out of pocket before coming to the appointment, the medical practice will have a far better chance of being able to collect payment at the time of service, reducing paperwork.

When patients feel as though they have more control over their healthcare decisions and costs, their experience is more satisfying.

Coordination of Scheduling

One of the key components to running a medical practice efficiently is proper scheduling. Double bookings of patients or not having enough nurses in the office introduce hiccups in the office’s workflow.

Medical practice management software keeps the office running smoothly, allowing the proper scheduling that matches the number of planned patients with the personnel required to handle them.

Generating Claims

One of the most frustrating aspects of medical care for patients is the timeliness of billing statements and insurance claims. No patient wants to receive a bill a few months after an appointment because the medical practice failed to anticipate an insurance claim denial, delaying the entire process.

Through practice management software, you can generate reports that show which types of insurance claims often generate rejections on the first attempt, allowing the office to change how it submits those claims.

You also can generate reports that show any bottlenecks occurring in the processing of patient billing statements, ensuring that patients receive their charges in a timely manner.

Improving Efficiency

Employees at your medical practice often must handle a variety of tasks, especially at a small practice. Your practice management software interface should not be a hindrance to what you’re trying to accomplish. The interface must be easy to understand and use, allowing one employee to handle scheduling or to generate a report on his or her own.

If the software’s features take a long time to learn or add unnecessary steps to performing simple tasks, employees will balk at having to use it.

A complex software package may generate impressive statistics about how your practice is running. But if entering the data takes employees so long that they look for shortcuts or skip entering the data entirely, the data in the generated reports will be worthless.

Self-Managing for Patients

Many practice management software solutions have a patient portal. This system creates a number of benefits, including:

Patients may set up and manage their own appointments remotely.
New patients can enter personal data before coming to the office, saving time.
Existing patients can update insurance provider information or drug lists before an appointment.
Patients can choose how they would like to receive appointment reminders, which reduces the number of patient no-shows

This automation reduces the number of phone calls into your practice and shortens the length of those phone calls. This allows front desk personnel to handle other tasks, including focusing attention on face-to-face interactions with patients.

Specialty Needs

If your medical practice handles one or more specialty areas, it’s important that the practice management software can handle that specialty. If the software is too general in nature or doesn’t allow customization, it may not work well for your practice.

Figuring out whether a particular piece of software can handle the specific needs for your specialty areas can be tricky. This is one area where you may want to speak to practices who have a similar situation to yours and who are already using the software you’re considering. The vendor should be able to put you in contact with some of its other customers for questions.

Studying Cash Flow

Ultimately, you want your medical practice to succeed. The right practice management software can help by generating reports that show your cash flow and your level of profitability.

Some software will be able to create more detailed reports than others. A basic system’s reports will show you which types of appointments or physicians are generating the most revenue.

More complex reporting software may be able to drill down to show you the demographics of your patients, allowing you to generate efficient advertising or helping you figure out what equipment purchases you will need to make in the future to match the needs of the client base as it ages.

System Integration

Many medical practices have other types of software already in use. The practice management software you select needs to be able to mesh smoothly with these other types of software.

For example, if you have an EMR solution already in place, some of the information inside the two systems could overlap. Rather than having employees waste time by entering data into two different systems, the two systems need to share data, so employees only need to enter it once.

Practice management software should be able to share data with software running billing systems, as well as EMR and EHR software. (Because of the occasional overlap, if you are wondering whether you need both EMR/EHR and practice management software solutions, understand that EMR/EHR software contains medical information about patients, while practice management software gears itself toward the clerical operation of the practice.)

Summary: Delivering Efficiency With Best Practice Management Software

When patients visit your medical practice, they want to feel better as quickly as possible. They don’t really care all that much about the day-to-day work that your employees must do behind the scenes to make that happen in an efficient manner.

But you have to care. Making your medical office run efficiently often means having the best practice management software in hand. With the right software, your employees spend less time on mundane office tasks and more time meeting the needs of patients.

Keeping your patients happy and healthy is far easier with the right practice management software, and it will help employees feel happier too.

Compare Quotes From The Best Practice Management Software

Get matched up with the practice management software that fits your needs.

May 11, 2020

The Best Helpdesk Software

Helpdesk software has become a crucial component for providing customer service in the modern era. As the name implies, it’s a virtual helpdesk.

Years ago, if a customer had a problem with a product or needed assistance, they’d have to visit a physical help desk. That’s no longer the case. Now customers can communicate with your customer service team through live chat, social media, email, and over the phone using a ticketing support system.

Helpdesk software allows your team to manage everything in one place. It’s a versatile solution for businesses of all shapes and sizes, whether you’re selling products or services.

Larger companies can even benefit from using helpdesk software in-house. If an employee is having problems with hardware or software, your internal IT team can troubleshoot those problems from a virtual helpdesk.

The right helpdesk software can help you streamline your customer service communications and support tickets at scale.

The Top 8 Best Helpdesk Software

There are eight helpdesk solutions on the market today that I can confidently recommend. After extensive research, I’ve written an in-depth review of each one below. This guide will cover the features, benefits, pricing, and potential drawbacks of the best helpdesk software.

#1 – Zendesk Support — Best Overall Helpdesk Software

Visit Zendesk

• Starts at $5 per month
• 500+ integrations
• 35% off Support Suite
• 30 day free trial
• Try Zendesk Support for free

Zendesk Support is our top overall recommendation for helpdesk software. Zendesk offers a wide range of support solutions for various business sizes and needs, as well as a full product suite that includes everything you could possibly ask for in a helpdesk solution.

It’s a powerful software, yet it’s extremely easy to set up and use. Zendesk Support is fully customizable and integrates with more than 500 different third-party apps.

Some of the top features of Zendesk Support include omnichannel integration, ticket forms, multi-brand support, conditional and custom ticketing, pre-defined ticket actions, and team collaboration tools.

Pricing for Zendesk Support starts at just $5 per month.

The entry-level plan will be a bit limited, but as you can see, Zendesk has a plan for everyone based on your business needs.

Every Zendesk Support plan comes with the Lite versions of Zendesk Chat, Zendesk Talk, and Zendesk Guide. For those of you who want to get the most out of your helpdesk software, consider upgrading to the Zendesk Support Suite.

Starting at $89 per month per agent, the product suite bundles the apps for Support, Chat, Talk, and Guide into a single package, at either the Professional or Enterprise level.

The Zendesk Support Suite is 35% cheaper than purchasing each of those products individually.

From simple to advanced helpdesk needs, Zendesk has it all. Try Zendesk free for 30 days.

#2 – Freshdesk — Best Helpdesk Software For Small Businesses

Visit Freshdesk

• Free forever plan
• Paid plans starting at $15
• Simple support ticketing
• 21 day free trial
• Get started for free

Freshdesk is a helpdesk solution provided by Freshworks, a company known for offering high-quality business solutions with a focus on customer service. More than 150,000 businesses trust Freshdesk for helpdesk software, making it one of the most popular options on the market today.

I’d recommend Freshdesk to small businesses that are outgrowing email for customer support. Freshdesk is a simple and effective introduction to ticket support.

With Freshdesk, you’ll be able to simplify service communications, collaborate with other team members, and automate repetitive tasks.

Freshdesk has an excellent free plan for startups and small businesses that are just getting their feet wet with Helpdesk software.

While the free plan will obviously have some limitations, you can use it for an unlimited number of agents and still benefit from basic features like email and social ticketing, ticket dispatch, and customer self-service via knowledge base.

For those of you who want features like automation, reporting, SLA management, and hundreds of apps to extend your helpdesk capabilities, paid plans start at just $15 per month per agent.

Try Freshdesk free for 21 days.

#3 – Zoho Desk — Best For Scalability and Growth

Try Zoho Desk

• Free for up to 3 agents
• Paid plans start at $12
• Supports all business sizes
• 15 day free trial
• Sign up for free

Zoho is another company that offers a wide range of solutions and software for businesses. More than 50 million users worldwide use Zoho solutions.

Zoho Desk is the helpdesk software issued by Zoho. Like everything else branded by Zoho, it’s robust, intuitive, and easy to use.

With Zoho Desk, you’ll be able to automate manual support tasks, manage conversations with customers across multiple channels, offer customer self-service tools, and connect your helpdesk with other tools like Slack, Trello, Salesforce, accounting software, CRM software, and more.

Zoho Desk is designed to work for businesses of all sizes and verticles. From SMBs to SaaS, Telecom, and Enterprise organizations, Zoho Desk has it all.

Zoho Desk is affordable as well. You can start using it for free with up to three support agents.

Paid plans start at $12 per agent per month. This software makes it easy for you to scale as your company grows and your needs change. Adding new support agents is a simple process, and you can always upgrade your plan.

You’ll also be able to provide support on the go using the Zoho Desk mobile app.

One potential downside of Zoho Desk is its own customer support for you as a business. Unless you’re on the Enterprise plan, you won’t be able to reach them on weekends and holidays. So while you might be offering support to your own customers on those days, Zoho doesn’t offer the same support to you.

In addition to the free forever plan, you can try any paid subscription free for 15 days.

#4 – Freshservice — Best For ITSM

Visit Freshservice

• Starts at $19
• Used by 200,000+ businesses
• Designed for ITSM
• 21 day free trial
• Start for free

Freshservice is another Freshworks solution. But it’s nothing like Freshdesk, which we reviewed earlier. 200,000+ businesses use Freshservice. This software is designed specifically for IT teams and ITSM (IT service management).

Use Freshservice to modernize your business.

Provide service to your employees by departments, such as HR, finance, marketing, and facilities. Freshservice is a single platform that allows you to streamline service management roles with a consistent experience for everyone.

On the agent side, your IT team can automate monotonous tasks and benefit from AI-powered chatbots.

Freshservice has plans to accommodate teams and businesses of all sizes.

The rates start a bit higher compared to some of the other solutions on our list. However, this is the first helpdesk solution we’ve reviewed that’s built for internal business support.

For those of you who are in need of a back-office management solution for IT service management, Servicedesk will be a top choice to consider. Try it free for 21 days.

#5 – Jira Service Desk — Best For SME Internal Support

Visit Jira Service Desk

• 1,000+ app integrations
• Supports up to 5,000 employees
• Cloud or server deployment
• 7 day free trial
• Get started for free

Jira Service Desk is another helpdesk system for ITSM and internal support. But unlike Freshservice, Jira Service Desk is designed for larger companies like small to mid-sized enterprises.

Businesses like Airbnb, Twitter, Square, Domino’s, and other global brands trust Jira Service Desk for helpdesk support at scale.

You can use Jira Service Desk for both internal and external support, although internal support features are definitely the primary focus for this platform.

Jira Service Desk allows your employees to request services and support for anything. From a broken bathroom sink to infrastructure support, computer problems, or employee onboarding, this platform has it all.

The Jira Service Desk software supports up to 5,000 employees and an unlimited number of customers.

Jira Service Desk integrates with more than 1,000 different apps for nearly every use case you can imagine. From Zoom to Splunk, G Suite, Slack, and more, you can fully customize Jira Service Desk to accommodate the needs of you and your team.

One of the benefits of Jira Service Desk is its progressive pricing model. The more agents you have, the cheaper it costs per agent.

For example, 100 agents cost $15.75 per agent per month. But 1,000 agents cost just $5.33 per agent. This pricing structure is ideal for large organizations.

In addition to the cloud version of Jira Service Desk, you can deploy this software directly on your self-managed sever or data center.

Try Jira Service Desk free for 7 days.

#6 – HappyFox — Best For Omnichannel Ticket Support

Visit HappyFox

• Starts at $29
• Helpdesk ticketing system
• Automation and advanced reporting
• Unlimited tickets
• Request a free demo

HappyFox is an award-winning helpdesk solution that’s trusted by Fortune 500 brands like Lowe’s and Whirlpool.

This helpdesk software is an all-in-one ticketing system. It’s designed for businesses that want to provide better and faster support across multiple channels from a single platform.

HappyFox supports ticketing for email, social media, phone, and live chat. It also has tools for customer self-service support and knowledge base solutions.

Pricing for HappyFox starts at $29 per month per agent.

At this price point, it’s a little more expensive than some of the other options on our list. But with that said, HappyFox’s entry-level plans are more feature-rich than some of the other basic plans we’ve seen on the market.

All plans come with unlimited tickets, smart rules, and knowledge base support. However, HappyFox does require a minimum of 3 agents per plan. So it’s not ideal for solo users.

From ticketing to automation, productivity tools, and advanced reporting, HappyFox is a top helpdesk software for any business to consider.

They don’t offer a traditional free trial. But you can contact their sales team to request a demo and configure an account for free.

#7 – Kayako — Best For Personalized Customer Support

Visit Kayako

• Starts at $15 per month
• Built-in live chat software
• Single inbox for all channels
• 14 day free trial
• Get started for free

While so many helpdesk solutions on the market today prioritize automation and self-service, Kayako puts a strong emphasis on providing customer service with a personalized touch.

With Kayako, you can manage customer conversations across any channel while gaining a deeper understanding of the entire customer journey for each unique individual.

Each conversation includes detailed information about the customers’ behavior. You’ll see what pages they viewed, what products they added to their cart, and more. This gives your support agents a deeper understanding of what’s happening before the customer even asks for help.

Live chat software is built-in to each Kayako helpdesk plan.

Pricing for Kayako starts at $15 per agent per month. For advanced features like automation rules, custom reporting, multi-language and multi-brand support, you’ll need to upgrade to the Growth plan, which starts at $30 per agent.

For small teams and small businesses, Kayako is a top solution for helpdesk software with a personal touch. You can request a demo or try it free for 14 days.

#8 – Cayzu — Best Cheap Helpdesk Software

Visit Cayzu

• Starts at $4 per month
• Simple helpdesk software
• No installations required
• 14 day free trial
• Try it for free

More than 20,000 businesses trust Cayzu for helpdesk software. This is arguably the most simple helpdesk solution on the market today, for agents and customers alike.

Cayzu provides helpdesk software to small businesses, ecommerce websites, schools, MSPs, and nonprofits.

With prices starting as low as $4 per month, you won’t find a cheaper deal from a legitimate provider in this industry.

The Basic plan is exactly what it sounds like. It offers the bare minimum required to run your helpdesk solution.

These low-level plans won’t accommodate the needs of large organizations or businesses with complex ticketing systems. With that said, smaller businesses tend to find the simplicity refreshing. The software is cheap but still gets the job done.

All plans are cloud-based, so there’s no installation required. You can access Cayzu from anywhere, including the mobile app. You’ll also benefit from unlimited support, free app integrations, and automatic backups. Try Cayzu free for 14 days.

How to Find the Best Helpdesk Software For Your Business

Now that you’ve had a chance to review some of the top options on the market, it’s time to find the best helpdesk software for your business.

This is the methodology that I used to narrow down the choices on our list. You can take these factors into consideration as you’re evaluating and shopping around for helpdesk software.

Ticket Support

Ticketing is one of the primary functions of helpdesk software. Ticket support allows your team to manage, route, and resolve problems for customers and employees.

The best helpdesk software supports ticketing on multiple channels and can even automate manual tasks like ticket creation and ticket routing.

Certain software will cap the number of tickets you can create in a month. Larger operations should look for unlimited ticketing plans.

Communication Methods

Look for helpdesk software that allows your customers to communicate with your support team across a wide range of communication channels. Common communication methods include email, social media, live chat, and phone support.

Regardless of the communication method, the software should allow you to reply and manage tickets from a single dashboard. So if a customer sends a support inquiry via email, it will appear on the same dashboard as a customer who reached out via Facebook.

Make sure your helpdesk solution supports all of your customer service communication methods. Certain platforms have those tools built-in. In other cases, you’ll need to integrate your helpdesk software with a third-party communication tool.

Customer vs. Employee Support

What exactly do you need helpdesk software for?

Lots of helpdesk solutions are geared toward customer support. But certain platforms are designed specifically for ITSM and internal employee support.

For those of you in need of in-house helpdesk software, you’ll want to lean towards Freshservice or Jira Service Desk.

Business Size

The size of your operation will have a significant impact on the helpdesk software you choose.

Businesses with a handful of agents won’t have the same needs as an enterprise with hundreds or thousands of support agents. In most cases, larger organizations will have more complex needs.

Freshdesk is our top pick for small businesses. Zoho Desk has the ability to accommodate the needs of scaling companies. Zendesk has the capability to support teams of all sizes, from startups to enterprises.

Plans and Pricing

The vast majority of helpdesk software pricing is based on two factors—agents and features. The per agent price is based on the number and quality of the features you need.

You’ll pay a fixed rate per month per agent. Committing to an annual contract will give you the best possible rate.

It’s important to weigh the features in each plan side by side. Most helpdesk software offers the best features with more expensive plans. But you might not need them.

Think about your team at scale. The difference between $20 or $40 per month might not seem significant. But what happens when you go from 10 agents to 50 agents? Or from 50 agents to 150 agents?

Some software, like Jira Service Desk, offers progressive pricing. Meaning the price per agent is cheaper if you add more agents to your plan. Larger organizations should definitely keep this mind when evaluating different options.

Conclusion

What’s the best Helpdesk software on the market today? Generally speaking, there is no “best for everyone” solution.

Zendesk Support is our top overall pick because of its extensive features, ease of use, affordable pricing, and ability to accommodate the needs of all business sizes.

But there are plenty of viable alternatives for specific business needs. Freshdesk is our top pick for small businesses. Zoho Desk is best for growing teams. Jira Service Desk and Freshdesk are better for ITSM and internal support.

Are you looking for a no-frills helpdesk software at the lowest possible rate? Try Cayzu.

Regardless of your business size, industry, and helpdesk needs, you can find exactly what you’re looking for using this guide.

April 4, 2020

The Best Employee Retirement Plans

Studies show that retirement plans are a benefit the vast majority of employees want. In fact, 81 percent of workers say they would like it if their employer enrolled them in a 401(k) automatically. Despite this, a mere 22 percent of employers actually do so.

So what accounts for the disconnect? In many cases, business owners, and especially small business owners, are intimidated by the prospect of employee retirement plans. Admittedly, retirement plans can seem complicated. They can also involve high administrative costs and various fees.

If you take time to learn a little bit about employee retirement plans, however, you’ll see they’re not as overwhelming as they sound. There are also low-cost plans available. Here’s a look at some of the top employee retirement plans, along with tips for picking the best one for your business.

The 5 Best Employee Retirement Plans

It’s no secret that companies that offer a generous benefits package tend to attract the top talent. If you’re a small business owner, this is where you can get a jump on the competition. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, just 47 percent of companies with fewer than 50 workers offer a retirement plan.

Fortunately, there are a number of excellent employee retirement plans available, with some tailored toward small businesses and others marketed toward companies with hundreds or thousands of workers. There are even retirement plans for gig workers, freelancers, and self-employed business owners.

Generally, you can break these plans down into two groups: 401(k)s and IRAs. Which type of plan you choose will depend on the nature of your business, as well as your financial needs and those of your workforce.

The more popular offering is the 401(k) and probably the plan most people are used to hearing about. The 401(k) is a common choice among employees because it allows for greater contribution limits and lets workers opt for pretax contributions.

However, IRAs also have their perks. While they tend to feature lower contribution limits compared to a 401(k), they are generally easier and less costly to set up and administer. IRAs also come in a few different variations, including the Roth IRA and the SIMPLE IRA.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at five of the best employee retirement plans on the market today.

1. ShareBuilder 401(k)

Visit ShareBuilder 401k

• Hassle-free setup
• Handles all regulations
• Multiple options
• Affordable for any business
• Get Started Now

If you’re looking for a hassle-free setup, ShareBuilder 401(k) is worth a look. ShareBuilder takes the guesswork out of employee retirement plans by handling all the federal government regulations, custodianship issues, recordkeeping requirements, investment management tasks, and administration. Once you set up your account, ShareBuilder takes care of the rest.

ShareBuilder offers a traditional 401(k) plan to small businesses with up to 100 employees. It also gives companies the option to select an individual 401(k) plan, a Roth option, or a safe harbor 401(k). With a safe harbor plan, employers must match all employee contributions equaling the same percentage of each worker’s salary. Additionally, employer contributions must vest automatically.

ShareBuilder makes an effort to keep its retirement plans affordable for any business owner regardless of the business’s size.

With some exceptions, ShareBuilder charges a $495 setup fee for its safe harbor 401(k), plus $95 per month in administrative costs. While ShareBuilder doesn’t require employers to sign a contract, it imposes a $1,000 cancellation fee if a business owner chooses to cancel its plan.

For a traditional 401(k), the set up fee is $750, and the monthly administrative fee is $110 per month. As with the safe harbor 401(k), ShareBuilder charges a $1,000 cancellation fee. According to ShareBuilder, this fee covers the cost of filing paperwork with the government and transferring the plan benefits to another provider.

If you’re a self-employed business owner, you can also set up an individual 401(k). The setup fee is $150, and the monthly administration cost is $25. If you cancel, you’ll pay just $150.

2. Fidelity SIMPLE IRA

Visit Fidelity

• Great for small businesses
• No setup or maintenance fee
• Affordable options
• Access to investment advisors
• Get Started Now

If you’re self-employed or own a business with fewer than 100 employees, the Fidelity SIMPLE IRA can offer significant cost-savings.

Unlike other types of employee retirement plans, the Fidelity SIMPLE IRA doesn’t charge a setup fee or monthly maintenance fee. Instead, plan participants cover trade fees only.

Plan participants also get complimentary access to Fidelity investment advisors. This is an excellent perk, as Fidelity advisors, who boast a customer network of 28 million and manage $7 trillion in assets, are experts in the industry.

For business owners concerned about expense, the Fidelity SIMPLE IRA is probably the most affordable option available. The only fees employers pay are a 3% employee contribution match or a 2% contribution across every employee account.

One potential drawback with Fidelity is the inability to apply online. While you can download the application from the Fidelity website, you can’t submit a completed form over the internet. Rather, Fidelity only accepts applications through regular mail. Additionally, Fidelity customers don’t get access to a personal retirement advisor. Instead, you must call a general customer service number if you have questions or concerns.

3. Guideline 401(k)

Visit Guideline

• Two plan options
• All-in-one fees
• HR and payroll integration
• Straightforward pricing
• Get Started Now

Guideline has only been around since 2016, but it has already made a big footprint in the retirement benefits industry. It offers all-in-one fees and HR and payroll integration with a network of top providers that include Gusto, ADP, and Intuit Quickbooks.

Business owners who have avoided employee retirement plans due to the expense and hassle of administration are likely to be impressed with Guideline’s straightforward pricing structure, which the company describes as “transparent and predictable.”

Guideline offers two main types of plans: a startup plan and a prime plan. For the startup plan, employers pay a $39 per month base fee plus $8 per month per employee. The cost of the prime plan is $99 per month plus $8 per month per employee. For both plans, the cancellation fee is $250, which is much lower than most plans offered by other companies.

For many employers, retirement account compliance issues can be a constant source of headaches. This is where Guideline can help. Because it handles all compliance requirements, employers don’t have to worry about fines or hire an in-house or third party company to oversee the plan’s administration.

While Guideline doesn’t assign employees a personal benefits advisor, the company has a fully staffed customer service department available by email, chat, and phone between the hours of 6 a.m. and 5 p.m.

4. Human Interest

Visit Human Interest

• Straightforward pricing
• Services 2,000+ companies
• Managed administrative tasks
• Personalized support
• Get Started Now

Human Interest markets its retirement plan to small and medium-sized businesses. It offers straightforward pricing as well as all the compliance, administration, and record-keeping tasks associated with its plans. According to its website, Human Interest services employee retirement plans for over 60,000 workers and 2,000 companies.

Pricing is available in clear terms on the Human Interest website. For a 401(k), employers pay $120 per month plus $4 per month per employee. There is also a one-time $499 setup fee. Unlike some other companies that market low-cost plans to small businesses, Human Interest requires employers to sign a one-year contract. There is also a $750 plan termination fee, which is a bit lower than the industry average of $1,000.

Human interest also takes care of the administrative tasks associated with its retirement plans. Employers receive automated signup and onboarding for employees, as well as record-keeping and payroll synchronization. Additionally, Human Interest takes care of IRS forms, HR, and compliance.

With Human Interest, employers don’t have to sacrifice personalized support for affordability. Every employer and employee received a dedicated support team for both the setup process and ongoing administration.

5. Vanguard

Visit Vanguard

• Great for the self-employed
• No setup fees
• Online-only brokerage
• Comprehensive info & tools
• Get Started Now

If you’re self-employed, it’s worth taking a look at the individual 401(k) offered by Vanguard. There are also no setup fees, and no age or income restrictions. Vanguard does charge an annual $20 fee per fund held in an individual 401(k), however, the company says it may waive this fee if the account maintains a $50,000 balance.

Employers can contribute up to 25% of compensation capped at $57,000 for the year 2020, and contributions are tax-deductible. Employees can defer 100% of their compensation up to $19,500 for the year 2020. This contribution limit increases to $26,000 for employees age 50 and up.

If you’re a self-employed business owner, however, you’re considered both an employer and an employee. This means you can contribute as both, however your combined contributions are capped at $57,000 for the year 2020. If you’re 50 or older, this limit increases to $62,000.

Vanguard is an online-only brokerage, so you can’t visit a physical office or meet with an advisor in person. Rather, everything with your account is managed online. However, this is common among affordable employee retirement plans, so it’s probably not a dealbreaker for most people.

Vanguard also offers comprehensive information and tools about retirement planning on its site. Some of these tools include well-developed calculators that let you estimate your retirement expenses so you can make adjustments. Vanguard also offers a broad menu of other types of retirement accounts, including IRAs and Roth IRAs, so you can convert your 401(k) if your circumstances change or you think a different kind of plan might better suit your goals.

How to Choose the Best Employee Retirement Plans for You

Most employers, and especially small business owners, don’t have the internal resources to devote to managing employee retirement accounts. When you’re running a business, you don’t have time to take care of things like account onboarding, compliance, and administration.

When searching for an employee retirement plan that fits your business, it’s important to focus on ease of administration and affordability. The employee retirement plans listed above satisfy these criteria.

However, you should look for other things, too. Here are five factors to keep in mind when you’re shopping around for an employee retirement plan.

1. Administrative Support

Employee retirement plans like 401(k)s are regulated by the government. Companies that fail to comply with contribution limits and tax laws could be subject to costly fines and other types of liability.

Some employee retirement plans let businesses shift those responsibilities to the third party that offers the plan. Look for a retirement plan provider that bundles administration, compliance, advisory support, and recordkeeping requirements in one service.

2. Cost

Many employers shy away from employee retirement plans because they assume they can’t afford them. While this may very well be true for certain providers, there are plenty of low-cost and low maintenance employee retirement plans on the market today.

3. Clear Information About Costs

Cost is definitely a factor, but so is the accessibility of cost information. In other words, is the company up front about its fees and charges? Does it post a detailed cost breakdown on its website, so business owners can see exactly how much they’ll pay for a retirement plan?

You should also carefully review any plan documents beforehand. Look for hidden costs and additional fees. You don’t want to be surprised by extra expenses after you’ve gone through the setup process and enrolled your entire workforce in a retirement plan, as terminating the plan and moving to another provider will almost always involve a fee.

4. Customer Service

No matter how streamlined and hassle-free a retirement plan is, you and your employees are bound to have questions. When you do, you want to know there’s a way to get prompt assistance from your retirement plan provider. Consider whether the company has live support by phone, or if it has restricted call hours or support via email only.

You should also decide whether you prefer a personal retirement advisor or a general help center. Some retirement companies automatically assign each account holder their own advisor, which can be a nice feature for employers and employees when they have a question.

5. Web and Mobile Access

There’s a good chance many of your employees already handle most of their finances online. From checking their bank balance to paying credit card bills, many people use the internet to conduct these types of transactions.

The ability to manage their retirement account online and on mobile is a perk many employees will appreciate. It’s also good for employers, as it gives workers direct access to resources and help numbers they can turn to when they have a question.

Conclusion

Offering your workers an employee retirement plan can reduce your turnover and boost productivity. Studies show that employees are happier when they have access to high-quality employment benefits. With so many affordable and low maintenance employee retirement plans available, choosing a plan that works for your business and your workforce has never been easier.

March 23, 2020

Best Employee Monitoring Software

The modern workforce is constantly continuously to the Internet.

For the most part, you can trust your employees to stay on-task and use Internet-connected devices for work purposes. But there is always the possibility and temptation to be unproductive on company time. Whether it’s browsing Facebook, shopping online, or playing games, employee monitoring software can help you manage this behavior.

In addition to improving productivity, employee monitoring software can enhance your security system as well.

Your staff could be visiting unsafe websites or failing to apply appropriate safety protocols. A disgruntled employee could intentionally do something malicious as well.

Some monitoring software focuses on security, while other options specialize in time tracking and productivity management. It all depends on what you’re looking for.

The 9 Best Employee Monitoring Software of 2020

The market is flooded with monitoring tools and software for employee productivity and security in the workplace. But these are the top nine best employee monitoring tools out there right now:

Veriato — Best overall employee monitoring software.
ActivTrak — Best free employee monitoring software for tracking productivity.
Hubstaff — Best employee monitoring software for remote workers.
Time Doctor — Best for improving employee productivity.
InterGuard — Best employee monitoring software for security.
Teramind — Best employee monitoring software for enterprises.
SentryPC — Best employee monitoring plans for businesses of all sizes.
StaffCop — Best employee monitoring software for small business.
Work Examiner — Best free trial for employee monitoring software.

I’ll give you an in-depth review of each one below. We’ll cover the features, benefits, prices, and other considerations to help you find the right one for your needs.

Best Employee Monitoring Software Reviews

Veriato

Veriato ranks high on our list of employee monitoring tools because it has everything and anything you could ask for in this space.

They offer cloud-based employee monitoring software that records and tracks the following activity like:

Screenshots
Website interaction
Email
File movement
App usage
Instant messages and chats
Network access
Keylogger
Uploads and downloads
Social media usage
Printer tracking
USB devices
Web searches

It’s easy for you to customize productivity reports. You can even set up real-time alerts for when an employee tries to visit a restricted website or download a flagged program.

Any business can use Veriato. You don’t need to have an IT infrastructure in place for it to work.

In addition to the standard employee monitoring software, Veriato has other tools for security. You can get employee investigation software. This can be used to document activity for something like a nondisclosure or non-compete violations.

Corporate data theft, misconduct, and compliance violations can all be caught and recorded using this software. You can silently deploy it on both Mac and Windows devices without anyone’s knowledge.

Veriato offers AI-driven threat detection as well. The software will automatically watch all employee activity and analyze those actions using big data and AI.

Security teams will automatically be alerted if a potential threat is detected.

Pricing for employee monitoring from Veriato starts at $12.50 per device per month. You can test it out first with a free trial.

ActivTrak

ActivTrak is a cloud-native employee monitoring tool that specializes in measuring employee productivity.

The software analyzes all workplace activity from each employee. You’ll get reports that will help you identify your hardest-working staff, as well as workers who are unproductive. ActivTrak will show you each employee’s level of engagement. The software will alert you if an employee is at risk of becoming disengaged.

ActivTrak is an excellent way to improve any inefficient workflows.

You can see the steps that employees go through to complete tasks in real-time. It allows you to set benchmark times for certain tasks as well.

Some of the top features and benefits of ActivTrak include:

Website blocking
Real-time monitoring
Video playback
Screenshot flagging
Risk scoring
USB tracking
Activity alarms
Screen playback options
Remote installation

All of this can be managed with the easy-to-use dashboard. ActivTrak’s pricing is transparent and affordable.

They offer a free forever plan that’s available for up to three users. It includes all of the software’s core features.

For those of you who have larger teams and want access to advanced features, you’ll pay just $7.20 per user per month. All contracts are billed on an annual basis.

Hubstaff

Hubstaff is an ideal choice for those of you who are managing a remote workforce. Keeping your staff engaged and on-task when they aren’t in the office can be a challenge, but this software helps hold them accountable.

Some of the top features of Hubstaff employee monitoring include:

Time tracking
Geofencing
Online timesheets
GPS tracking
Productivity measurement
Detailed reports

It’s commonly used in industries like cleaning, construction, consulting, real estate, health care, agency, professional services, and freelance.

Hubstaff integrates with popular tools like Asana, Trello, Zoho, Insightly, Liquid Planner, Basecamp, and other software that you’re already using.

With Hubstaff, you can track URL and app activity. The software lets you monitor work in progress with optional screenshots. You’ll be able to view employee activity levels based on keyboard and mouse usage on each device.

Hubstaff has a mobile app that allows you to track usage on the go. You’ll have access to detailed reports and real-time activity from the palm of your hand.

The geofencing and GPS monitoring help you get a deeper understanding of when your team arrives or leaves a remote location. This holds them accountable and eliminates the need for manual time-punching.

Hubstaff has four different plans:

Free — $0 forever (for 1 user)
Basic — $7 per month per user
Premium — $10 per month per user
Enterprise — $20 per month per user

All of the paid plans are available for a 14-day free trial. You can get two months free if you sign up for an annual contract instead of a month-to-month plan.

Time Doctor

More than 83,000 companies trust Time Doctor for employee monitoring. It’s used by big brands like Allstate, Verizon, Home Depot, and Survey Monkey.

Time Doctor integrates with other tools and software that you’re already using. Some of the top integrations include Salesforce, Trello, Slack, Asana, Teamwork, Basecamp, and Freshdesk.

As the name implies, Time Doctor specializes in time tracking to enhance employee productivity.

Your staff will get pop-up alerts when they are unproductive or visit websites that are unrelated to work. Each employee will get a daily report on their productivity metrics so they can make adjustments on their own.

Supervisors and managers will also be able to tell which employees are the most productive and which ones are slacking off.

Top features available from Time Doctor include:

Chat monitoring
Screenshots
Time tracking
Web and app usage
Off-track reminders
Webcam shots
Break tracking
Attendance tracking
Time tracking for clients and projects

You’ll have the ability to customize certain features for specific employees based on their position.

Pricing starts at $12 per month per user. The price per user is discounted based on the size of your team. No long-term contracts are required, and you can cancel at any time. You can try Time Doctor for free with a 14-day trial.

InterGuard

InterGuard is a top employee monitoring solution for businesses that want to beef up security. The top features can be segmented into four major categories:

Monitor Employee Productivity

Real-time computer activity
Productivity measurement
Measure idle time
Manage remote workers

Insider Threat Protection

Prevent data loss
Restrict access to high-risk websites, attachments, USBs, and programs
Alerts for suspicious activity
Remote incident response

Website Blocking and Filtering

Cloud control
Detailed search activity and reports
Advanced blocking
Role-based and group policies

Investigations and Compliance

Internal investigations
HIPAA, PCI, CIPA, etc. regulations
Session recordings
Screenshots

For those of you who give employees access to sensitive data, InterGuard will be a top solution for you to consider. The software is designed to not only prevent suspicious or fraudulent activity but also actively respond to threatening situations.

InterGuard has exfiltration management. So you can block or report any sensitive data from being sent via email and web forms. This works both on or off network, which is ideal for remote staff. All of the policies can be customized.

The software also has a feature for remote file deletion. If a laptop containing sensitive files is stolen, you can remotely delete any files or folders.

InterGuard has endpoint lockdown, which allows you to take complete control of a user’s computer or laptop during a potential breach. You can delete files, retrieve files, and lockdown the endpoint.

Pricing starts at $9 per month per user with an annual contract for the cloud-hosted version of InterGuard. To install the software in your data center, you’ll need to get a quote for an enterprise solution.

Teramind

Tamarind is a top employee monitoring solution for large organizations and enterprises. More than 2,000 businesses trust Tamarind for employee monitoring, insider threat detection, and data loss prevention.

Common industries that can benefit from this software include technology, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, energy, finance, legal, and government.

Here’s an overview of Teramind’s best features and capabilities:

User behavior analytics
Employee monitoring
Insider threat prevention
Data loss prevention
User activity monitoring
Audit and compliance

Tamarind has specific solutions for things like remote employee monitoring and vendor access management. You can give vendors restricted access to network use and view all activity.

Both cloud and on-premise solutions are available. But enterprises will likely lean toward the on-premise software.

The pricing for both cloud and on-premise software is:

Starter — $60 per month per endpoint
UAM — $125 per month per endpoint
DLP — $150 per month per endpoint

There is a minimum of five endpoints for a cloud plan and a minimum of ten for on-site plans. Cloud plans are available for a 7-day free trial. Businesses interested in an on-premise plan can get a 14-day free trial.

Get two months free with any plan if you commit to an annual contract.

SentryPC

SentryPC has a diverse range of monitoring software. In addition to businesses, they offer solutions for schools, homes, and families.

For businesses, SentryPC will show you exactly how your employees are using computers and Internet access at work. You can use this tool to block social media usage, news websites, games, messenger apps, and more.

The benefits of SentryPC can be segmented into three main categories—activity monitoring, time management, and content filtering.

Top features of this software include:

Cloud control
Real-time activity
Visual charts
Compatible with Windows and Mac
User management
Instant alerts
Free updates

Compared to some of the other options on the market today, SentryPC is also extremely easy to use. You don’t need an IT team or anything like that to get started, which is why it’s such a popular choice for small to mid-sized businesses.

Here’s an overview of the pricing:

Basic Plan — $59.95 per year (single license)
Business 50 — $995 per year (50 licenses)
Business 100 — $1,595 per year (100 licenses)
Business 250 — $2,995 per year (250 licenses)
Business 500 — $3,995 per year (500 licenses)
Business 1,000 — $4,995 per year (1,000 licenses)

As you can see, the cost per license decreases based on the size of your team. There’s a plan for small businesses, large organizations, and everything in between.

StaffCop

StaffCop is another option to accommodate businesses of all different shapes and sizes. The standard plan monitors up to 100 computers in the same network, and the enterprise plan monitors up to 25,000 computers.

Some of the top features for StaffCop Standard include:

Screenshot recording
Keystroke logging
Social network monitoring
Encoded traffic monitoring
Instant message and chat monitoring
Search keyword tracking
File and folder monitoring
Email monitoring
Skype tracking
Website monitoring

You can block actions and access to specific websites, applications, or devices (like USB storage).

StaffCop provides real-time monitoring, performance monitoring, and data loss prevention. It’s also designed to help increase employee motivation in the workplace.

As an all-in-one solution for monitoring and security, StaffCop is a top solution for small business owners. Here’s a look at some of the prices that fall in the small business range:

1 computer — $43
2-20 computers — $39 per computer
21-50 computers — $36 per computer
51-100 computers — $34 per computer

StaffCop software is offered as a license. So you won’t pay a monthly or annual rate.

Any updates within the first year of buying the software is free. The software will continue to work after one year, but you’ll need to pay if you want the latest updates.

Work Examiner

Work Examiner has employee monitoring solutions for on-site staff as well as your remote workforce. Although the cloud-based software is issued by a third-party provider—Controlio.

I found this a bit strange, so I’d stick with the on-premise software. For those of you interested in monitoring remote employees, use Hubstaff (reviewed earlier).

With Work Examiner, you’ll benefit from the following top features:

Website tracking
Real-time screen capture
Recorded screen capture
Web filtering
PC tracking
Email monitoring and data leak prevention
Keylogging
Instant message monitoring

One of my favorite features of Work Examiner is the current activity monitor. From a single dashboard, you can see what everyone is doing at a given moment. You’ll know what applications they are using and see their current active window.

If a computer is not active, you’ll know exactly how long that user has been away from the screen.

Similar to StaffCop, Work Examiner is also a license based on the number of devices you want to monitor. You can try Work Examiner free for 30 days, which is the best free trial that I’ve seen in this industry. 30 days is more than enough time to determine if you’re happy with how it works, so it’s definitely worth trying out.

How to Choose the Best Employee Monitoring Software For Your Business

How can you find the best employee monitoring software for your company? There are several different factors that should influence your decision.

This is our methodology. You can use it to narrow down your options.

Business Size

How many employees or devices do you need to monitor? Some software is made for teams of just five or ten, while other software is best for businesses with hundreds or thousands of employees.

The location of your staff is important as well. Certain software is cloud-based, while other is on-premises. You’ll need a cloud solution to monitor remote workers.

Pricing Structure

Each company offers software in a different way. Some charge you a monthly or annual subscription fee. Others license the software.

A license is typically good for one year. You might even get free updates within that year. After the year is up, you’ll need to pay for any new updates.

Licenses could be more appealing for small businesses that just want to pay a one-time fee. Just know that you won’t have the latest versions if you don’t pay to update your software. But it will continue to work.

Features

The features are the most important part of an employee monitoring solution. This really comes down to why you want employee monitoring software in the first place.

Do you just want to restrict certain websites and applications for computers on your network? Or do you want to track and record what your employees are doing online?

Are you looking for employee monitoring that boosts productivity? Or do you need software that specializes in security?

These are the types of questions that you need to ask yourself. Some software offers an all-in-one solution, but that won’t be necessary if you’re just interested in one feature set.

Ease of Use

Not every business has an IT team or internal security department. Small business owners will likely be managing employee monitoring software on their own.

You’ll need to make sure that the software is easy to use and deploy. Otherwise, it defeats the purpose that you’re looking for.

Most solutions offer a free trial or even a free forever plan with a limited number of devices. I’d recommend trying a demo or trial for any software before you buy.

Conclusion

What’s the best employee monitoring software? It depends on what you’re looking for. Here’s a quick recap of the solutions we reviewed in this guide:

Veriato — Best overall employee monitoring software.
ActivTrak — Best free employee monitoring software for tracking productivity.
Hubstaff — Best employee monitoring software for remote workers.
Time Doctor — Best for improving employee productivity.
InterGuard — Best employee monitoring software for security.
Teramind — Best employee monitoring software for enterprises.
SentryPC — Best employee monitoring plans for businesses of all sizes.
StaffCop — Best employee monitoring software for small business.
Work Examiner — Best free trial for employee monitoring software.

From small businesses to enterprises and everything in between, there’s an employee monitoring solution for everyone on this list.

March 16, 2020

Best Employee Scheduling Software

Managing your staff’s hours and shifts are both crucial to the success of your organization. The costs associated with scheduling issues can add up quickly.

Without the right tools, you could have too many workers on the clock at once or worse—not enough to meet demands.

Employee scheduling software makes everyone’s lives easier. It goes beyond just managing the daily and weekly schedules. There are options for your employees to request time off or shift changes that can be approved or denied in real-time.

Some software even has chat and employee messaging built-in.

Whether you have a startup, small business, or enterprise-level chain, the right scheduling software can streamline your HR efficiencies. I created this guide to help you find the best one for your organization.

The 9 Best Employee Scheduling Software of 2020

What’s the best employee scheduling software? After extensive research, I’ve narrowed down the list to nine options for you to consider.

Homebase — Best overall employee scheduling software.
Humanity — Best for shift trading and filling openings in real-time.
TSheets — Best for time-tracking and accounting integration.
7shifts — Best employee scheduling software for restaurants.
Paycor Scheduling — Customized solutions for employee scheduling software.
When I Work — Best free employee scheduling software.
Deputy — Best for scheduling employees working at multiple locations.
Shiftboard — Custom solution for managing hourly workers.
CakeHR — Full-service HR software with employee scheduling.

Check out the in-depth reviews for each of these below. I’ll cover the features, benefits, costs, and any other considerations as we continue.

Employee Scheduling Software Reviews

Homebase

More than 100,000 businesses trust Homebase for employee scheduling needs. For those of you with one location, you can even use Homebase for free.

The scheduling features in this software are simple and easy for anyone to use. You can build an employee schedule in just a few clicks with the drag-and-drop dashboard. The software will even help you track labor costs.

Set up alerts for when workers miss a clock-in or are close to hitting overtime. Your staff will get updates as well when schedules are released. They’ll also be alerted with reminders for their shifts.

In addition to the scheduling features, Homebase has a time clock feature and timesheets for payroll. Let your staff clock-in from any device, including your POS (point of sale) system.

Here’s a brief overview of the plans and pricing for Homebase employee scheduling:

Basic — Free

Unlimited employees
Online scheduling
Time clocks, breaks, and overtime
Prepare timesheets for payroll
Employee availability preferences and time-off requests
Team communication messenger

Essentials — $16 per month per location

Advanced scheduling
Auto scheduling
Late employee alerts
Availability approvals
Personal notes with shifts
Automated reminders to employees
Employee performance tracking

Plus — $40 per month per location

Sales forecasts and labor targets
Overtime alerts
GPS and photos
Prevent early clock-ins
Custom break and overtime settings
Time-off restrictions
PTO policies

All of the monthly rates are under the assumption that you sign up for an annual contract. Homebase does offer month-to-month plans for 20% more.

The Homebase mobile app is another reason why this scheduling software ranks so high on our list. It’s free to use for you and your staff. So everyone can view and manage their schedules on the go.

Humanity

Humanity is one of the most popular employee scheduling platforms on the market today. It’s used by big companies like Microsoft, Kaiser Permanente, Nike, Yelp, Safeway, and Squarespace.

I’d recommend Humanity to businesses operating in industries with tight margins. This software gives you the capability to optimize your schedules in the most cost-effective way.

Use Humanity to ensure local, state, and Federal compliance in terms of labor laws for things like break frequency, hours worked, and time between shifts.

Humanity has an auto-scheduling feature that will optimize shifts by applying variables related to seniority and employee preferences.

One standout feature of Humanity is the ability for employees to trade shifts. Assuming the trade falls within your predefined rules, these requests can be automatically approved with limited supervisor involvement.

The Humanity mobile app makes it easy for you and your staff to manage shift needs in real-time. Managers can post open shifts for pickup and quickly find replacements for any absences.

Humanity integrates with top HCM software like Namely, BambooHR, ADP, and Workday.

Pricing for Humanity is very straightforward. There are two plans at the following annual rates:

Starter — $3 per month per user ($80 minimum)
Classic — $4 per month per user ($80 minimum)

You can also sign up for Humanity on a month-to-month basis. Those rates are $3.50 and $5 per user, respectively. But the short-term plans are subject to a $100 monthly minimum.

The Starter package comes with everything you need to manage employee scheduling. But for an extra $1 per month, the Classic plan comes with advanced features like:

Auto scheduling
Real-time labor and budgeting
Compliance
Reporting and analytics
Time and attendance
Geolocation clock-ins and clock-outs
Secure messaging

Overall, Humanity has everything you could need or ask for in an employee scheduling tool.

TSheets

TSheets is run by QuickBooks, which ranks first on our list of the best small business accounting software. Just like QuickBooks, TSheets is a high-quality choice for employee scheduling from a reputable brand.

As the name employees, TSheets was made for employee time-tracking.

It’s a mobile timesheet where employees can clock-in and clock-out from anywhere. The app uses real-time GPS capabilities to hold your staff accountable for the hours they’re working. This is perfect for those of you who have a mobile workforce.

Employers only have access to GPS data when staff is on the clock, so it gives your workers the privacy and respect that they deserve.

In addition to the time-tracking features, TSheets also has exceptional tools for employee scheduling. It’s easy to create and assign shifts from your computer or smartphone with the drag-and-drop scheduler. You can also repeat schedules with one click.

TSheets allows you to schedule workers by the job as well. Create a new job by adding information for the day, time, and client. Then simply assign as many workers as you need to that job.

Employees will receive alerts for shift changes and job assignments. Everyone will have access to information from the intuitive TSheets mobile app.

Here’s a brief overview of the plans and pricing for TSheets:

Premium

$8 per user per month
$20 base fee per month
Free mobile app with GPS
Real-time reports
Alerts and notifications
Photo attachments
Time clock with facial recognition

Elite

$10 per month per user
$40 base fee
Project estimates vs. actuals reporting
Activity feed and messaging
Timesheet signatures
Geofencing

Both of these plans are available free with a 14-day trial.

TSheets integrates with other platforms like QuickBooks, Expensify, Gusto, Xero, Sage, Square, and more. This will help simplify your accounting process as well.

7shifts

7shifts is an industry-specific solution. It’s an employee scheduling software designed for restaurants. More than 250,000 restaurants across the world use 7shifts.

With this software, you’ll be able to save time and reduce costs. Both of these are crucial to operating a restaurant at profitable margins.

Like most employee scheduling software we’ve seen, 7shifts has a drag-and-drop builder that makes creating schedules a breeze. The tool helps you factor in overtime, employee availability, and regional labor laws.

Your staff can access schedules via email or mobile app.

7shifts has built-in employee communication tools. There are group chats, direct messaging, announcements, and shift feedback features.

You’ll also have access to a weekly labor and budget tool, detailed reports, intuitive dashboard, and POS integration. All of this helps you manage your payroll system and bookkeeping as well.

7shifts is ideal for restaurants, both large and small. With multi-location support, you can manage employee scheduling at each place.

Let’s take a quick look at the plans and prices for 7shifts.

Appetizer — $19.99 per month per location ($215.88 billed annually)

Unlimited scheduling
Time clocking
Notifications
Time off requests and availability
Free mobile app

Entree — $43.99 per month per location ($479.88 billed annually)

Scheduling templates
Labor budget tool
Robust reporting

The Works — $76.99 per month per location ($839.88 billed annually)

Local labor compliance
Manager log book
Optimal labor tool (to predict staffing needs)
Shift feedback

Gourmet — $150 per month per location ($1,620 billed annually)

Enterprise-grade operational performance view
Auto scheduling
Integrated task management
Support and integration for POS

7shifts also offers a handful of optional add-ons:

Location overview — $5 per month per location
Task management — $12.99 per month per location
Sales data import — $100 one-time fee
Account setup — $150 one-time fee

Smaller restaurants can benefit from 7shifts’ free forever plan. You can have all of the basic scheduling features for one location and up to ten employees.

Paycor Scheduling

Formally Ximble, Paycor Scheduling is the perfect solution for optimizing the efficiency of your schedule. Managers can quickly go through the scheduling process while making optimal decisions for the business.

All of your staff will have clear visibility of their schedules in advance, so everyone stays well informed.

Paycor lets you create templates for faster scheduling. Just drag and drop employees to assign shifts in a few clicks. You can even automate how and when your staff goes on break to ensure that you’re fully covered at all times.

Your employees can proactively set day and time availability in advance. So you’ll be able to schedule around their needs and preferences.

Paycor Scheduling also has detailed reporting and analysis. This will provide you with details associated with the costs of overstaffing or understaffing.

Industries that can benefit from Paycor Scheduling include:

Education
Healthcare
Nonprofit
Manufacturing
Professional services
Retail

Paycor also provides additional products for recruiting, employee onboarding, HR, time and attendance, payroll, taxes, and learning management.

The company offers two different employee scheduling products; Paycor Scheduling and Paycor Scheduling Pro.

No prices for either are listed online. You’ll have to fill out a form answering some questions about your business to get a custom quote from a representative. This adds an extra step to the process, but it’s worth it for those of you who want a custom solution.

When I Work

More than 100,000 businesses across 50+ countries use When I Work for employee scheduling. This translates to over one million employees being scheduled on this software.

From small brands to large organizations like Dunkin Donuts, Ben & Jerry’s, Cold Stone Creamery, Jamba Juice, Massage Envy, and Verizon, When I Work is a top choice to consider.

Top features of When I Work include:

One-click scheduling
Shift coverage confirmation and notification
Schedule sharing
Labor forecasting
Overtime control
Schedule enforcement
Labor reports
Payroll integration

Compared to some of the other employee scheduling software we’ve covered, When I Work has one unique standout—its price.

When I Work has an exceptional free plan, and even the paid software is inexpensive.

Free — $0

One location and up to 75 users
Team scheduling
Team availability
Team messaging
Shift trading
Time off requests

Basic — $2 per user per month

Schedule templates
Multi-location support
Job sites
Overtime visibility

Pro — $2.50 per user per month

Auto scheduling
Labor forecasting
Shift and team tasks
Shift bidding

You can add-on time clocking and attendance to any plan for $2 per month per user.

Deputy

Deputy is another well-known and trusted employee scheduling solution. It’s used in 200,000+ workplaces worldwide, including places like Amazon, Nike, NASA, Peleton, and Ace Hardware.

Let’s take a look at some of the top features of Deputy:

Auto scheduling
Break planning
Free mobile app
Schedule by skillset and qualifications
Cover leaves and unavailability
Manage overtime and fatigue
Monitor attendance
Legal compliance
Shift swapping

I’d recommend Deputy to larger businesses with multiple locations. It’s a top solution for managing employees that work across multiple job sites as well.

Some industries that Deputy commonly works with include healthcare, hotels, hospitality, entertainment, logistics, manufacturing, and retail.

Despite Deputy’s robust features and popularity, the software is surprisingly affordable.

Employee scheduling software starts at just $2.50 per month per employee. This is billed on a month-to-month basis. If you want to combine employee scheduling with timesheets and attendance, it’s $4.50 per month per user. Save up to 11% with an annual contract for the combo package. Deputy offers special prices for charities, nonprofits, and community organizations that meet special criteria.

You can try Deputy today by signing up for a free trial. No credit card required.

Shiftboard

Shiftboard software has tons of features designed for optimizing your employee scheduling process. It has everything you need to keep managers running smoothly while providing your staff with the right information to do their jobs well.

With Shiftboard, you can easily assign the best and most qualified workers to specific shifts.

Improve your schedule communication and make last-minute changes when certain situations arise.

Shiftboard helps you enhance efficiencies by reducing overtime costs, forecasting demands, and automatically assigning workers to specific shifts. You’ll also have the ability to post open shifts for pickup and send group notifications to your team.

Another benefit of Shiftboard is the compliance rules. This will help you eliminate errors for things like labor contracts, seniority rules, mandatory rest periods, and employee credentials.

For example, an employee with expired credentials would automatically be blocked from the schedule.

The Shiftboard mobile app is easy for anyone to use. You and your managerial staff can manage everything on the backend while your employees can benefit from scheduling and alerts in real-time. Set up open shift trading or require approval from supervisors for trade requests.

Shiftboard plans start at $3 per month per user. There are three options for you to choose from:

Basic
Professional
Enterprise

Unfortunately, the pricing details for each plan are not specified online. You’ll need to request a demo based on the needs of your organization to get an accurate quote.

CakeHR

CakeHR is a bit unique compared to the other options on our list. That’s because it’s a full-service HR software.

In addition to employee scheduling, CakeHR has solutions for:

Timesheets
Performance
Leave management
Expenses
Recruitment

Onboarding your employees and automating the HR process is simple. CakeHR provides tons of employee self-service tools and solutions.

Some of the top employee scheduling features include:

Interactive shift planning
Single site and multi-location support
Dedicated shift managers
Employee availability management
Mobile app access
Pre-defined shift templates
Daily, weekly, and monthly reports

Pricing for CakeHR is a bit different as well. Simply select the services you want, enter the number of active employees you have, and choose between monthly or yearly billing.

Your custom rate based on these features will automatically appear on the screen. So you don’t need to wait for a CakeHR sales rep to get back to you with a quote.

To give you some perspective on the price point, shift scheduling for 20 employees would cost $50 per month with an annual contract. Adding timesheets would bring that rate to $80.

How to Choose the Best Employee Scheduling Software For Your Business

With such an extensive list of options to choose from, finding the best employee scheduling software for your business can seem like a tall task. Fortunately, we have a methodology that you can use to narrow your search.

Business Size

The number of employees you have and the number of locations will have a strong impact on your decision. A company with ten employees at one store will have different needs than a business with 100 employees across six locations.

Industry

There are industry-specific solutions in the employee scheduling software market.

For example, if you own a restaurant business, 7shifts will be the best choice for you. Restaurant managers and owners have different scheduling needs than office jobs in the corporate world.

Mobile Access

The best employee scheduling solutions should come with a free mobile app.

You want to make sure the app has admin features for managing schedules, as well as employee features for viewing schedules and making requests. The best apps include alerts for both staff and managers.

For example, an employee could be notified about a shift change or shift opening. But a manager would get notified if someone is approaching overtime or didn’t clock-in for their shift.

Time Tracking

Most employee scheduling solutions include time-tracking tools as well. Since the two go hand-in-hand, it makes sense to get both from the same provider.

Some software has all-inclusive features for both scheduling and time clocks, whereas others offer time tracking as an add-on.

Price

Obviously, employee scheduling software is supposed to make your life easier. It’s supposed to improve operational efficiencies and reduce labor costs. But make sure you find a solution that fits within your budget.

Each software has a different pricing structure. There are lots of options that charge a monthly rate based on how many employees you have. Some of those are subject to monthly minimums.

Some solutions offer tiered pricing, while others have unlimited employees for each plan.

If you’re a smaller organization with basic scheduling needs, you can even benefit from free employee scheduling software.

Conclusion

Here’s a quick recap of the best employee scheduling software on our list:

Homebase — Best overall employee scheduling software.
Humanity — Best for shift trading and filling openings in real-time.
TSheets — Best for time-tracking and accounting integration.
7shifts — Best employee scheduling software for restaurants.
Paycor Scheduling — Customized solutions for employee scheduling software.
When I Work — Best free employee scheduling software.
Deputy — Best for scheduling employees working at multiple locations.
Shiftboard — Custom solution for managing hourly workers.
CakeHR — Full-service HR software with employee scheduling.

Based on this guide, I’m confident that you can find what you’re looking for. No matter what type of business you have or what industry you’re in, there’s an option for you above.

February 26, 2020

Best Business Insurance for 2020

Hopefully, you’ll never have to use your business insurance. But just like car insurance or health insurance, protecting your business from unexpected situations is crucial.

However, 44% of small business owners don’t have insurance.

This statistic is shocking. If you’re uninsured or underinsured, your company could potentially go bankrupt if something goes wrong, and you’re forced to pay out of pocket.

Any business with employees needs to carry workers’ compensation insurance and unemployment insurance, at a minimum. But depending on your business type and industry, you’ll also want to consider getting general liability insurance, commercial property insurance, and professional liability insurance.

But finding the best business insurance goes beyond getting the right policy. Getting insured through the right company makes a huge difference.

From filing a claim to getting assistance with your agent or adjuster, service definitely varies from company to company. Some business insurance companies specialize in specific industries, such as retail, restaurants, or tech. Other companies concentrate on certain types of coverage, like commercial auto or workers’ compensation.

Top 10 Best Business Insurance Companies For 2020

The best business insurance policies offer a wide range of basic coverage. Ideally, you’d like to get a policy covering all of your needs under one roof.

After reviewing and researching dozens of business insurance companies, we narrowed down the top ten for you to consider.

The Hartford
Travelers
State Farm
Chubb
Progressive
Liberty Mutual
AmTrust Financial
Founder Shield
Farmers Insurance
Allstate

Our list is based on factors like coverage offered, premium pricing, and customer service. Use this guide to find the best business insurance company for you.

The Best Business Insurance Reviews

The Hartford

The Hartford is the best overall business insurance company on the market today. Covering businesses of all different shapes and sizes, The Hartford has everything you could possibly need.

For over 200 years, this company has been providing insurance solutions to businesses across the country. They’ve also made the list of the World’s Most Ethical Companies 11 different times.

The Hartford offers a wide range of business insurance policies, including:

General liability insurance
Commercial property insurance
Business income insurance
Professional liability insurance
Data breach insurance
Commercial umbrella insurance
Commercial auto insurance

From a bodily injury on one of your properties to stolen inventory, fires, or floods, The Hartford has you covered.

It’s easy for you to bundle different types of insurance with add-ons to a single policy. You can apply online to get a quote in minutes.

The Hartford is known for providing exceptional service to its business customers during the claims process. You can’t go wrong by getting a quote from an industry leader in business insurance.

Travelers

Travelers is another giant in the world of business insurance. The company covers a wide range of industries, including construction, finance, manufacturing, retail, technology, and more.

With more than 30,000 employees and roughly 13,500 independent agents and brokers, Travelers insures businesses across the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the UK.

This insurance company has been around for more than 160 years.

In addition to industry-specific policies, Travelers provides lots of different coverage types. Some of the most popular Travelers business insurance solutions cover:

General liability
Workers’ compensation
Management and professional liability
Cyber liability
Commercial auto and trucking
Surety bonds
Environmental liability
Boiler and machinery
Excess casualty and umbrella

With that said, the workers’ compensation insurance policies from Travelers really stand out the most. More than 500,000 businesses trust Travelers for workers’ comp insurance.

Whether you’re a small local business or national organization with employees across multiple states, Travelers is a top choice to consider for workers’ compensation and general liability.

State Farm

State Farm is typically associated with home insurance and car insurance. They are best known for providing excellent customer service at affordable rates to their customers.

This service and reliability definitely applies to their business insurance plans as well.

State Farm has policies designed specifically for small business owners:

Business owners policy
Professional liability
Commercial liability umbrella
Workers’ compensation
Individual health
Business and commercial auto
Small business life

With State Farm, it’s easy for you to adjust your coverage as your company grows. Your agent will work with you to understand the needs of your scaling small business. This will ensure that your coverage limits are appropriate for the business size.

From the startup stage all the way until a company sale or change of ownership, State Farm has everything a small business owner needs to protect themself from the unexpected.

Chubb

Chubb is second to none when it comes to taking care of their insureds. This insurance company has a reputation for providing “white glove” service and paying out claims quickly, without any hassle.

Chubb has business insurance coverages that aren’t offered by other companies on the market today. In addition to general liability and workers’ compensation, Chubb has business insurance packages in the following categories:

Accident and health
Cyber
Environmental
Excess and surplus
Global casualty
International solutions for mid-sized companies
Management liability
Marine
Medical liability
Product recall
Professional liability
Railroad liability
Surety
Trade credit and political risk

As you can see, the list includes some rare and unique coverage options that we haven’t really seen from other providers in this guide.

Between Chubb’s excellent customer service and wide range of coverage options, you can expect to pay a little bit more on your business insurance premiums.

Chubb is best for businesses in need of international coverage. So if you’re traveling for work or making transactions outside of the US, consider Chubb for your insurance needs.

Progressive

Like most insurance companies, Progressive has several different business insurance policies and coverage types. They provide general liability insurance, professional liability, cyber insurance, workers’ compensation, and business owner’s policy.

With that said, Progressive’s specialty is commercial auto insurance.

Truck insurance
Pickup truck insurance
Van insurance
Box truck insurance
Tow truck insurance
Cars and SUVs
Commercial trailers

More than one million commercial vehicles in the United States are insured by Progressive. Basically, any vehicle used for business purposes can get insurance protection from Progressive.

As the country’s most popular business auto insurance company, the rates are actually pretty affordable. Progressive’s average commercial customer pays $165 per month for business auto. You’ll even get 15% off if you pay your premiums in advance.

In addition to the coverage provided by Progressive, the company will be there when you need them. Adding a driver, vehicle, or changing a policy is quick and easy. Progressive has 24/7 commercial auto service.

Progressive’s claim experts will help get your vehicles back on the road as soon as possible to limit business interruptions in the event of an accident.

If your company has vans, trucks, drivers, or any vehicles on the road for business purposes, Progressive will be a top choice for business auto insurance.

Liberty Mutual

Liberty Mutual is another well-known name in the insurance industry. The company provides small business insurance coverage as well as mid-to-large size business protection. Liberty Mutual even insures Fortune 500 corporations.

With more than 50,000 employees and 800+ offices throughout the world, Liberty mutual is a top provider of preferred property and casualty business insurance.

Some of the top coverage options include:

Equipment breakdown insurance
Excess liability insurance
General liability insurance
Inland marine
Ocean marine
Property
Mergers and acquisitions
Umbrella
Third-party administration
Workers’ compensation

Liberty Mutual works with a wide range of industries as well. But overall, it’s one of the best insurance providers for companies in manufacturing and agriculture.

From product recalls to errors and omissions coverages, Liberty Mutual can customize your policy to protect your employees, customers, and business from unforeseen circumstances.

AmTrust Financial

AmTrust Financial isn’t as well-known as some of the other insurance companies on our list. It’s definitely not a household name State Farm or Liberty Mutual. The company isn’t nearly as old as The Hartford or Travelers either.

In fact, AmTrust Financial was born less than 25 years ago, in 1998.

With that said, the company has grown quickly. They currently have 7,000+ employees serving over 70 countries.

AmTrust Financial isn’t trying to compete with the biggest insurance providers on the planet. Instead, they are focusing on niche solutions in the following industries:

Financial institutions
Nonprofit organizations
Restaurants
Transportation

Overall, the best coverage offered is for restaurant business insurance.

AmTrust understands the unique risks associated with owning a restaurant. They’ll help you get a policy to protect your workers as well as your customers.

Some of the popular restaurant enhancement coverages include:

Spoilage
Foodborne contamination
Stock sales price (including liquor and fine wine)
Peak season
Umbrella limits
Liquor liability

AmTrust Financial covers family-style and fine dining restaurants meeting certain eligibility requirements. They also work with delis, cafes, and pizzerias.

With that said, not every restaurant will qualify for coverage. For example, new restaurants with a large bar area operating in a 25-year-old building would need to look elsewhere.

Founder Shield

Founder Shield is another new and lesser-known company. They have only been providing insurance coverages for less than ten years.

But similar to AmTrust, Founder Shield is carving out a niche in the world of business insurance.

Founder Shield specializes in providing coverage to tech startups. Popular coverage categories include:

Crime insurance
Cyber insurance
Intellectual property insurance
Directors and officers insurance
Fiduciary liability insurance
Representations and warranties insurance
Key person insurance
Product liability
Pollution insurance

You’ll also find that Founder Shield offers more traditional business insurance coverage for general liability, workers’ compensation, and umbrella insurance.

Founder Shield is a more modern way to get insurance. The purchasing process is 100% digital. This means there is less paperwork, and it’s easy to manage everything online.

If your company is a high-growth startup in the technology industry, consider getting a quote from Founder Shield.

Farmers Insurance

Farmers is an industry leader for home, auto, and life insurance. But it’s also a top choice to consider for business owners.

The company has been around for nearly 100 years. So you know that you’ll be getting quality service from a well-established name. They have a network of 48,000 agents and 21,000 employees across all 50 states.

Farmers Insurance provides business coverage in the following categories:

Property
Liability
Crime
Auto
Workers’ compensation
Umbrella
Life
Loss control

While Farmers covers a wide range of industries, I’d recommend it to business owners in retail. You’ll be able to get an affordable policy to protect you from things like theft, injuries, and loss of income.

This is an ideal solution for boutique shop owners, dry cleaners, florists, and salons.

Allstate

Allstate is best known for offering car insurance to individuals. While business insurance isn’t necessarily Allstate’s specialty or primary focus, there are certain industries and business types that should consider this carrier.

The company provides a high level of customer service with friendly agents and fully customizable plans.

Allstate has coverage solutions across nearly every industry, including professional firms, healthcare, service businesses, retail goods, and food service.

Top insurance coverages from Allstate include:

Business property
Business liability

Since all of the policies are customized, you can add specific types of coverage to your plan when you get a quote. Needs will vary based on business and industry.

Some unique standouts from Allstate include their real estate coverage and business insurance for rental services.

Allstate has been providing insurance since 1931. So you know that you’re getting coverage from a trusted and well-established name in the insurance world.

How to Find the Best Business Insurance Company For You

With so many companies providing business insurance, you’ll need to learn how narrow your options down. There are certain factors that must be taken into consideration when you’re evaluating an insurance provider.

This is the methodology that we use and recommend. You can use these same factors when searching for the best business insurance.

Coverage Types

Determine what type of coverage you need and find a company that can meet those policy requirements. Most insurance companies will offer the same basic types of coverage.

General liability insurance
Workers’ compensation insurance
Commercial property insurance
Professional liability insurance

But some companies specialize in certain coverages. For example, Progressive is the best for commercial auto insurance. Other companies offer unique coverage for things like cyber liability, intellectual property insurance, or international services.

So if your company needs rare or specialized coverage, make sure you discuss those needs with an agent. The last thing you want is to be underinsured.

Company Reputation

I tend to lean towards companies that have been in business for a long time. The Hartford and Travelers have been around for 200+ and 160+ years, respectively.

Lots of other insurance providers on our list have been around for roughly 100 years as well.

These companies have seen it all. They understand everything there is to know about the insurance industry, and your claim won’t surprise them. Plus, a well-established company has stood the test of time. You know that natural disasters won’t bankrupt them, so your policy is safe.

There are some newer insurance companies, like AmTrust and Founder Shield, that provide unique solutions for niche industries.

Getting a policy through one of those providers definitely has some risk. But it can still be a viable option if you’re looking for rare or specialized coverages.

Claims Process

Having business insurance is like having a good lawyer. You hope you never have to use it. But when something comes up, you want to make sure that everything goes smoothly.

The best business insurance companies have an easy claims process. Depending on your preferences, you can file a claim online or over the phone in minutes.

An adjuster will be highly responsive and settle the claim as fast as possible.

If one of your company vehicles is involved in an accident or a piece of equipment breaks during a flood, you don’t want operations to be stalled because of the insurance company dragging their feet.

Costs

Price is obviously a top consideration when evaluating business insurance.

Weigh the cost of your monthly and annual premiums against the amount of coverage you’re getting in a policy.

Always shop around for business insurance. Get quotes from a handful of providers to get a better sense of the market. You can potentially use one quote as leverage to lower another one. These companies want your business, so there could be some room for negotiation.

Just know that some insurance providers, like Chubb, will usually have higher prices for their policies.

Customer Service

Customer service goes a long way in the insurance industry. Aside from renewing or updating your policy, it’s generally not good news if you need to contact your insurance provider.

During these difficult and stressful times, it’s important that you receive excellent customer service. You want someone to answer the phone as opposed to going through ten minutes of speaking to a robot, followed by another 45 minutes on hold.

The best business insurance companies understand your needs at every level. From the sales agent to the adjuster and claims department, great service will make your life much easier.

Conclusion

If you’re shopping for a business insurance quote, look no further than these ten companies:

The Hartford — Best overall business insurance company.
Travelers — Best insurance company for workers’ compensation.
State Farm — Best for small business insurance.
Chubb — Best business insurance for international coverage.
Progressive — Best for commercial auto insurance.
Liberty Mutual — Best business insurance for manufacturing and agriculture.
AmTrust Financial — Best business insurance for restaurants.
Founder Shield — Best business insurance for tech startups.
Farmers Insurance — Best small business retail insurance.
Allstate — Best for rental services and real estate agents.

No matter what type of business you have or what industry you’re in, you can find what you’re looking for on this list. From startups to small businesses and national chains, these insurance providers can handle all of your coverage needs.

February 14, 2020

What Is Marketing Automation? – The Definitive Guide

You’ve heard people talk about marketing automation, but do you know what it is and how your business can leverage it?

Having automation systems in place allows you to increase your customer size without having to grow your employee base. But are you really getting the most out of it? Or are you leaving money on the table?

This post will break down everything you need to know about marketing automation, and I will show you how to leverage it.

What Is Marketing Automation?

If you’re a marketer, you’ve probably heard of marketing automation. We’re going to bet though, that 90 percent of you have no clue what the term means. We don’t blame you — ‘marketing automation’ is a mouthful to say, and there probably should be a better way to describe the concept.

Let’s start by investigating the problem.

Marketing is the lifeblood of every brand-to-customer (or prospect) relationship. The field is also heavily integrated with sales. When companies first launch, they’re typically run by builders and sellers. Builders create the product, while sellers are out in the field forging 1:1 connections with potential customers.

The sales process is marketing in its most nascent stages.

As a company starts to grow, it’s impossible to maintain 1:1 relationships with everybody. At this point, it’s time to hire a marketing director who can build performance-driven, conversion-centric programs at scale.

Eventually, your company’s marketing program will get so big that you can’t — possibly — manage everything via Outlook, Word, and Excel spreadsheets. You could always hire a team of marketing specialists, but eventually, you’re going to start wasting cash on redundant tasks like emailing new customers, setting up social media-to-email programs, and emailing your users every time you post blog content.

That’s where marketing automation comes in.

Definitions of Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is a tough concept to capture in just a few words. The best way to understand the concept is to survey the landscape. Here are the most descriptive and comprehensive definitions that we’ve found:

Marketing automation is a category of software that streamlines, automates, and measures marketing tasks and workflows so that companies like yours can increase operational efficiency and grow revenue faster. – Marketo

Marketing automation is the use of software to automate marketing processes such as customer segmentation, customer data integration, and campaign management. The use of marketing automation makes processes that would have otherwise been performed manually much more efficient, and makes new processes possible. Marketing automation is an integral component of customer relationship management. – SearchCRM

Marketing automation is the use of software and Web-based services to execute, manage and automate marketing tasks and processes. It replaces manual and repetitive marketing processes with purpose-built software and applications geared toward performance. – Techopedia

Marketing Automation a subset of customer relationship management (CRM) that focuses on the definition, scheduling, segmentation and tracking of marketing campaigns. The use of marketing automation makes processes that would otherwise have been performed manually much more efficient and makes new processes possible.- Marketing Automation Times

At its best, marketing automation is software and tactics that allow companies to buy and sell like Amazon – that is, to nurture prospects with highly personalized, useful content that helps convert prospects to customers and turn customers into delighted customers. This type of marketing automation typically generates significant new revenue for companies, and provides an excellent return on the investment required. – Hubspot

Separating Fact from Myth

It’s common for marketers to talk about marketing automation and email marketing interchangeably. The fact is that email marketing is a component of marketing automation, but the two are far from the same thing.

Marketing automation combines disparate customer acquisition and retention channels to conform to conform to your company’s conversion funnel.

Yeah, that was kind of a mouthful.

Here is what we mean

Any company’s buy cycle will span multiple touch points. For instance, a customer may find your company through search. He may decide to ‘like’ your company’s Facebook page and then come back to your site to read a recently shared blog article. Your awesome blog content may convince him to become an email subscriber.

Conversion paths are unique. Imagine trying to chase down hundreds of them – it’s impossible. That’s where marketing automation comes in.

Fact: Marketing automation connects multiple touch points and marketing channels including social media, email marketing, and content marketing. One of the core goals of marketing automation is to nurture prospects for the long-term, which mean focusing on goals beyond direct sales.
Myth: Marketing automation is cold, inhuman, and impersonal. “Automation” is just another way of saying that we’re spamming people.
Fact: Marketing automation makes it easier to send personalized, 1:1 targeted messages. In other words, marketing automation makes communication stronger. When you automate your marketing, you can focus more heavily on the quality of your campaigns and messaging. Marketing automation gives your team the ability to add more personal touches to your campaign – by collecting data on a prospect’s interests and goals, you can custom-tailor future offers so that they are more relevate.In fact, marketing automation will empower your organization to do the following:
1. Add dynamic content based on an individual’s specific user profile. For instance, you can send targeted offers based on website patterns.
2. Categorize customers and prospects by common behaviors, interests, and demographic details. These will be dimensions for segmenting your customers.
3. Develop optimal marketing patterns. Marketing automation can help your company test different variables like email send times, subject headings, and ideas for personalization.
4. Integrate marketing channels to deliver a comprehensive, cross-platform user experience. Make sure that every touch point is carefully planned for optimal conversion optimization.
Myth: Marketing automation is spam.
Fact: No way. Marketing automation is one of the most user-friendly marketing channels out there because it’s tailored around personalized user experiences. You’re not blasting audiences with an advertising messages. Imagine instead that you’re nurturing leads and guiding prospects through the sales conversion funnel.

What Marketing Automation Looks Like

What we want to express is that marketing automation is about software. Your goal is to grow your email list dramatically. A group of 5 people will be easy to manage, but 10? Not so much.

And many companies are dealing with lists of 10,000 or more. Sometimes 10 million. We’ll walk you through one example—a platform called Act-On.

Act-On is designed for:

Small businesses
With limited marketing resources
Who don’t have dedicated IT staff for dedicated database maintenance
Who need a cloud-based solution
Who need a flexible, tiered pricing structure with month-to-month agreements

Tip: Different marketing automation platforms are designed for different types of businesses. Act-On is just one solution. It’s critical that your business research marketing automation options—HubSpot, Act-On, GetResponse, Eloqua, MailChimp, and Marketo to figure out which one is the best fit.

Most of these companies have free-trial options, so take advantage of the opportunity to ‘try before you buy’ first hand.

These companies are all awesome in their own right—we’re not going to recommend any particular one to you. There is no one-size-fits all approach. You need to choose the solution with (1) the targeting features you need and (2) the analytics capabilities.

Other features to pay attention to: CRM integrations, import/export features of customer data, and the ability to implement your own customizations.

The platform comes with email, website visitor tracking, lead management, social media, CRM, reporting and analytics. A core value proposition is that business owners can execute their marketing from one place to (1) generate high quality leads and (2) transform those leads into sales.

Here is what users see when they log-in to the Act-On home screen:

Here is an example analytics dashboard where Act-On users can preview performance for all e-mail based campaigns.

Notice how Act-On simplifies performance by focusing on three key metrics:

Sent emails
Opens on email messages
Clickthroughs to the marketer’s website

Seasonality can affect the performance of a marketing automation campaign. Two variables that marketers need to watch are performance by day of the month and by day of the week. Understanding trends bay day can help you optimize the variables that we mentioned above—open rates and click-through rates back to your website.

Marketing automation programs come with integrated A/B testing software so that you can run experiments and refine your messaging to connect with your target audience:

Organizations can also maintain controls over who is using the marketing automation software. Typical users will include members of sales, account management, and marketing teams. You can restrict who can send emails, who has access to reports, and who can maintain control over administrative settings.

To save time and maintain a cohesive brand image, you can use your marketing automation software to create templates, email signature, and message formats. This functionality allows users to establish 1:1 connections in less time—with templates, you only need to change the form fields for names and email addresses.

Marketing Automation Is More Than Just Software

We’ve spent a lot of time emphasizing the value of tactics, marketing channels, and software. Keep in mind, however, that marketing automation is something more. As we mentioned in the intro—we wrote this guide to bridge a gap in the marketing automation space.

We did a lot of research before we put this post together. We probably spent more time reading and testing than we did writing. Here’s what we learned:

The core thought leaders in marketing automation are the software companies themselves. This is okay—we think companies like HubSpot, Marketo (and others) are awesome.

We want to emphasize (and re-emphasize), however, that our guide is software-agnostic.

We definitely think that software is a core part of the marketing automation dialogue, so we’re going to keep talking about it. But we also recognize how important it is to emphasize the strategic dimensions of this marketing practice.

There are a lot of people out there who call themselves ‘experts’ in marketing automation. But they’re not experts in marketing automation. They’re exceptional at using software.

Marketing automation starts with understanding the difference between ‘strategies’ and ‘tactics.’

Strategies are creative—yet structured—marketing frameworks. These programs start with the big picture.

Marketers will then reverse engineer solutions based on goals.

Tactics involve the implementation of specific marketing techniques—for instance, whether or not you want your email subject headings to contain action verbs.

To succeed with marketing automation, you need a healthy mix of strategy and tactics.

We’ve talked about marketing automation a lot, huh? You’re probably wondering what it means. Here is an example from the Act-On Blog :

An Example

US Fleet Tracking achieves $30,000 revenue in Black Friday campaign

US Fleet Tracking is a provider of Internet-based GPS vehicle tracking and asset management. The company started using Act-On to expand its marketing reach into new customer segments. (using email coupled with a Salesforce integration across desktop and mobile users).

The company was also looking to unify its marketing automation and sales efforts across different functions.

The company decided to implement Act-On to better engage its customers.

The result?

25% of email recipients requested a call back. In total, the marketing automation campaign generated $30,000.

Here are the tools that the company used:

A real-time dashboard that provided insight into who received the campaign as well as engagement actions (across e-mail, website, form, and content engagement)
Capabilities to personalize messaging to specific client interest.
Reduction in cold calling.

US Fleet used marketing automation software to monitor qualified leads (on an individual basis). In one instance, US Fleet was alerted to responded to a potential customer. The result? A transaction valued at $8,500.

The Role of Inbound Marketing

The term ‘inbound marketing’ is something that you’ll likely hear about in tandem with marketing automation.

The two go hand-in-hand, but what exactly does ‘inbound marketing’ mean, and what does it have to do with marketing automation?

The terms “inbound marketing” and “content marketing” are frequently used interchangeably. The two concepts have risen in popularity—in tandem—over the last decade.

Inbound marketing is a customer acquisition practice that is built on human-to-human relationships. HubSpot, a content marketing and automation platform, is one of the companies that is responsible for making this term popular.

The concept has been around since 2006 and is central to the digital age. In fact, HubSpot calls it “the most effective marketing method for doing business online.”

Instead of relying on outbound marketing methods of buying ads, buying email lists, and aggressively pushing audiences into become leads, inbound marketing is the practice of attracting users through quality content that pulls people toward your company and product naturally. By closely aligning your content and marketing materials with your customers’ interest, your brand is in a position to attract, delight, and engage customers over time.

As defined by Hubspot, here are the biggest forces behind inbound marketing:

Content Generation: Create targeted content that directly addresses your customers’ demands. That content should be extremely high-quality, entertaining, engaging, & shareable.
Conversion Funnel Targeting: Marketers should pay attention – and respect– the fact that people go through stages as they interact with your company. Each stage requires different marketing needs. A customer who is just learning about your company for the first time, for instance, may not respond well to an aggressive, ‘buy-now’ CTA.
Personalization: As you build out your inbound marketing and marketing automation strategy, you will learn more about your leads. This learning process will empower your company to re-invest that data into refining your marketing strategy. Marketing automation software will help you streamline this process and build 1:1 connections with hundreds of thousands—and even millions—of users.
Cross-channel: Multi-channel marketing strategies connect all touch points in the customer journey. It’s common for users to engage with your brands across channels – email, social, and content before deciding to engage in a sale. Analytics will be crucial to this framework, so make sure that you are well-acquainted with basic web analytics tools.
Integration: Your marketing and analytics software need to communicate effectively with each other. This integration will help ensure that your brand is delivering the right marketing messages to the right audiences at the right time in their journeys.
Attraction & Engagement: Traffic acquisition is only part of the marketing equation. Organizations need qualified, targeted traffic to be successful in their marketing. We want to attract audiences who will ultimately become happy, long-term customers (who will refer other customers).
Conversion & Progression Through The Funnel: Once you have visitors on your website, the next step is to convert them. At the very least, you should start collecting their email addresses. Once you start building an organic email list, you can start reaching out to your customers and prospects so that you can re-engage them through your content: ebooks, whitepapers, and tip sheets.
Closing: You’ve become a lead magnet, what comes next? Now, you need to seal the deal by triggering marketing messages that inspire users to take action. At this point of your marketing strategy, you need to transform leads into customers (and existing customers into repeat buyers). You should use techniques like lead scoring, lead nurturing, mapping the buying process, and classic sales tactics.

Marketing automation can help connect and simplify these seemingly disparate actions. Instead of reaching customers manually, you can use software to establish these 1:1 bonds.

Make sure that you’re maintaining your relationships with your customers for the long-haul. Focus on more than just acquisition – embrace the art of retention. It’s easy to feel like new user acquisition is the low hanging-fruit. Keep in mind, however, that growth from within is just as—if not more—important to your marketing process.

Content is the heart of inbound marketing. Here is some inspiration of tactics that connect content across marketing channels.

Shopify, one of the biggest platforms for powering ecommerce websites, launched an email-to-blog content campaign. Whenever the company publishes a new blog post, subscribers receive an email.

That’s not all. Shopify’s ’s blog posts are also distributed via social media:

This cross-platform approach maximizes audience attention. It also creates a blog > email > social media feedback loop that facilitates engagement and sharing activity.

The catch? There is none. Shopify includes zero sales messaging with this process. Of course, the brand’s ultimate goal is to convert audiences into customers. But Shopify isn’t blasting an advertising message that says “convert now.”

Instead, the company is focused on nurturing brand-to-audience relationships. The idea resonates with HubSpot’s thought leadership that we presented earlier. Content is a marketing pillar. It’s trustworthy, value-driven, and compelling. Coupled with marketing automation software, content can amplify the success of your relationship-building efforts.

Tip: Close the feedback loop by connecting your marketing channels together. When you send an email to distribute a blog post—don’t show the full text. Show a snippet, and link back to the original website.

If there is a natural opportunity, ask readers to share your content via social media.

Marketing Automation Is Driven by Psychology

After reading the previous section, you’re probably convinced about the relationship between marketing, sales, and technology. People live by their emotions, and they’re driven by incentives. “What’s in it for me” is the question that fuels commerce as we know it today.

What’s important to keep in mind is that there are two sides to any commerce equation. If both buyers and sellers are too focused on their own goals, the critical ‘connection’ moment will never happen. Stop talking about why you’re awesome, and start focusing on why your audiences should care. That’s when you’ll see conversion success.

Marketing automation should be—first and foremost—driven by value.

When people talk about marketing automation, they focus on topics like analytics and A/B testing—again, probably because software companies are leading the conversations.

But we’re going to emphasize another quality that isn’t covered as often—empathy.

Care about your customers. Send them marketing messages that inspire delight. Always be looking for opportunities to listen to feedback.

Stop thinking about “pushing” email blasts, and focus on ways to pull audiences close to your brand. Marketing automation means targeting the right users with the right message at the right time in their buying journeys.

The Golden Rule of Marketing

At any moment, customers have one question running through their heads:

“What’s in it for me?”

Your marketing programs should answer this question directly. Sometimes, the answer will require multiple conversations. And span multiple marketing channels.

Let’s think with our shopper brains for a moment. You’re shopping online, add some items to your shopping cart, and go to check out. As you enter your billing address, you realize that you left your credit card in the kitchen. It’s midnight and you’re exhausted. You decide to put off your purchase until tomorrow. Then you totally forget. You’ve contributed to the phenomenon that online merchants call “shopping cart abandonment.”

Marketers, the world is working against you.

There are so many reasons why a transaction won’t happen, and these reasons are completely outside of your control. These forces of nature include direct (or indirect) competitors, shopper laziness, and mismatched timing.

Incentives can help you zight these external forces. Let’s go back to that example where you were shopping online but left your credit card in the kitchen. If you had a one-night-only 30% off coupon, would you have been more inclined to get up and walk to the other side of the house? If your shopping cart purchase was $20? Probably not. But if you were planning to spend $100 or more, the answer is likely to be a clear ‘you bet.’

As a customer acquisition strategy, Clarity emailed its subscriber base with the following refer-a-friend deal. Refer a friend, and get $20 to test out the platform for yourself. It’s a great way for Clarity to build its community while introducing new users to the product, for free. It’s also a sign that Clarity feels confident in its product.

Incentives don’t have to be monetary. They can be white papers, guides, e-books, and free consultations. By providing resources up-front, you’ll give your customers a sneak peak into your thought process, value, intelligence, and quality.

These incentives are crucial to moving your customers through the conversion funnel.

Feedback Loops

Marketing automation is built around feedback loops. With every action, there’s a consumer-driven reaction.

It is important to monitor these feedback loops with an objective eye. The reason? As a marketing, demand generation, or business development professional, you’re probably under immense pressure to sell. Even if you’re emailing a basic newsletter or content update, you never know how consumers will respond to your messaging.

Consumers are extremely sensitive and attuned to ‘salesiness.’ That’s why it’s so important to monitor your data—unsubscribe rates, spam complaints, open rates, and click-through rates—on email campaigns. Watch every customer service complaint. Listen to everything that your customers are telling you.

Here is an example reporting dashboard from a campaign in MailChimp:

What you’ll learn is that abuse reports are the norm rather than the exception—it’s normal to have 1 for every few thousand emails that you send. Some consumers are sensitive to email marketing (due to years and years of abuse), and others aren’t always familiar with the opt-out process. It’s a genuine mistake — people sometimes confuse “abuse reports” with opt-out forms.

If you care about your customers (and your job as a marketer), you will feel a strong emotional component with your work. Abuse reports and opt-outs of your email list will sting.

A core first lesson to learn is not to take it personally. Hold on to your empathy, but let the data guide you.

It’s common for marketers to be at two sides of the spectrum—some are extra sensitive to their consumers’ needs, and some don’t care at all. You need to find a point in the middle and flex between being data-driven and emotionally driven. Let the data tell you “what,” but let your emotions guide you in helping determine “why” and “how.”

Some questions that you should always be thinking about with your marketing messaging:

Am I contacting users too often? Am I being too aggressive? Metrics to watch: Unsubscribe rates, abuse complaints
Are audiences finding my value proposition interesting? Metrics to watch: Click-through rates to your website, open rates
Are users engaged? Metrics to watch: Responses to your emails; activities on your website
Who are my most engaged segments? Metrics to watch: Response rates and engagement rates by segments

Marketing or Sales?

Marketing automation is the solution to amplifying and streamlining 1:1 relationships at scale.

At times, you may feel like you’re walking the line between business development and marketing.

This is exactly where you want to be.

We call this process ‘marketing automation, but it is ultimately linked with the sales process. Think about it from a content creation perspective. It’s your sales team that has the window into what your audiences want. Marketing automation will give you amazing insight into the community that you’re trying to reach.

Marketing automation doesn’t stop with marketing. Which brings us to our next point…

Is it okay to sell with Marketing Automation?

Absolutely! This is one of the biggest cognitive pain points related to marketing automation.

We frequently think “content, inbound, or bust.” The marketing community is polarized—on the one side of the spectrum are the pushy folks who are driving direct sales. On the other side? The content marketers who never, ever want to sell.

What you really need is a blend of both. We do want to emphasize a key point, however, before diving deeper into this guide.

Marketing automation isn’t black and white. There are some instances where you will want to aggressively sell. There are some instances where you won’t want to sell—pushing more than great content will drive your prospects away.

With every marketing automation decision, you’ll need to make a judgment call—and intuition won’t help. You’ll need to rely on a thorough understanding of the conversion funnel and what it means.

4 ways to grow your business with marketing automation

Tactic #1: Identify and target high profile leads

When you get leads from your website, how do you get them? Usually you’ll get them by email, and you’ll probably add them to a list with all of the other leads you get.

Although it might seem obvious that you should target your best leads, you’ll be shocked to find out how often marketers not only ignore them but ignore segmentation altogether.

For starters, you should segment your list to avoid sending the same message to your entire database. If you want really good engagement from your list, then segmentation is your key. But how should you segment? A pretty common way of segmenting is based upon lead demographics, interests, behaviors and lead source.

For example, if you run a business that provides marketing help to companies, then you could segment based upon where a lead opted into your sequence:

Newsletter
Webinar
Whitepaper
Video
Blog

Then you could look at a couple of other variables like:

Whether he or she is a total stranger, client or former client
And what your lead wants help with in his or her marketing
- Reputation Management
- Video Marketing
- Corporate Branding Online
- Becoming an expert
- Content marketing
- Blog marketing
- SEO

Now, that’s a basic way to segment. If you want to target your high-profile leads, you need to identify them using the following six questions:

What is the biggest problem you are trying to solve?
What’s it worth to you to solve the problem?
What particular questions and concerns do you have about products like ours?
What other options do you have?
What do you need to believe about products like ours in order to buy?
What metrics do you use to measure success?

The questions will help you not only identify the ideal prospect for your product or service, but it will also help turn that prospect into a buyer. In other words, these questions will help you get the information you need to target your best prospects.

If you’re wondering how to ask these questions, one option is to present it as a survey on your website. Survey Monkey or KISSinsights both provide platforms to help you gather this kind of intelligence.

Once you’ve identified those high-profile leads, continue to nurture them with questions, betas and recommendations so that they are helping you craft your product to fit their needs perfectly.

Tactic #2: Improve conversion late in the funnel

One of the best ways to increase conversion is to create a very focused sales funnel. In other words, you limit your prospects’ choices by giving them the exact information they are looking for and guiding them to the action you want them to take.

Your sales funnel does not exist in a vacuum, so it’s easy for your prospect to get distracted and leave the sales funnel. Let’s say your prospect ended up on your landing page, subscribed to your email newsletter, responded to an appeal in one of the emails and is on the order page.

At this point your prospect is primed, so you have to give them exactly what they want. But in order to sweeten the deal, you need to heighten the value in order to get them to convert this late in the game. That could be a free trial or a percentage off.

Your prospect doesn’t need a bunch of options, so your funnel at this point should be restricted to one and only one choice so you can close the deal.

But why do some prospects opt out? They opt out typically for three reasons:

They get distracted by outside influences, like seeing something else online.
They don’t feel your product is the best value exchange.
They don’t understand what they need to do next. In other words, they don’t know how to proceed forward.

Because of this, your sales funnel should be simple. For example, if you look at Seth Godin’s email newsletter subscription page, you see how simple it is:

When it comes to closing a sale while offering multiple options, you’d want to make the decision simple…or at least seem simple by highlighting the best option. Here’s how 37 Signals does it:

From the example above, it’s real clear that whichever option you choose, it is based on a 30-day trial. 37 Signals, I’m sure, tested this and found they get their best conversion by emphasizing one of the more affordable options.

In the end, the key is to simplify the process, not make it more complex by cluttering it with unnecessary information.

Tactic #3: Get rid of poor leads fast

On the other hand, you need to monitor your leads to identify those that are dead or worthless. Sure, you probably love seeing a large list, but digging into your analytics will tell you another story. And it won’t be good.

Lots of people probably subscribed to your email list but don’t engage in any meaningful way. They are probably too lazy to unsubscribe, but they are still on your list. You need to get them out of there because when you purge your list, you actually increase the value of the entire list. You boost your deliverability rate and email reputation.

So, how do you go about purging your poor leads from your marketing system? Here are some ideas:

Remove or correct bad domains – sometimes leads share bad domain names. Sometimes this happens by accident, and other times people enter bad domain names on purpose. Regardless, identify them immediately and remove or correct them.
Remove distribution accounts – for example, ISPs look for emails sent to distribution lists, or large email groups, and consider them spam. Plus, emailing to such lists is bad business. It’s like sending a letter to the “Resident.”
Remove spam email addresses – some leads slip in with the word “spam” in the email address. Pull those as soon as possible as they can make you look bad to your ISP.
Remove inactive addresses – for example, if a lead hasn’t opened an email in three or six months, remove that lead.
Use data checkers at the point of signing up – these tools check for things like correct domain name, etc.

You can also purge leads based on these three criteria:

Do they have the authority to buy?
Do they have the budget to buy?
When do they plan on buying?

The leads you want your salespeople to avoid are called NINAs. These are the leads that have No Influence, No Authority. These leads will waste your time and money! Let marketing nurture them.

Tactic #4: Reduce losing leads

Leakage is what occurs when good leads leave your sales funnel. With marketing automation you can easily plug the hole in the funnel that causes those leads to leave. But you have to find out where the leaks are occurring.

Your first step is to map out the life of a lead. Take it from cold to close, trying to identify those points in the funnel where the lead is falling off. Do you see a point where leads are pouring out? Or just trickling? Here are five ways to prevent leakage:

Lead scoring model – according to a Sirius Decisions report, about 80% of leads are not followed up on by sales, which is probably a result from the two departments not talking to each other. They should talk and figure out what is a qualified lead. When a lead reaches that score, then marketing passes that lead to sales.
Sales alerts – a good marketing automation system will also alert sales when a lead reaches a critical score so the right message can be sent.
Lead nurturing process for decision-makers – because 78% of business decision-makers aren’t talking to sales reps, you need to develop a process that gets sales to that lead with relevant, personalized and simple information that gives the lead what they want.
Monitor changes in leads – optimize your marketing automation to identify when a lead changes score. This means you pay attention to things like budget, the lead’s role in the organization and the need of the lead or their company. If they drop in score, the lead should be passed back to marketing. A good marketing system should automate this process as much as possible.
Result tracking and revision – successful marketing involves constant monitoring of results and tweaking of your process. You should spend as much time on metrics as you do on any other process. Where are bottlenecks in the process? Where does the process fizzle? Are you and sales on the same page with lead scoring?

Constant communication between marketing and sales and a highly optimized and automated marketing system should help you plug any holes you have in your sales funnel.

Conclusion

If you’ve ever fought with sales or management about certain advertising campaigns, then you know what a pain it can be to argue your point without correct data.

Just implementing a marketing automation program can change the course of your business.

But when you get it working in a tip-top shape, then delivering clear results is your best proof for making business decisions.

It’s hard to argue with good results!

February 12, 2020

Best Business Credit Cards

A small business credit card can offer more than just a way to pay for everyday purchases. Lots of business owners use these cards as an alternative way to secure financing if they don’t qualify for a small business loan.

That’s because business credit cards usually have higher spending limits compared to traditional consumer credit cards.

In many instances, you don’t even need a formal business structure to apply for a small business credit card. If you’re a freelancer or entrepreneur without a registered LLC, you can still apply for cards using your social security number as opposed to a tax ID or EIN.

The best business credit cards offer exceptional rewards, from cash back to airline miles and other money-saving benefits.

This guide is perfect for anyone interested in a small business credit card. I’ll show you the top options and explain how to find the best business credit card for your situation.

Top 8 Best Business Credit Cards for 2020

There are hundreds of business credit cards on the market today. It seems like they all claim to be “the best” for something. But with that said, there are only eight business credit cards that I would confidently recommend.

I’ll highlight the top features, benefits, costs, and any other considerations for each one below.

The Best Business Credit Card Reviews

Chase Ink Business Cash

Chase Ink Business Cash is the best overall business credit card. It ranks first on our list because of its benefits and flexibility for a wide range of business purposes.

That’s because Chase offers outstanding rewards on this card for things you’re already spending money on.

5% cash back on first $25,000 in combined purchases for Internet, cable, business phone services per year
2% cash back on first $25,000 spent at restaurants and gas stations
Unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases

You’ll get up to $1,750 cash back each year if you max out those first two categories.

Chase offers built-in protection for instances using your Ink Business Cash card. You can decline collision insurance offered by rental companies when you’re renting a car; Chase Ink Business Cash has you covered.

The card also provides purchase protection against theft or damage to items for 120 days, up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per account. It also extends qualified manufacturer’s warranties on purchases for an additional year.

You can get extra cards for your employees at no cost, and set individual spending limits for each cardholder.

Chase is currently offering a $500 bonus cash back bonus if you spend $3,000 in the first three months of opening a new account. There is 0% APR for the first 12 months using the card. After that, there is a 14.74% – 20.74% variable APR.

The Ink Business Cash card does not have an annual fee.

Capital One Spark Cash

Capital One Spark Cash offers unlimited 2% cash back on all purchases. The offer for new cardmembers is a $500 cash bonus when you spend $4,500 in the first three months of opening an account.

There is a $95 annual fee for this card, but it’s waived for the first year.

Some of the top features and benefits for Capital One Spark Cash include:

Free employee cards
Fraud alerts and protection
No foreign transaction fees
$100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck
Rental car collision coverage

I like the fact that you can immediately lock a card from the mobile app if it’s lost or stolen.

You’ll also benefit from a detailed year-end summary report that’s perfect for budgeting and tax preparation. It’s easy to integrate your purchase records with Quickbooks to simplify your accounting tasks.

There is an 18.49% variable APR with this card.

Capital One provides emergency card replacement, as well as emergency cash 24/7 at locations throughout the world.

Not everyone will be eligible for this card. To apply, you’ll need an excellent credit score and a business registered in the US.

Blue Business Cash Card From American Express

If you want all of the benefits associated with American Express, without paying an annual fee, the Blue Business Cash Card will be your best option.

You’ll earn 2% cash back on purchases up to $50,000 in a calendar year. After that, you’ll receive 1% cash back on your purchases. Rewards will automatically be credited to your statement, so you don’t have to worry about manual redemption.

One unique feature of this card is the spending capacity terms. You have the ability to spend above your credit limit with Amex’s expanded buying power.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll have unlimited spending freedom. The amount available above your limit varies based on things like your payment history, usage, and other factors.

American Express offers outstanding travel and transportation benefits with this card. In addition to car rental loss and damage insurance, you’ll also have access to 24/7 services with global hotline assist whenever you’re more than 100 miles from home.

This program gives you access to legal, financial, medical, and other emergency services coordination, such as helping you travel with a lost passport.

Other Blue Business Card highlights include:

No charge for employee cards
Detailed year-end summary with spending category and expense reports
Account alerts and monitoring
Integration with Vendor Pay by Bill.com
Extend manufacturer’s warranty on purchases
Purchase protection

American Express has a long history of providing exceptional service to its cardholders. Their dispute resolution services are second to none.

You can apply online for the Blue Business Cash Card from American Express and get a decision in 30 seconds.

Chase Ink Business Preferred

The Chase Ink Business Preferred card has better benefits and rewards than the Ink Business Cash card that we previously reviewed. However, this card does have a $95 annual fee. It’s a better option for business owners who spend more money and prefer rewards points as opposed to cash back.

Earn 3 points for every $1 spent on the first $150,000 in combined purchases on:

Airfare
Hotels
Car rentals, train tickets, and taxis
Advertising purchases on social media and search engines
Internet, cable, and phone bill

In short, you can earn up to 450,000 points per year if you spend money in those categories. You’ll get 1 point for every $1 spent on all other purchases, unlimited.

If you redeem your travel points with Chase Ultimate Rewards, the points are worth up to 25% more. For example, 80,000 points will get you roughly $1,000 toward travel.

You can even transfer qualified points to your favorite frequent travel programs at a 1:1 value.

Chase Ink Business Preferred gives you protection for auto rental collision, cell phone protection, as well as trip cancellation or trip interruption insurance. If you miss a business trip or need to cut it short due to sickness, weather, or other situations, Chase will reimburse you up to $5,000 for prepaid, non-refundable expenses. This includes hotels, airfare, and tours.

If you refer other business owners to an Ink Business Preferred card, you can earn up to 100,000 bonus points per year (20,000 per approved referral).

Capital One Spark Miles For Business

If you’re a frequent business traveler, the Capital One Spark Miles cards will reward you with miles instead of cash or points.

There are actually two options to choose here. One card is free with decent perks, and the other has a $95 annual fee with better rewards. Beyond that, the two cards are basically identical. Here’s an overview of each one:

Capital One Spark Miles

$95 annual fee (waived the first year)
Unlimited 2x miles per $1 dollar spent on all purchases
Unlimited 5x miles per $1 dollar spent on hotel and car rental bookings through Capital One
18.49% variable APR
Earn a 50,000 mile bonus ($500 in travel) when you spend $4,500 in the first three months of opening an account

Capital One Spark Miles Select

$0 annual fee
Unlimited 1.5x miles per $1 dollar spent on all purchases
Unlimited 5x miles per $1 dollar spent on hotel and car rental bookings through Capital One
0% intro APR for first 9 months, 14.49% – 22.49% variable APR after
Earn a 20,000 mile bonus ($200 in travel) when you spend $3,000 in the first three months of opening an account

The Spark Miles Select card will best for those of you who don’t want to pay the annual fee. But if you travel often enough, the $95 is justifiable for Spark Miles card.

CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum Select World Mastercard

The CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum Select World Mastercard is the best business credit card for frequent American Airlines travelers. If you or your employees frequently fly with American, you definitely need to consider this card.

Travel Benefits:

First checked bag free for you and up to four people on your itinerary
Preferred boarding
25% off in-flight food and beverages
25% off in-flight Wi-Fi

Rewards Benefits:

2x miles per $1 spent on cable, telecommunications, gas, and car rentals
2x miles per $1 spent on American Airlines purchases
Earn 1 mile per $1 spent on all other purchases

You’ll also earn an American Airlines Companion Certificate for domestic travel after spending $30,000 per year. The certificate is worth a free round-trip domestic flight for someone else on your itinerary. You’ll just have to pay taxes and fees.

New card members can earn 65,000 bonus miles after they spend $4,000 in the first four months of opening an account. The $95 annual fee is waived for the first year.

It’s easy to justify the annual fee is you travel with American Airlines often enough. Assuming you check a bag when flying, two round-trip tickets would normally cost $100 in bag fees. The card pays for itself right there.

American Express Business Gold

American Express Business Gold is one of the most premier business credit cards on the market today.

The card allows you to earn 4x membership points on the top two categories where your business spends the most money each billing cycle. Those categories are:

Airfare
Advertising purchases
Computer hardware, software, and cloud technology
Gas Stations
Restaurants
Shipping

The 4x points are valid for the first $150,000 spent per year combined on your top two categories. You’ll earn unlimited one point for every $1 spent after that.

American Express has an outstanding membership rewards program for redemption. Your points will transfer to the majority of popular loyalty programs.

If you book a flight using American Express Travel and pay with your points, you’ll get 25% of those points back to your account.

You also get all of the exceptional American Express travel perks like no foreign transaction fees, car rental loss and damage insurance, baggage insurance, and the global assist hotline.

Furthermore, the Amex Business Gold card offers room upgrades and a $100 hotel credit for dining, spa, and other resort activities when you stay at a participating property for at least two consecutive nights.

Amex offers a 50,000 sign-up bonus to cardmembers who spend $5,000 in the first three months of opening an account.

The American Express Business Gold card has a $295 annual fee.

Chase Ink Business Unlimited

The Chase Ink Business Unlimited credit card is very similar to the Ink Business cash card that we reviewed earlier. The most significant difference between the two cards is the way rewards get earned.

With the Ink Business Cash card, you’ll get a different percentage of cash back based on your spending category with certain limits and restrictions for how much can be earned in a year.

The Ink Business Unlimited card is much more straightforward. You earn 1.5% cash back on all purchases; no limit.

All of the other features and benefits are the same as the Ink Business Cash card.

You’ll get a $500 cash back bonus after spending $3,000 in the first three months using the card. There is no annual fee for the Chase Ink Business Unlimited card.

How to Choose The Best Business Credit Card

Now that you’ve had the chance to review the top business credit cards, you’ll need to choose one for yourself. But the best business card for me might not be the best for you. Everyone’s situation is different.

This is the methodology that we used to come up with the cards on this list. You can use the same process to evaluate the best option for your business.

Fees

One of the first things you should look at is how much the card will cost you. The cards we reviewed ranged from $0 to $295 in annual fees.

An annual fee is easy to justify if you’re going to be spending enough to get the most out of the perks and rewards. But if you’re a single-member sole-proprietor working out of your home office, you probably don’t need a card with an annual fee.

Beyond that, look for APR, cash advance fees, foreign transaction fees, transfer fees, and late payment fees. Personally, I always pay my cards in-full each month, so the late fees and APR aren’t really relevant to me. But things like foreign transaction fees can add up quickly during international travel.

Rewards

What type of rewards do you want?

Some cards offer cash back, while others offer points or miles. Cash back will likely be the best option for most of you. If you travel often for business, cards that reward you with miles should definitely be taken into consideration.

Just make sure you understand how rewards get earned and if there are any stipulations. Some cards will limit the number of rewards you can earn in a year.

Qualification Terms

Some cards require you and your business to have excellent credit. You won’t get approved for certain cards if your credit score is below 700.

You’ll also need to have an incorporated business to be eligible for certain cards. Other cards allow you to apply using just your name and social security number.

Loyalty Programs

There are certain business credit cards that are tied to a specific loyalty partner. For example, the CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum Select World Mastercard is an American Airlines card.

In most cases, it’s best to stay away from those airline or hotel-specific cards because you won’t be rewarded as much for purchases with another company. So you’re better off with general miles, cash back, or points that can be used with any airline or hotel.

With that said, if you know that you’ll be flying a specific airline often, these types of loyalty programs will give you the most rewarding benefits.

So if you fly from Chicago to Dallas once a month (both American Airlines hubs), it makes perfect sense to get a card tied to AAdvantage.

Spending Habits

A business spending $10,000 per year shouldn’t have the same credit card as a company charging $100,000 per year.

Your spending categories can also influence your decision when choosing a card. Certain cards offer better rewards for purchases at restaurants or gas stations. Others will give you extra benefits for money spent on advertising or your phone bill.

Perks

There are dozens and dozens of potential perks that could sway you to choose one card over another. Some of these include:

Sign up bonus
Purchase protection
Extended warranties
Free cards for employees
Insurance protection (travel, car rental, baggage)
Priority boarding
Free checked bags
Hotel credits

The list goes on and on. Find a card with perks that align with your business and spending habits.

For example, the American Express Business Gold card has a 50,000 point sign up bonus if you spend $5,000 in the first three months using the card. But if you don’t normally spend $5,000 in three months, this card isn’t for you. The $295 annual fee won’t be worth it.

Conclusion

Every business owner needs a credit card. Fortunately, the credit card companies have created cards with a wide range of benefits, rewards, and perks to accommodate your needs.

Here’s a quick recap of the best business credit cards on our list:

Chase Ink Business Cash – Best overall business credit card.
Capital One Spark Cash – Unlimited 2% cash back with a $95 annual fee.
Blue Business Cash Amex – $0 annual fee and 2% cash back on $50,000 per year.
Chase Ink Business Preferred – Best Chase card for travel and rewards points.
Capital One Spark Miles – Earn miles with or without an annual fee.
CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum – Best American Airlines loyalty business card.
American Express Business Gold – Earn 4x rewards points with a $295 annual fee.
Chase Ink Business Unlimited – Unlimited 1.5% cash back with no annual fee.

Whether you want cash back, miles, or points, I made sure to include something for everyone on this list. Some of these cards are best for larger businesses that travel frequently, while others are suitable for small business owners and sole proprietors.

December 30, 2019

Best Document Management Software

Document management software has become a crucial component of running a business in 2020. So many organizations are either going paperless, have remote employees, or both.

These new trends make it unrealistic to keep documents and paperwork in physical filing cabinets or boxes in an office.

Document management software allows you to declutter your office, improve security, and access files or data from anywhere. This software also enhances efficiency when sharing documents or collaborating with team members.

Are you ready to digitally upload, track, and securely archive your documents? You need document management software to achieve this.

Whether your company is going paperless, or you just want to digitize your records for improved organization, this guide has everything you need to know about DM software (DMS).

The 7 Best Document Management Software

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of document management solutions on the market today. Cloud storage tools like Google Drive or Dropbox could technically fall into this category as well.

But for the purpose of this guide, I focused on DMS for businesses. For this instance, there are really only seven solutions that I would recommend.

The reviews below include a brief summary, features, benefits, prices, and any potential drawbacks of each software. Use this as a resource to find the best document management software for your unique situation.

eFileCabinet

eFileCabinet is one of the best document management solutions on the market today. Since 2001, this company has helped individuals, small business owners, and enterprise-level companies organize data and files online.

The software makes it easy for you to stay organized and find a document, regardless of how many you have on file.

You can search for documents or locate them based on folder templates or pre-defined file names. eFileCabinet also keeps a portfolio of your most used documents for quick access.

The eFileCabinet solution does all of the hard work for you. Simply upload a document, and the software will file it for you. The automated workflow streamlines your time-consuming tasks to improve efficiency in the office.

All of your documents can be accessed from anywhere with a web browser or mobile app. You can upload documents directly from your phone using the camera on your device. eFileCabinet also allows you to sign contracts.

One of the biggest standouts for this solution is the collaboration features. The system allows you to create different levels of security, so only certain people can access data.

eFileCabinet has encrypted file sharing and requests, two-factor authentication, and role-based permissions. You can even set IP or location-based authentication.

The software integrates with popular third-party services like DocuSign, Salesforce, and Microsoft Office.

Here’s an overview of the plans and price points for eFileCabinet:

Starter — Starting at $15 per month (25 GB of storage)
Advantage — Starting at $55 per month (1 TB of storage)
Business — Starting at $99 per month (5 TB of storage)
Unlimited — Starting at $199 per month (Unlimited storage)

All prices are listed per user and billed on an annual basis. Once you upgrade from the Starter plan to Advantage, you’ll need to pay for a minimum of three users.

I’d only recommend the Starter plan to individuals. Sole proprietors or very small businesses can probably get away with the Advantage plan, but the Business package will likely be the best for the majority of you.

With eFileCabinet, you get to choose if you want your storage either on-site or on the cloud. Personally, I prefer the cloud storage. But there are advantages to on-premises as well.

M-Files

M-Files represents the future of document management. The software leverages AI technology to automate your organizing process.

When you upload content to M-Files, the platform automatically organizes the data based on what it is, as opposed to just where you want to store it.

You even have the ability to connect M-Files to your existing network and systems to protect your information and categorize everything with AI, automatically and securely.

Another top benefit of M-Files is that they offer industry-specific solutions. Some popular industries that they service include:

Financial services
Construction and engineering
Oil and gas
Real estate
Manufacturing
Professional services

M-Files is great for larger teams that need to access documents at different times. If someone on your staff needs a file that was uploaded and saved by another colleague, they won’t need to search through different folders to see what the document was saved as.

With AI technology, all you need to know is what type of document you’re looking for. Then you can organize the content based on criteria like project title, author, customer, or expiration date.

M-Files will automatically detect duplicate content. Rather than having multiple versions of the same or slightly different documents on your storage system, it will automatically update the latest document to one singular file. This way you always know that you’re viewing or working with the latest version.

With M-Files, you can store a wide range of document types, including emails. The software also allows you to collaborate with external users who don’t have M-Files. That content can be shared as a secure link.

M-Files offers cloud storage, on-site storage, and hybrid storage solutions as well.

You can try M-Files free for 30-days by filling out a form on their website. Pricing for M-Files is not listed on their website. You need to contact their sales team to inquire about a custom solution.

Templafy

Templafy is a relatively new DMS. After launching in 2014, they have been providing all-in-one document management solutions for enterprises all over the world. It’s designed specifically for large businesses and helps streamline tasks to save time when it comes to storing and accessing files.

More than 300 enterprises across 80+ countries use Templafy for document management. This translates to more than one million users.

Using intelligence software, Templafy will automatically show the most relevant content to each employee based on their usage and position.

Your marketing team doesn’t need to see accounting documents, and vice versa.

One of the biggest pain points with DMS, in general, is having to create new documents using another platform. Templafy eliminates this pain point by giving users the ability to create and edit new content directly within the system.

Both new and uploaded content can all be managed in a simple and singular feed on your dashboard.

Templafy’s cloud storage software means you can access documents from anywhere, including on your smartphones and tablets.

You can integrate Templafy with Microsoft Office 365, G-Suite, and other platforms that you’re using to run your business on a daily basis. You can even integrate Templafy with CRM solutions like Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics.

Big brands like Pandora and IKEA trust Templafy to manage their documents with enterprise-grade software.

In addition to managing documents and files, Templafy has solutions for maximizing employee productivity and creating an evergreen IT infrastructure.

Security is another top benefit of using Templafy. You and your team can securely store and access content from anywhere, using any device, whether you’re online or not.

Like most enterprise software, Templafy provides custom solutions for each unique company. So they don’t list any prices online. You can try Templafy for free before you commit to a contract by reaching out to their sales team.

DocuWare

For those of you who are looking for a high-quality cloud-based solution for document management, look no further than DocuWare.

This DMS is unique because it has specific solutions for tasks within your business processes:

Document management
Invoice processing
Employee management
Sales
Marketing

DocuWare has everything you need for digital transformation and going paperless using cloud technology.

This is another software that’s used by large businesses and enterprises. Sony, Toshiba, Levi’s, and Kellog’s are just a handful of their most well-recognized customers.

But with that said, DocuWare stands out as a top option for small and medium-sized businesses as well.

Small business owners can use DocuWare to automate their digital workflow, securely organize and store documents, and automate certain tedious tasks.

DocuWare allows you and your staff to edit or annotate documents directly on the platform. Not every DMS on our list gives you this capability.

I like DocuWare because it has features designed to connect remote employees and your deskless workforce. Anyone can easily access content at home or on the go from any device.

More than 12,000 businesses in 90+ countries trust DocuWare for document management. So you know that the company is legitimate with a track record like that.

It has specific use cases for things like contract proposals, finance processes, and HR tasks as well.

The pricing for DocuWare follows a common theme in this guide. They offer a free trial, but you need to contact their customer support team directly for a custom quote.

Hightail

Hightail is a document management solution with a specific purpose—sharing and collaboration.

Other DMS on the market have features for file sharing as well, but Hightail takes this to the next level.

I recommend Hightail to businesses that need the ability to send large files securely.

Sharing is simple. Just drag or upload a file from your device or cloud storage solution into your Hightail account. Enter the information for who you want to share it with, and automatically send an email notification to the recipient.

With Hightail, you’ll be able to track the delivery and downloads of content you shared. So you know exactly who opened it and when.

Hightail lets you send files of up to 500 GB. You can add password protection to files and set expiration dates as well.

Here’s an overview of the plans and pricing for Hightail:

Lite — Free

100 MB file send limit
7 day file expiration
Comments for feedback enabled
Sync from third-party integrations

Pro — $12 per month per user

25 GB file send limit
Configurable file expiration
File previews enabled
Send tracking and delivery notifications
Password protection
Phone and live chat support

Teams — $24 per month per user

50 GB file send limit
Custom branding
Organization and archiving tools
Version control with side by side comparisons
Real-time discussions for collaboration
Members management

Business — $36 per user

500 GB file send limit
Enterprise-grade security
Dedicated customer support team
Organizational level permissions
Admin reports

As you can see, the pricing is largely based on the file sending limits. But the features get significantly better with each plan as well.

The free option is actually pretty good if you don’t need to send huge files, and even the entry-level Pro plan is suitable for a number of individuals.

If you’re interested in a paid plan, you can try Hightail free for 14 days.

MasterControl

MasterControl is a DMS made for businesses where security is a top priority and concern. Certain industries have strict regulations for companies to comply with.

MasterControl understands those compliance concerns and created a document management solution that meets any security requirements.

One of the top features of MasterControl is its ability to track changes and revisions. If a document needs to be reviewed by a particular person, you can schedule a time and send out reminders as well.

MasterControl can also limit revisions based on access. You have complete control over who can make changes to a document.

You can also create custom watermarks, sequential numbering, and location tracking to control copies of your files.

MasterControl is 21 CFR Part 11 compliant. This means that documents have a time-stamped audit trail, as well as e-sign functionality that complies with federal regulations.

Another unique standout of MasterControl is its learning center. You’ll have access to tons of free videos, documents, and other resources to educate you about the platform and security compliance in general.

If you need enterprise-grade security for document management in a strict industry, MasterControl will be a top option for you to consider. Contact their sales team for a custom quote.

PaperTracer

PaperTracer has solutions for small, medium, and enterprise-level businesses. It’s a simple solution for document management.

With PaperTracer, you’ll have the ability to automate your contracts and digitize all of your documents in a centralized database. PaperTracer has tracking and reporting capabilities and HIPPA compliant solutions as well.

Your document management solution is completely customized. You can benefit from a cloud-based implementation with end-to-end workflow solutions.

E-signature capability is also available with PaperTracer.

PaperTracer is a top solution for businesses in healthcare and legal industries.

Here’s a brief overview of the available plans, although all pricing is customized.

Small

Up to 10 users
Electronic signing
Searchable database
Upload and scan to PDF
Advanced reports and dashboards
Input forms

Mid Size

Up to 100 users
Contract authorizing
Custom fields
Custom workflows
Implementation

Enterprise

Unlimited users
Unlimited input forms
Single sign-on

Demos and free trials are available for all three plans. I’d recommend PaperTracer for small and medium-sized businesses. While they do have an enterprise-grade solution, there are better options for that on our list.

How to Find the Best Document Management Software

Choosing a document storage solution can be challenging if you don’t know what to look for. There are certain features and benefits that you need to keep an eye on when you’re evaluating a prospective software.

I’ll show you the methodology that we used to come up with the choices in this guide. You can use the same system to help narrow your search.

Storage Location

In most cases, document management solutions are either cloud-based or on-site. Some companies offer just one, while others let you choose which one you prefer.

For example, eFileCabinet offers both on-premises and cloud-based storage. M-Files has both as well, and also has a hybrid solution. Other solutions, like DocuWare are completely cloud-based.

I personally prefer cloud solutions because you can access content from anywhere. But for security reasons, some companies want files stored locally on their network.

File Sharing and Collaboration

What can you do with your files once they are uploaded and stored? While organizing files is obviously important, it’s useless for some companies if the documents can’t be shared with teams or external users.

Look for a DMS that accommodates your internal needs for editing or collaborating on files. Features like automated version updates and in-platform editing capabilities are crucial here.

The size of your files will also depend on which solution is best for your business. If you need to share large files, Hightail is the best choice.

Security

Most business-related files and data are sensitive. So it’s important to have a document management solution that can securely store information.

Some solutions offer access permissions based on individual clearance levels or even location.

Other platforms specialize in compliance for unique industries, like healthcare, legal, or government businesses.

Price

Pricing for DMS is usually based on storage limits and users. At each price tier, you can expect the plan to have additional features and benefits.

The majority of the solutions on this list offer custom plans and pricing. So to get a better idea of how much your document management software will cost, you’ll need to consult with a sales representative.

For those of you who are looking for a cost-effective solution and instant sign-ups, eFileCabinet will be a top choice for you to consider.

Integrations

Ideally, you want to find document management software that works with the platforms you’re already using. Whether it’s CRM like Salesforce, or document editing and creation software like Microsoft Office 365, certain platforms have a wide range of integrations for you to choose from.

However, other solutions that are niche-specific are a bit more limited. So make sure you use software that will actually benefit your workflow process.

Conclusion

Document management software is extremely diverse. Each solution offers unique benefits for businesses based on size, industry, or specific needs.

What’s the best document management software? It’s impossible to say since every option is so different. Here’s a quick recap of the platforms reviewed above:

eFileCabinet — Best administrative controls and third-party integrations.
M-Files — Best document management software for automated organizing with AI.
Templafy — Best enterprise-grade document management software.
DocuWare — Best cloud-based DMS for small to medium-sized businesses.
Hightail — Best document management software for sending large files.
MasterControl — Best DMS for strict security and compliance standards.
PaperTracer — Best for small or medium-sized legal and healthcare companies.

If you’re looking for a basic all-in-one document management solution, eFileCabinet will probably be your best bet.

But for those of you with unique circumstances and needs, you can find custom software from one of the providers on our list.

November 26, 2019

WordPress Helpdesk and Support Ticketing Plugins to Enhance Customer Experience

Setting up an efficient helpdesk system is a crucial aspect to success when running an eCommerce business. If you have a WordPress-WooCommerce online store, there are several options to help you integrate a helpdesk. When it comes to a helpdesk or support ticket plugin, the choice that you make is dependent on a lot of specific business requirements. In this article, we will discuss some of the important features to look for in WordPress helpdesk and support ticket plugins that will help improve customer experience. We will also explore the features of some of the best solutions.

Characteristics of a good WordPress Helpdesk solution

A good helpdesk solution should essentially help in better customer experience. You need to ensure that it offers a comprehensive set of features to help you provide exceptional customer experience. First, let us try and understand some of the advanced features of a superior WordPress helpdesk solution:

No restrictions in number of agents and tickets

When you check out some of the popular helpdesk solutions, you may see many of them have restrictions when it comes to the number of agents who can use it. This may not be a great feature when your business is going through a rapid growth phase. Paying additional charges every time a new agent is added to the team may not be a great outcome for a small business. So, look for WordPress helpdesk and support solutions with no restrictions in terms of number of agents and tickets that can be handled at a time.

Simple interface to manage tickets

The support agents will be mostly accessing the helpdesk system through the admin backend. This interface needs to be smooth and user friendly for agents to help them respond quickly to customer queries. An Ajax-based interface will quickly load tickets without reloading the page. Agents should also be able to view tickets in custom order and to sort them quickly using varied filters. Basically, if support agents are able to handle the ticket dashboard smoothly, they will be able to respond to customers quicker as well.

eCommerce integration

If you are running an eCommerce store, you have to integrate the helpdesk system to your store to make the customer support process streamlined. With the help of a support system integrated with eCommerce, your customers will be able to raise queries by associating them with specific products. Similarly, the agents will be able to see the purchase history and other details of the customers they are interacting with. The customer experience on your web store will be much superior if you have a helpdesk system that smoothly integrates with the eCommerce platform.

Workflow automation

If you have a big store and a considerably large number of products, your customer support process too will be complex. There will be a set of actions that happens before a customer query is replied to and resolved. A good helpdesk system will help you automate such routine actions in your customer support workflow to make the process faster. Sending notifications, assigning to an agent or department, adding priority tags, etc.can be easily automated.

Self service and canned responses

Not all customers will have the patience and time to wait for a support agent to answer to their queries. A lot of your customers will be willing to find answers on their own. By integrating with a knowledge base, you will be able to provide a good self service option through your helpdesk. In fact, this will help reduce the number of queries and make the system more efficient. Similarly, predefined answer templates or canned responses can help agents respond faster to repetitive queries. You may have to look for knowledge base integration and canned responses feature before zeroing in on a WordPress helpdesk solution.

Analytics tools

Good analytics insights are key to improving any digital solution. Obviously a good analytics dashboard can help your customer support system be much more efficient. On the analytics dashboard, you should get a good view on the resolution rate, response times, individual agent performance, queries related to a specific product, etc. The WordPress helpdesk solution that you choose should have a good analytics dashboard to help you measure performance without hassles.

Best WordPress Helpdesk and Support Ticket plugins

Now, let us explore the features of some of the popular WordPress helpdesk and support ticket plugins.

WSDesk

WSDesk is one of the most popular WordPress helpdesk and support solutions that you can choose to enhance customer experience. It integrates well with eCommerce platforms such as WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads. Even the basic version of WSDesk is feature rich with options to convert emails to tickets and unlimited agent profiles. Compared to other Saas-based solutions, WSDesk gives better control to store owners as it does not data in the cloud. The data related to your store and customers will be saved on your server itself and you need not depend on the service provider to access it.

Feature highlights

Here is a quick look at some of the standout features of WSDesk.

Easy to manage support agent profiles
Ajax-based interface for fast loading and sorting of tickets.
Customize the contact forms.
Triggers and automation to optimize your support workflow.
Integration with WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
Canned responses for faster issue resolution.
Back and restore settings and ticket data.
Advanced shortcodes to customize certain functionality.
GDPR compliant.

A single site subscription of WSDesk will cost you $89.

WooCommerce Help Scout

This plugin helps you integrate your WooCommerce store to Help Scout customer support solution. That means you will have to subscribe to a Help Scout subscription plan as well to make full use of this one. With the help of a shortcode, you will be able to place a Help Scout support form anywhere on your website. Moreover, it lets you initiate a conversation with any customer right from the order details page. This is a comprehensive solution that will help you manage your customer support much more efficiently than relying on multiple tools.

Feature highlights

Here are some of the exceptional features of Help Scout:

Multichannel support through email and chat.
Initiate targeted conversation with customers.
Better collaboration of support agents with features like private notes, tagging, saved replies and collision detection.
Automate actions to optimize workflow.
Intuitive reporting features.

The single site subscription of the plugin has a price tag of $79. This is in addition to the Help Scout subscription.

Zendesk for WordPress

With the help of a free WordPress plugin, you will be able to integrate Zendesk support system to your blog or website. On your website or blog, you can display a Zendesk feedback tab that will let users search the knowledge base, chat with an agent or submit a ticket. Users registered to your website will be automatically signed in to Zendesk as well. You will be able to turn blog comments to tickets to respond to users promptly. Please note, you will have to subscribe to a plan of Zendesk to be able to use it.

Feature highlights

Zendesk offers a range of advanced features to make your helpdesk system extremely robust.
Multichannel support through email, mobile, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Multilingual admin interface with support for over 40 languages.
Custom contact forms with conditional logic.
Automation and triggered workflow to make your support system more efficient.
Canned responses for quicker response to customers.
Extensive analytics insights to improve customer experience.

WPHelpdesk

This plugin will help you focus on enhancing the customer experience on your site with an organized approach to customer support. WPHelpDesk has a robust filtering system that will help you prioritize support queries. Depending on the size of your team, you will be able to customize it to get absolute control over your support workflow. With the help of add-ons, you can easily integrate it with WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.

Feature highlights

Let us take a look at some of the features of WP Helpdesk that will help you improve your support process.

Easy to configure
Extensive customization options to mould the user interaction pattern.
View ticket history of each customer to prioritize requests.
Integration with eCommerce platforms.
Collaboration between support agents.
Suitable for businesses of all sizes.

The single site subscription of the basic version without add-ons will cost you $99.

WP Support Plus Responsive Ticket System

This is another WordPress plugin that will help you set up a customer support system for your business. It will let you set up a customer support system with unlimited tickets and agents. It even allows guest users to submit a ticket. The plugin is Ajax based and helps to make your customer support system extremely fast. It comes with a set of add-ons that allows you to extend the functionality and features. You can opt for the free version or one of the paid options that comes with dedicated support and multiple add- ons.

Feature highlights

Here are some of the notable features of this plugin.

Import emails directly to your ticket system
Notifications to different users on your helpdesk system.
Set up rules to assign incoming tickets to specific agents.
Integration with WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads
Enhanced customer experience with knowledge base and canned replies.

November 26, 2019

6 Steps to Create an Amazing Customer Experience Strategy

You may offer high-end products with the lowest price on the web, but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee conversions or customer loyalty. There is a lot of competition out there, not just from Amazon but also smaller boutique sites that offer similar products.

Customer experience is what sets you apart. It is the sum of all interactions that a customer has with your business, including interactions before and after a sale. It can include how they research products on your site, how they complete their transaction, what happens when they receive their product, and so on.

Customer experience is one of the main factors that determine whether or not consumers will buy from your brand and become loyal customers.

In fact, a PwC survey found that 17% of U.S. consumers will walk away after just one bad experience. And 59% of U.S. consumers will walk away after several bad experiences even if they love the company or product.

This makes it crucial to set up a game plan to ensure that you deliver a positive and meaningful experience for your customers across every interaction. That’s why you need to have an effective strategy in place so you can take a more structured approach to enhancing customer experience.

In this post, you’ll discover six useful steps to create an amazing customer experience strategy. Let’s get started.

1: Have a Clear Understanding of Your Customers

Unless you thoroughly understand who your customers are, you’ll have a hard time figuring out how to deliver experiences that appeal to them. Without understanding the situations that your customers face, you won’t be able to empathize with them and provide them with viable solutions.

At the same time, it’s important to note that not all of your customers will experience the same issues or have the same pain points. So you need to start by creating accurate buyer personas, which are profiles that represent a common group of people.

You can include demographics data like age, interests, buying behaviors, job profile, etc. to clearly define the characteristics of each persona.

For an even more accurate picture of each persona, make sure you conduct surveys to understand your different types of customers. Use this data to build a customer experience strategy that effectively addresses the needs of all of your customers.

Make sure you maintain a record of all surveys and personas so every department can easily refer to them when needed. HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool simplifies this process. You can name the persona, choose an avatar, and fill out all the details relevant to it to create an attractive buyer persona. You can easily store surveys in a shared Google folder or Dropbox.

2: Map Out the Customer Journey

Customer journey mapping is essential to get a visual overview of the customer’s interactions with your brand from start to finish. This helps you get an even better picture of the customer experience at every touch point, so you can identify their needs and perceptions.

Create an accurate customer journey map for each buyer persona to outline the key steps of their journey. How do they begin the journey and how do they normally interact with your brand? You can then outline their pain points, values, and motivations to better understand how you can enhance their experience at every touch point.

3: Collect Competitive Insights

Competitor research can help you discover what kind of customer experience your competitors are delivering. What can you learn from them and what can you do better? There are plenty of ways to collect competitive insights to enhance your customer experience strategy.

You can start by finding out where and how your competitors are getting their customers using tools like SpyFu. This gives you a detailed look at the organic and paid clicks your competitors are getting as well as their top keywords. These insights will help you understand user intent by identifying the top search terms people are using to find your competitors.

Additionally, the backlink data provides you with information about which websites are sending traffic to your competitors. You can try to replicate this strategy to attract your audience where they’re most likely to be.

You can further research your competitors’ customer experience strategy by going through the various channels where customers interact with their brand. This includes their website, social media, app (if they have one), and so on.

Get a feel for what it’s like to interact with the brand and make a note of any mistakes they might be making. See if there’s anything you can replicate or improve for your own strategy.

In addition, you can also conduct social media listening to see what people are saying about your competitors and the brand sentiment around their companies. What are the biggest complaints people seem to have about their products? What are they praising them for?

Tools like Mention and Sprout Social can help you with this aspect of competitor research.

4: Make Reachability and Customer Service a Priority

Communication is a major factor that influences the overall customer experience. You have to be available to your customers no matter what channel they choose to be on. Otherwise, you could miss valuable opportunities to engage with them.

For this, you have to find out which channels your customers are most active on and ensure that your brand is reachable on those channels.

The best way to get a clear and accurate picture of the performance of different channels is by using UTM parameters. Tag all of the links you share on different channels with unique UTM parameters and find out how those links are performing.

You can simplify the UTM creation and management processes by using tools like UTM.io. This tool lets you create UTM templates that you can easily reuse and customize for each channel. So you can maintain a uniform naming convention that’s much easier to keep track of.

Once you identify the top channels that your customers are active on, you can come up with a strategy to enhance customer experience on those channels. This will involve improving service convenience on those channels in addition to being reachable.

Get familiar with each of the top channels and understand how people are using them to communicate with your brand. What kind of improvements can you make to enhance the customer experience? What other channels do they want you to be present on?

Maybe you already have live chat support on your website, for instance. But people also expect chat support through social media. Or maybe you have people who expect 24/7 chat support, which may not always be a viable option for most businesses. In this case, you can also provide support through chatbots during non-working hours.

You can study customer behavior, reviews, and engagement to look for opportunities to make improvements. You can even ask them directly through surveys.

Cuyana provides convenient customer service by enabling customers to reach them through Facebook Messenger. They even provide customers with predefined questions to choose from, minimizing the need to type everything out.

5: Improve Purchase Convenience

The purchase experience is another major factor that influences the overall customer experience. Factors like how easy it is to find what they’re looking for, how seamless it is to navigate your site, how simple it is to complete their purchase, etc. will all play a role.

So it’s crucial to keep looking for opportunities to optimize your site or app to improve purchase convenience. Make it as easy as possible for people to complete their purchases.

The basic steps include:

Optimizing your search bar so it’s easy to find and use
Neatly sorting out your products into relevant categories
Improving page load speed
Providing secure and seamless checkout
Optimizing fonts, colors, and images to improve aesthetics

You can further include useful and clever tools, videos, or images to guide their purchases. Bellyroy does a great job of this by showing what kind of items you can fit inside their wallets.

6: Connect Emotionally with the Audience

How customers feel about your brand also influences their experiences. An emotionally connected customer is more likely to enjoy their interactions with your brand and therefore, have a better overall experience.

In fact, fully connected customers are 52% more valuable than customers who are just satisfied. They also have a high lifetime value and are more likely to advocate for the brand.

This makes it crucial to develop an emotional connection with your customers if you want to create an effective customer experience strategy. You need to come up with a plan to enhance their emotional connections at every touch point – right from marketing and sales to post-sales service.

Aside from better employee training and advocacy, you can also make improvements in the marketing aspect of your business. Switch from bland and pushy ads to more intimate and humanized marketing tactics such as micro-influencer marketing.

Micro-influencers are social media users who have some authority in their areas of interest. They are relatable to the audience because they are just like everyday consumers. As a result, they also have significant and highly-engaged following.

Influence.co even found that micro-influencers drive much better engagement than macro-influencers. The average engagement rate could range anywhere from 2.5% to 6% for influencers with 2000 to 100,000 followers. This rate drops gradually as the following size increases.

In other words, micro-influencers can drive relevant conversations around your brand and your products. So they can help you establish strong emotional connections between your brand and your target audience.

Have them present your product or services in a way that will resonate with their followers. They could share their experience using it, demonstrate how it solved a problem in their life, etc.

One of the most challenging steps is in identifying the best influencers to work with. You can simplify this process by using platforms like iFluenz. All you need to do is create your campaign and wait for the best-matching influencers to apply. So instead of conducting a grueling influencer search, you’ll have the most relevant influencers come to you.

Final Thoughts

These are the basic steps involved in creating an amazing customer experience strategy. But it doesn’t just end here. You also have to keep making improvements to your strategy based on analytics insights and customer feedback.

Listen to your customers, actively collect feedback, and look for opportunities to adapt your strategy according to the changing needs of your customers.

November 25, 2019

How to Add Facebook Pixel to Your WordPress Website

New users often find it difficult to add a Facebook pixel to their WordPress website mainly because they don’t know where to start. Facebook pixel helps you optimize your Facebook ad campaigns by gathering information about your visitors and then generating an audience that is more relevant to your business.

In simpler words, Facebook Pixel helps you target your ads better and get better click-through rates and conversion rates.

There are two ways you can add Facebook Pixel to your WordPress website, manually and through a Facebook pixel plugin.

In this article, I will take you through both the methods and show you how you can add a Facebook pixel to your WordPress website.

How to Add Facebook Plugin Manually

When you add a Facebook Pixel manually, you just copy the pixel code and paste it on the header of your WordPress website.

To get started with this method, you need to create a Facebook Pixel ID first. If you haven’t created one, you can do that from here.

Once you’re on this page, click on the Get Started button.

You will be asked to enter your name and website.

Click Continue and then click Manually add pixel code to your website

Once you move forward, you will see the Pixel code that you will have to copy and paste on your WordPress website’s header.

If you scroll down this page, you will see some more options to help you collect more information about your visitors.

There is also an option to test your code to see if it’s working properly or not.

Adding Facebook Pixel Plugin to Your WordPress Website Via a Plugin

Facebook pixel plugins give you more than just the ability to add the pixel code to your website; they also let you create custom audiences.

For this tutorial we will be using Pixel Caffeine, a popular Facebook pixel plugin, to add a pixel to your WordPress website.

Start by installing the plugin on your WordPress website.

Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you will see this page.

You can either start by entering your pixel ID or you can connect your Facebook account, in which case it will be easier to install the Pixel and you will get all the advanced features as well.

For this tutorial, we will use Facebook Connect. Once you allow the plugin to connect with your Facebook account, you will have to choose the ad account that you want to connect to.

Once you have selected the ad account, click on Apply to set up your Pixel.

Pretty simple, isn’t it?

Now that you have installed the pixel, click on the Dashboard tab to track the activity on your Pixel.

You can also set up Custom Audiences and Conversion Events directly from your WordPress dashboard.

Final Words

Now that you know how to set up Facebook Pixel to your WordPress website, you will be able to filter out your audiences and better optimize your Facebook ads. Your ads will now be more targeted and will reach the right people which will improve their click-through and conversion rates.

If you think the plugin I used in this article is not the right one for you, you can also check out this list of the best WordPress Facebook pixel plugins to choose from.

November 18, 2019

Best Free Website Builders

Building a website has never been easier.

The days of developers and web designers being the only people who can create a website are long behind us. Anyone can create a website in minutes without writing a single line of code. All you need to do is find a website building platform.

But if you’re creating a website for the first time, you’re probably looking for the most cost-effective solution. You might want to test out different options to see what you like the best.

If this sounds like your situation, then I’m sure you’re looking for a free website builder.

Dozens and dozens of platforms out there will tell you that you can build a website for free. Unfortunately, building a legitimate website for free is actually not very realistic.

Most free website builders will be extremely limited or have some contingencies that require you to pay. It might start out as free, but you’ll quickly learn that it’s not truly free.

This shouldn’t discourage you from trying different website builders. Free website building plans are a great way to get your feet wet with web creation. A free plan will also help you pick a platform that you ultimately want to pay for down the road.

In this guide, I’ll show you the best free website builders on the market today. I’ll explain what you actually get for free, and what features require a premium membership.

The Top 12 Free Website Builders

All website builders offer free features. You’ll be able to get a free trial with nearly every website builder on the market today. But these 12 website builders have free plans that go beyond a trial period:

WordPress

34% of the entire Internet is powered by WordPress. It’s the most popular CMS in the world and a top choice for building a website.

With WordPress, you can create a website and get it live on the web without paying anything. Free plans include hosting, themes, and a WordPress.com subdomain.

Don’t expect high-level performance from the free hosting plan. The WordPress subdomain won’t be very professional either.

We use WordPress here at Quick Sprout, but we have a premium plan. If we stuck with the free option, our domain would look like this: www.quicksprout.wordpress.com, which is obviously no good.

You do not need a credit card to create a free WordPress site. So you won’t have to worry about an expiring trial or being charged for hidden fees.

The free WordPress plan is best for getting started with something small, like a personal blog. It comes with Jetpack essential features, which has SEO tools and automation functionality. You’ll get a pre-installed SSL certificate, free templates, and 3 GB of storage.

It’s worth noting that WordPress is not a traditional website builder. You should have a basic understanding of writing HTML code and how it works to use WordPress.

When you’re ready to upgrade to a paid version of WordPress, these are your options:

Personal — $4 per month
Premium — $8 per month
Business — $25 per month
Ecommerce — $45 per month

WordPress users rely on plugins to add features and functionality to their sites. Many of these plugins require payment as well, which will add to your costs.

Wix

Wix lets you create a website for free without writing any code. It has a drag-and-drop editor that makes it easy for anyone to build something beautiful, regardless of their technical experience.

All you need to do is choose a template and customize it with your own content.

Here’s what you get with a free Wix plan:

Hundreds of templates
Stock images, icons, and clip art
Free web hosting
SEO assistance
Mobile optimization
Access to free apps in the Wix App Market
500 MB of storage and 1 GB of bandwidth
Free Wix domain

The free Wix domain is even weirder than the WordPress one. It’s yourwixusername.wixsite.com/yoursiteaddress; which would look like this for us here at Quick Sprout — quicksproutadmin.wixsite.com/quicksprout.

Obviously, this type of domain is not reasonable or realistic to use if you’re serious about creating a legitimate website. But it’s fine for the beginning while you’re evaluating the Wix platform.

The free plan will also have Wix ads appear on every page of your website.

Using Wix for free will give you an introduction to their platform, but you’ll quickly learn that it’s very limited if you’re not paying. You’ll take an action or try to do something and be prompted to upgrade your plan, which can be a bit annoying.

Wix has premium plans starting at $13 per month for blogs, portfolios, and personal sites. Business and ecommerce rates start at $23 per month.

Weebly

Weebly is powered by Square, making it a website builder that’s geared toward ecommerce websites. So for those of you who are looking to create an online store from scratch, Weebly would be a top choice to consider.

Unfortunately, the free Weebly plan doesn’t come with any ecommerce functionality. You’ll need to upgrade for selling capabilities.

Here’s what you get with Weebly for free:

SSL certificate
500 MB of storage
Free hosting
Domain name with Weebly branding
SEO tools
Lead capture and contact forms
Access to community forums
Live chat and email support

Compared to other free plans we’ve seen, this one is actually pretty good. It’s still extremely limited and I wouldn’t recommend it for the long-term, but it’s a viable option for starting out.

You can begin to collect customer information before your online store officially launches.

For $5 per month, you can connect your own domain to eliminate the Weebly branding. Aside from that, Weebly has premium plans starting at $12, $25, and $38 per month.

Webnode

Webnode is website building made easy. In minutes, you can create and publish your site on the web. It’s a great option for personal sites, businesses, and ecommerce shops.

More than 30 million people have built a website using this platform. Webnode has stunning templates that you can easily customize with your own content.

Unlike other free website builders, you can create an unlimited number of pages with the free plan from Webnode.

You’ll also get reliable hosting and access to customer service representatives.

The biggest catch is that your site will have a Webnode subdomain with your free plan. But this is pretty much the industry standard if you’re not willing to pay.

I’d only use the free plan for something simple like a blog. You can create your site, publish content, and then share your work on social media. But once you’re ready to take things to the next level, you’ll need to consider one of the following paid plans:

Limited — $3.95 per month
Mini — $5.95 per month
Standard — $11.95 per month
Prof — $19.95 per month

Webnode does require an annual subscription with all plans. So this won’t be the best choice for those of you who prefer month-to-month contracts.

Ucraft

Ucraft is a bit unique compared to some of the other platforms we’ve seen so far. It’s advertised as a landing page creator, as opposed to a website builder.

The free plan can be used to create simple single-page websites.

If you already have a domain name, you can connect it for free. This means your free site won’t be forced to use a ucraft.net subdomain, which is a big bonus since most free website builders won’t give you this luxury. However, your website will have Ucrafted branding on the page itself.

Here are some of the other features and benefits you’ll get for free with Ucraft:

SSL certificate
Drag and drop builder
Visibility settings
SEO tools
Google analytics
24/7 support
Password protected pages
Free hosting
Unlimited bandwidth

For a free plan, this is actually pretty good. Again, the only catch is that you’ll be limited to building just one page. To create more than that, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the following paid plans:

Pro — $10 per month
Pro Shop — $21 per month
BigCommerce — $39 per month

All premium plans come with a 14-day free trial. No credit card required.

Onepager

Onepager is a website builder marketed toward small business owners. It’s intended for people without much technical ability who want to create a site with ease.

Onepager offers a “free forever” plan, which is extremely limited. Here’s a quick overview of what you get (and don’t get) for free:

Onepager branded domain
No web analytics
No email
Onepager ads on your pages
No ecommerce capability
No custom forms
No custom CSS

You’ll still get hosting and 24/7 support, but overall, I wouldn’t recommend the free site for any serious websites. Use this plan if you’re interested in trying Onepager as an extended trial.

To remove Onepager ads, use your custom domain, and activate ecommerce functionality, paid plans start at $8 per month with an annual contract.

Cindr

Building a website with Cindr is about as easy as it gets. They eliminated lots of the complex features and distractions for users who prefer simplicity.

You’ll be able to quickly add and publish photos, videos, music, text, and other content on your site in minutes. Designs are mobile-friendly and highly responsive.

You can create a site with Cindr without providing any credit card information. In fact, Cindr has just two plans; Free and Premium.

The free plan comes with:

Custom design capability
MyCindr.com domain
Live chat and email support
Unlimited pages
Free hosting
1 GB of bandwidth
Unlimited storage

Your free Cindr site will have Cindr ads displayed on your pages. To remove those ads, connect your own domain, and build multiple sites, you’ll need to upgrade your plan.

The Premium plan is $9 per month with no long term contracts. It also comes with unlimited bandwidth and storage.

Site123

Similar to our previous review, Site123 also has just two plans; Free and Premium. Compared to other website builders, the free plan is actually packed with quality features.

You’ll get everything included with the Premium plan, except you won’t be able to use your own custom domain. You’ll also be limited to just 500 MB of storage and 1 GB of bandwidth.

Aside from that, here are some of the features that come standard for free with Site123:

Intuitive page editor
Mobile-friendly designs
Free hosting
SEO tools
24/7 support

This website builder is a bit different from a traditional drag-and-drop editor. But it’s still easy to use and doesn’t require any code.

To get the most out of your Site123 website, upgrade to a Premium plan starting at $12.80 per month. This comes with ecommerce capabilities.

Strikingly

Millions of users have used Strikingly to create a website. It stands out from the other platforms on our list because it has ecommerce capability built-in, including the free version.

That’s right. For free, you can build an online store with Strikingly.

There’s just one catch. You can only have one product on display per website.

However, Strikingly lets you create an unlimited number of websites with the free plan. This is definitely better than some of the other options we’ve seen that restrict you to just one website or limited pages.

The free plan from Strikingly also offers 5 GB of bandwidth, which is more than we’ve seen from its competition.

As expected, you’ll be stuck with a Strikingly subdomain if you sign up for the free plan. To use your own domain and benefit from premium features, these are your upgrade options:

Limited — $8 per month
Pro — $16 per month
VIP — $49 per month

These prices are based on annual contracts. To save money, Strikingly offers long-term contracts for up to five years. All premium plans come with a 14-day free trial.

Webstarts

Webstarts is another popular free website builder. It’s reliable, versatile, and extremely easy to use.

You can create a website with an unlimited number of pages, but Webstarts pretty limited beyond that.

The free plan doesn’t allow you to use a custom domain. There’s no social integration, emails, SEO tools, contact forms, or slideshows either.

Your free Webstarts site won’t be mobile-friendly and won’t give you HTML access or ecommerce capabilities. All free sites will have ads on every page.

Overall, you can’t really build a legitimate site unless you upgrade to a premium plan. There are two paid options, priced at $7.16 and $19.99 per month, respectively.

Yola

With Yola, you can create and publish a website online in less than 30 minutes. Unlike other free website builders, Yola won’t put ads on your pages, although you will have a Yola domain.

Yola’s drag-and-drop site builder is simple and easy to use. It doesn’t require any technical experience, making it a top choice for beginners.

With that said, advanced users can edit using HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

The Yola free plan has 1 GB of bandwidth and 1 GB of storage. You’ll also benefit from features like:

SEO tools
Email support
Web hosting with 99.9% uptime
Social sharing
Ability to embed YouTube videos
Google Maps integration
Video backgrounds
Contact forms
Tumblr blog integration
Site statistics

However, there is one major contingency here. You can only build three web pages.

Obviously, that’s not reasonable for those of you who want to create a full website. The three pages are only enough to test out Yola’s platform to see if you like it enough to upgrade to:

Bronze — $4.95 per month
Silver — $9.95 per month
Gold — $19.95 per month

All of these plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can add ecommerce capabilities to any premium plan for an extra $10 per month.

Jimdo

Jimdo was born back in 2007. Since then, more than 20 million websites have been built using this platform.

You can build a website for free using Jimdo, although your options will be extremely limited.

All free websites will have a .jimdosite.com subdomain. You’ll get 500 MB of storage, 2 GB of bandwidth, and HTTPS security. That’s pretty much it.

Jimdo will only let you build five web pages with the free plan. That’s obviously not enough to build a full website. But you’ll still be able to get your site live and see if you like the software before you upgrade.

I’d treat this free website builder as a trial that never expires. If you’re happy with the platform, then you can upgrade to one of the following paid plans:

Start — $9 per month
Grow — $15 per month
Grow Business — $19 per month
Grow Legal — $20 per month
Unlimited — $39 per month

To get the most out of Jimdo, the Unlimited plan will be your best bet. It doesn’t have any restrictions and gives you better access to customer support. Jimdo also has ecommerce plans starting at $15 per month.

Hidden Costs of Free Website Builders

Lots of website builders say they are free, but they fail to mention any hidden costs. In reality, the majority of website builders are not truly free if you want to create and publish a legitimate website. These are some of the top hidden costs you need to keep an eye out for.

Custom Domain

Every free website builder on the market will give you a free branded domain with their name somewhere in the URL. But if you’re serious about publishing your site on the web, you’ll need to buy your own domain name.

There are a couple of site builders that let you connect your custom domain with a free plan, but you’ll still be paying for that elsewhere.

I do not recommend buying a domain from your website builder. Check out my list of the best domain registrars for more guidance with this process.

Web Hosting

Most free website builders will also offer free web hosting. But to be blunt—free web hosting stinks.

If you plan to have site visitors at any point after your site goes live, you’ll definitely need to take web hosting more seriously. Don’t worry, web hosting isn’t that expensive. These are my top recommendations for the best cheap web hosting plans.

Page Limitations

There are plenty of website builders out there that let you build a site for free with an unlimited number of pages. Some will even let you create an unlimited number of sites with a free plan.

However, there are other free website builders that restrict how many pages you can create before you’re forced to upgrade.

These page limitations can be as low as one or three pages. Obviously, you can’t build a full website with those types of restrictions. Adding pages will cost you money.

How to Choose the Best Website Builder For You

With so many free website builders on the market, choosing just one can be difficult. Here is the process that you should use when narrowing down the best option for your website.

Upgrades

If you want to start with a free website builder for now, that’s fine. But eventually, you’ll need to upgrade. You can’t really make a legitimate and high-quality website for free.

So choose a website builder that has plenty of upgrade options to meet your needs.

You don’t want to switch to a different platform when you’re ready to start paying. That’s too much of a hassle, and you’ll probably need to rebuild the majority of your site.

Ease of Use

You shouldn’t be struggling to create a website. Look for platforms with drag-and-drop builders and lots of templates that you can easily customize.

If you don’t have a technical background, this will make your life much easier.

Basic functions like adding text, images, videos, and creating new pages shouldn’t require too much effort. Managing your site, publishing blog posts, and everything else must be simple.

Some website builders, like WordPress, are extremely popular. However, WordPress doesn’t have a traditional drag-and-drop builder. So if you don’t have certain technical skills, avoid website builders that require coding knowledge.

Type of Website

What kind of website are you building?

Blogs, portfolios, ecommerce shops, and small business websites are all very different. You have to make sure that the website builder you choose has the ability to accommodate your needs.

Just because a website builder makes it easy for you to publish blog posts, it doesn’t mean it’s a great option for your online store. If you refer to the list above, you’ll see that some builders are definitely made for creating certain types of websites.

Conclusion

Creating a website for free is easy. All of the website builders on our list allow you to create a website for free.

But with that said, even the best free website builders are limited in some capacity. Some of these platforms will have more restrictions than others.

If you’re serious about creating a website, I would not recommend building it for free.

Instead, use these free builders to try different options. Think of these as extended free trials that won’t expire. Once you find a platform that you like, take a look at their paid options and upgrade to a suitable plan that meets your needs.

November 18, 2019

Squarespace vs. WordPress

Creating a new website from scratch is exciting. But where do you start?

The first step is choosing a website builder. If you do some preliminary research, you’ll quickly learn that Squarespace and WordPress are two of the top options to consider.

With that said, Squarespace and WordPress are very different.

Squarespace is a traditional website builder with some of the highest quality design templates that you’ll find on the market. It has a drag-and-drop builder, which means you don’t need to know how to code if you’re using Squarespace.

Squarespace is more of an all-in-one platform. You’ll be able to get your domain and web hosting plan from this provider as well.

On the other hand, WordPress is not technically a website builder, but you can still use it to create your own website. WordPress is a CMS (content management) system that powers 34% of the entire Internet. We use WordPress here at Quick Sprout.

WordPress requires a bit more technical knowledge and basic coding ability. The upside of using WordPress is that offers complete customization—it’s virtually limitless.

In short, anyone can create a beautifully designed website with Squarespace, but the functionality of the site will be limited. WordPress allows you to scale and customize your website with total freedom, but it requires more work and technical ability.

There are definitely pros and cons to each of these website builders. I created this guide to help you determine the best option for your website.

I’ve identified 12 evaluation categories that you should keep in mind when you’re looking for the best website builder. I’ll highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each platform and ultimately choose a winner for each category.

Simplicity and Ease of Use

To evaluate the ease of use, I considered how you set up an account and get your website started from scratch. I reviewed the building features as well as editing and managing your website down the road.

Squarespace Ease of Use

You don’t need to have any coding skills to use Squarespace. The drag-and-drop website builder and editing tools make it easy for anyone to create a website from scratch.

To get started, you simply choose a template and start customizing the page elements to your liking. You can even edit your website from your mobile device with the Squarespace app.

The best part about using Squarespace to build your website is that you can see what your changes look like in real-time. You’re dragging, adding, and moving things around directly on the page.

It’s easy to add a text box or image and simply drag it exactly to where you want it on the screen.

Although I don’t recommend it, you can also get your domain and hosting directly from Squarespace as well. These offers are great for people who want to manage everything in one place from the same provider.

WordPress Ease of Use

Getting started with WordPress requires a bit more work. You’re responsible for your own domain and hosting, which is what I would recommend regardless of the platform you choose.

But unlike Squarespace, your WordPress site gets built in the backend using code. You won’t see what these changes look like in real-time. You’ll essentially be making changes in the dark and then previewing them when you’re done to see how things turned out.

WordPress users will rely on plugins and coding skills to customize their websites.

WordPress does offer a builder-like tool called the Gutenburg editor, which allows you to add blocks for page elements like images, text, or headers.

However, this is not nearly as user-friendly and design-savvy as the drag-and-drop builder offered by Squarespace.

But for those of you with coding skills, WordPress will be a breeze. Plus, it’s the easiest way for you to have ultimate control over every single aspect of your website.

Best Website Builder For Beginners: Squarespace

In terms of simplicity and ease of use, Squarespace is the winner.

If you’re a developer or having coding experience, you’ll find WordPress very easy to use as well. But the average person with no technical knowledge will be lost using WordPress for the first time.

Professional Design

Website visitors will judge the credibility and trustworthiness of your website based on its design. Your design has a major impact on user experience, engagement, and conversions.

That’s why it’s crucial that you find a website builder that allows you to create an attractive and functional design.

Squarespace Design

Squarespace is best-known for the quality and professionalism of their templates and designs. If you have a creative vision for your website, Squarespace will let you turn that vision into a reality.

They offer templates that are clean and modern—perfect for building a website in this day and age.

Finding a template for your website is easy. Just browse the list of categories to see choices for your niche.

Photographers, fashion designers, musicians, artists, and anyone with a portfolio should consider Squarespace to showcase their work. But it’s also a top option for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Squarespace offers award-winning designs that are highly customizable and optimized for mobile devices. It’s easy for you to switch your template at any time.

WordPress Design

WordPress has thousands of both free and paid themes for you to choose from.

To find the best WordPress theme for your website, simply browse by category and determine your budget. As you can imagine, higher quality themes will cost you more money.

Since it’s an open source platform, anyone can add a theme to WordPress. While this gives you more options to choose from, it also means that some of the themes are not as responsive and reliable. So you need to make sure that you choose a theme that will support your site without weighing it down or causing problems.

Not every theme offered on WordPress will be optimized for mobile devices. Avoid any themes that aren’t mobile-friendly.

The upside of using WordPress for design is that you can completely customize your theme using code and plugins. Although switching themes isn’t always the smoothest transition, especially if you’ve made lots of complex changes to your site.

Best Website Builder For Design: Squarespace

While Squarespace has fewer themes than WordPress, the quality of the designs are far superior. All of the themes are all beautiful, mobile responsive, and highly customizable.

Squarespace is still a bit restricted in terms of how much you can change compared to WordPress. But this category was no contest from the beginning—Squarespace is the clear winner.

Built-in Features and Tools

This category focuses on “out of the box” features offered by each platform. This will give you an idea of your capabilities and limits without having to rely on any third-party tools.

Squarespace Features

Squarespace comes with tons of built-in features. It has virtually everything you need to build a new website from scratch. Some of the top features include:

Free Google Fonts
Video Backgrounds
CDN (content delivery network) included
Point of sale tools
Email campaigns
Marketing tools
Ecommerce tools
Blogging tools
User data collection tools

The list goes on and on. You can check out the full Squarespace feature index here.

I like Squarespace because you don’t need to install any third-party plugins or apps to build, edit, and manage your site. Everything can be controlled directly from your admin dashboard.

Whenever Squarespace comes out with a new tool or feature, it will automatically be available for you to use.

WordPress Features

One of the reasons why WordPress is so powerful is because you can install a plugin for virtually anything and everything that you could possibly imagine. The problem is that those plugins don’t come standard when you create a WordPress account.

With that said, there are still some basic features that are built-in to WordPress.

Most of these features are related to publishing. WordPress has tools for things like scheduling content and editing images. You’ll also be able to add passwords to pages and manage your comments.

WordPress has features for multiple contributors and multilingual settings as well.

You are responsible for updating your WordPress version (we’ll talk about this in greater detail later). So any new features and tools won’t be immediately available if you aren’t updating your WordPress account.

Website Builder with the Best Features: Squarespace

Everything you need with Squarespace comes standard out of the box. The features are more robust and easier to access than WordPress.

While WordPress has the capability to do more overall, those tools and features aren’t built-in.

Plugins, Apps, Extensions, and Add-ons

Now let’s evaluate the tools and features that can be installed or added on to these website builders. Add-ons can offer more flexibility and customization when you’re creating your site.

Squarespace Apps

Squarespace does not have an app store or way to add building and customization capability to your website. All of its tools are already built-in to the platform, and they’re updated automatically.

With that said, you can integrate certain apps and tools with your Squarespace account.

But overall, you’ll be relying heavily on the built-in features when it comes to building and editing your website. The integration with third-party apps won’t really change that.

WordPress Plugins

As an open source platform, anyone can create a tool and add it to WordPress. Programmers and designers can offer these tools for free or charge other WordPress users to install them.

This is where WordPress shines. There are roughly 55,000 plugins available for you to download and install to your WordPress site.

The capabilities here are endless. There is a plugin for nearly anything you can possibly imagine. This gives you the opportunity to add custom functionality to your website.

Just be careful before you install a plugin to your site. Remember, anyone can create these.

I only recommend adding plugins offered by legitimate developers. So don’t slack when it comes to due diligence for evaluating a potential plugin.

To learn more about WordPress plugins and their capabilities, check out my guide on the best WordPress plugins for each essential category. This will give you a better understanding of the possibilities for your website.

Website Builder with the Best Add-ons: WordPress

All of the Squarespace apps are built-in, so the platform never really had a chance at winning this category. The sheer volume of available plugins that you can add to your WordPress site is unlike any other website builder on the market.

Plugins are the reason why people love WordPress so much. It’s the best way to truly customize your website exactly the way you want to by adding specific functions.

SEO Friendly

In order for your website to be successful, it needs to be visible and rank high in SERPs. You should definitely look for a website builder that has tools and features that focus on SEO.

Squarespace SEO

Squarespace has SEO best practices built-in to its platform. It has automatic sitemaps, auto redirects, canonical tags, robots.txt files, and plenty of other ways to boost your site’s SEO.

The nice part about using Squarespace is that you won’t have to go out and install any apps to deliver these SEO capabilities. You won’t have to think twice about your website being SEO-friendly because Squarespace handles everything for you.

WordPress SEO

WordPress is fully optimized for SEO on the backend. You can make changes to nearly every aspect of your website to make your content more appealing to search engines.

Modifying permalinks, creating a sitemap, header tags, meta descriptions, and robots.txt are all areas where WordPress excels. WordPress is the ultimate website builder for the technical side of SEO.

Plus, you can always add on plugins to improve your SEO strategy even further.

Yoast SEO has more than five million active installations. It gives you complete customization and control over your WordPress site from an SEO perspective.

Best Website Builder for SEO: WordPress

Squarespace is an SEO-friendly website builder, but it’s no match for WordPress. The flexibility of WordPress and the ability to add SEO plugins will give you an advantage when it comes to ranking organically in search engines.

Blogging Capability

All websites should have a blog. But there’s a difference between a blogging website and website that features a blog as a supporting element. I’ve taken both of these scenarios into consideration when evaluating Squarespace and WordPress for blogging.

Squarespace Blogging

Squarespace offers basic blogging capabilities. You can choose the layout and appearance of your blog while allowing multiple contributors as well.

You can tag your blogs, segment them into categories, and edit them at any time. Squarespace also lets you set up automatic posting on social media any time you publish a new blog.

The best part about using Squarespace for blogging is that you’ll get stylish templates for free.

But you won’t have the ability to access the HTML code of your blog, which is a problem if you really want to customize your content.

Overall, the Squarespace blogging tools are suitable for niche websites that also have a blog. For example, if you’re a photographer and use Squarespace to showcase your portfolio, you can add a basic blog as well.

WordPress Blogging

WordPress is built for bloggers. We publish hundreds of blogs per year here at Quick Sprout, and that’s one of the many reasons why we trust WordPress as our website builder and CMS.

Unlike Squarespace, WordPress lets you access the HTML code of your blog. You may not need to take advantage of this often, but at least it’s available when you need to.

WordPress is by far the most popular blogging platform on the market.

As you can see, Squarespace owns just a fraction of this market share.

Another benefit of using WordPress for your blog is the ability for you to manage comments. You have complete control over who can comment on your blog. WordPress also offers plenty of plugins to customize and improve the blog on your website.

Best Website Builder For Blogging: WordPress

If blogging is the primary feature of your website, WordPress is definitely your best bet. Squarespace offers a basic blogging platform, but the fact that you can’t access the HTML code of your content is a huge downside.

Ecommerce Functionality

Are you planning to sell products or services online? You need to find a website builder that makes this as easy as possible for you.

Squarespace Ecommerce

Modern layouts and simple designs make Squarespace a frontrunner for selling online. You can easily build an ecommerce shop using Squarespace since ecommerce functionality is built-in to the platform.

Squarespace makes it easy for you to sell products, services, subscriptions, and digital content. You can also sync your online inventory with your physical store locations to improve in-person selling.

You’ll also benefit from features like built-in tax tools, gift cards, discount codes, and flexible checkout pages. This is everything you need to optimize your ecommerce shop for conversions.

Squarespace offers easy ecommerce integrations with platforms like PayPal, FedEx, UPS, Stripe, Apple Pay, USPS, and many more.

WordPress Ecommerce

WordPress is not optimized for ecommerce out of the box. You’ll need to install a plugin for ecommerce functionality.

There are tons of options to choose from, but WooCommerce is the most popular and it’s what I would recommend.

Once you install WooCommerce to your WordPress site, selling online is simple. You’ll have the ability to completely customize your store, instead of relying on cookie-cutter designs and templates.

It’s possible to add any function to your ecommerce site with WordPress. You can work with a developer or programmer to create these functionalities for you if you can’t find a plugin that meets your needs.

With WooCommerce (and other plugins), it will take you a bit longer to build a store from scratch. Updates to the plugin and your WordPress version aren’t always smooth.

Best Website Builder For Ecommerce: Squarespace

Squarespace is the winner for ecommerce because the capabilities are already built-in to the platform. You can start selling products and services with Squarespace out of the box with no hurdles in the setup process.

WordPress ultimately offers better flexibility and customization for your ecommerce store, but it’s reliant on plugins.

If you already have a WordPress site, then installing WooCommerce is a no-brainer. But if you’re building a new ecommerce store from scratch, you’ll be better off with Squarespace.

Maintenance and Updates

When evaluating the best website builders, you need to look beyond the initial creation process. It’s important to choose a platform that makes it easy for you to manage, maintain, and update your content for the lifetime of your website.

Squarespace Maintenance

Ongoing maintenance with Squarespace is about as easy as it gets. There is nothing that needs to be done on your end.

Squarespace regularly tests updates and automatically applies them to your website. In most instances, you won’t even know that anything has happened. This allows you to spend your time focusing on more important tasks related to owning and operating a website.

WordPress Maintenance

WordPress is constantly coming out with new updates. They do this in order to improve the security and performance of the platform. Failing to update your WordPress version can put your site at risk for malware and attacks.

In addition to updating WordPress, you also need to keep up with updates for all of your plugins. Sometimes plugins aren’t updated as frequently as they should be, which can cause compatibility issues with your WordPress version.

You can take advantage of automatic updates, but it still requires you to stay on top of everything.

Best Website Builder For Maintenance: Squarespace

Squarespace maintenance is hassle-free. They handle all of the updates for you, which is a big edge over WordPress.

Keeping up with WordPress updates can be a pain, but it’s really not that difficult. Just don’t ignore them because you can put your website at risk for problems related to security and performance.

Security

Unfortunately, security needs to be a top concern for every website. There are too many bad people out there that target websites with malware, spam, and hacks in an attempt to steal information related from to business, customers, and website visitors.

Every website is at risk, no matter what platform you’re using to create and manage your site. But some platforms offer more advanced security capabilities and features than others.

Squarespace Security

Squarespace includes an SSL certificate with your plan. They handle all of the security for you.

Since Squarespace is a popular website builder, hackers will occasionally target it. But overall, it’s not as big of a target as more popular platforms.

WordPress Security

With WordPress, the security of your site is completely in your control. This has its pros and cons.

On the one hand, you can take steps to set up your website to be a fortress. But on the other hand, if you do nothing, your site will be susceptible to attacks.

The benefit of using WordPress is that you can install security plugins, like Wordfence, to handle all of this for you as well.

If you’re using WordPress, check out my list of the best WordPress security plugins to see some alternative options.

But since WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS, it’s also the most attacked platform by hackers and cybercriminals.

Best Website Builder For Security: Squarespace

This was a tough one, but Squarespace is more secure compared to WordPress. Squarespace sites aren’t as vulnerable to attacks and the Squarespace team handles everything for you. The fact that an SSL certificate comes standard with your plan is a bonus as well.

WordPress is still secure if you know how to set up everything properly. But it’s not the safest option out of the box.

Retaining Rights to Your Content

Content ownership might not be the first thing you think of when you’re creating a website. But you should always review the policies of whatever platform you’re using to publish content on the web.

Without realizing it, you may inadvertently lose the rights to work that you thought was your own.

Squarespace Content Ownership

Anything you publish on Squarespace is your content. If you decide to move to another platform, you can take all of it with you.

However, the templates are licensed to you; they aren’t actually owned. So even if you paid for a template, you won’t be able to keep it if you leave Squarespace.

Here are a couple of excerpts from the Squarespace terms of service page that are worth reviewing in greater detail.

In short, everything on your website is being licensed to Squarespace. This means that they can modify, store, publish, and reproduce your work.

Under this agreement, they also have the right to use your website as an example for marketing and promotion of their platform.

Some of you might be turned off by this, but I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Big companies like Squarespace will always try to keep their customers happy. It doesn’t benefit them to steal your content outright. This terms of service agreement is pretty standard if you compare it to social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

WordPress Content Ownership

WordPress is a free and open source platform. All of the source code on WordPress is free for anyone to distribute, modify, and use as their own.

That’s what makes WordPress so great. It’s perfect for adapting and customizing functions to your specific needs.

Since WordPress is set up this way, all of your content is 100% yours. WordPress does not impose licensing terms similar to Squarespace. This means you have total control and ownership of your content with no strings attached.

Keep in mind, WordPress users are responsible for their own web hosting. So your web hosting provider might include content ownership terms that are similar to Squarespace.

Best Website Builder For Owning Content: WordPress

WordPress has better terms than Squarespace when it comes to owning content. If you use WordPress, then you don’t have any licensing contingencies in your terms of service.

You won’t be able to keep your site themes or templates, regardless of which platform you use.

Site Migrations

In a perfect world, you’ll build your website on a platform and stick with it forever. But for one reason or another, you may decide to migrate your site to a new platform.

Maybe you want to move from WordPress to Squarespace. Or maybe you’re trying to migrate for Squarespace to WordPress. You could potentially migrate your site to a different platform altogether.

Website builders don’t always make it easy on you when you’re leaving. So this evaluation category primarily focuses on exporting your site during a migration.

Squarespace Migrations

Migrating your site from Squarespace to another platform can be tricky. Squarespace limits what you’re able to move and retain during a migration.

You’ll be able to migrate all of the basics like your pages, blog, comments, galleries, image blocks, and text blocks. But beyond that, you’ll have to rebuild quite a bit on the new platform when the migration is complete.

Squarespace offers step-by-step instructions to guide you through the migration process, which is definitely helpful.

The complexity of your migration will depend on the type of website you have. For example, it will be easier to migrate a Squarespace blog than a Squarespace ecommerce store.

WordPress Migrations

Migrating content to or from WordPress is a bit easier. Since it’s the platform is so popular and widely used, it’s compatible with whatever formats you were previously using or plan to use moving forward.

In some cases, your web hosting provider can handle WordPress migrations for you. Depending on the plan you have, this could be free or for a small fee of around $100.

If an expert is able to migrate your WordPress site for you, then I’d definitely take advantage of it. Even if you have to pay, it’s worth getting it done properly.

Best Website Builder For Site Migrations: WordPress

Migrations are a pain no matter what platform you’re using. Exporting and importing on both ends is usually a hassle. I’ve never met anyone who enjoys this.

But with that said, WordPress has the edge here because of its popularity. It’s more compatible with other platforms than Squarespace.

Customer Support

I always use customer service as a factor when I’m evaluating a product or service. I want my provider to be there for me whenever I need help or assistance.

Squarespace Support

Squarespace has excellent support. They have a dedicated IT team available 24/7 via live chat and email.

They also have an extensive knowledge base that’s easy to use for troubleshooting on your own. Squarespace offers webinars to teach you how to use their platform and improve your website.

As an all-in-one platform, Squarespace offers things like security, hosting, and a CDN standard with all plans. They handle all of the backend functions of your site so you won’t have to worry about anything.

WordPress Support

If you’re using WordPress, you need to be good at finding answers on your own.

Fortunately, WordPress has a massive community of users. So there are tons of forums and help articles available online.

Not every WordPress user has access to live support. Only paid plans will have this option, and the level of support offered depends on how much your paying.

Best Website Builder For Customer Service: Squarespace

The 24/7 live chat and email support offered by Squarespace is unbeatable. There is definitely more information about how to use WordPress on the web. But in terms of a dedicated support team, Squarespace is the winner.

Price

We can’t evaluate these website building platforms without comparing the prices.

Squarespace Price

Squarespace has four different plans, starting as low as $12 per month. Here’s a brief overview of the pricing tiers.

The plan you choose will depend on the type of website that you’re building. For example, if you plan on selling online, you’ll need the Basic Commerce plan, at a minimum.

But if you are running a small, simple, personal portfolio site, you can get away with the Personal plan, which is very cost-effective.

WordPress Price

WordPress is free. But if you want to upgrade to a premium plan, these are your options:

If you’re just running a small blog, you can stick with the free plan or upgrade to the cheapest plan. But any other website should consider the Premium option, at a minimum.

Upgrading your WordPress plan gives you access to features like premium templates, marketing tools, and support.

The amount of storage you need will affect which plan you choose.

Best Value Website Builder: WordPress

The fact that you can use WordPress for free is a great option for new websites. The two entry-level WordPress plans are cheaper than the lowest Squarespace plan.

WordPress can cost as much or as little as you’d like. Some plugins will require payment, which adds on to your base cost.

Who is Squarespace For?

Squarespace is the best website builder for artists, musicians, photographers, fashion designers, and entrepreneurs. If you’re creative, but not technically-inclined, then you can build a beautiful website on Squarespace with the drag-and-drop builder.

As an all-in-one platform, Squarespace is very easy to manage and maintain. All of the features and tools come built-in, so you never have to worry about adding anything on.

Who is WordPress For?

WordPress is best for developers, programmers, bloggers, and webmasters who know how to code. If you want complete control over the look and feel of your website, WordPress gives you the ultimate ability to customize.

WordPress is pretty bare and limited out of the box. So it’s up to you to add plugins and code the site to meet your standards. It requires a bit more work, but the possibilities are endless.

Final Verdict: Which is Better?

Now to the burning question—which website builder is better? Squarespace or WordPress? Here’s a quick recap of the categories we evaluated above:

Ease of Use — Squarespace
Design — Squarespace
Features — Squarespace
Plugins and Apps — WordPress
SEO — WordPress
Blogging — WordPress
Ecommerce — Squarespace
Maintenance — Squarespace
Security — Squarespace
Content Ownership — WordPress
Support — Squarespace
Value — WordPress

Each website builder has its upsides and pitfalls. It all depends on what you’re looking for and what’s important to you.

Based on these factors alone, Squarespace wins 7-5. But with that said, WordPress is still a great option for lots of websites. We use WordPress at Quick Sprout, and I haven’t considered switching because it handles everything we could possibly need.

But what’s best for me may not be best for you. If you’re building a new website from scratch and you don’t have any coding experience, Squarespace will probably be your best option.

Still not sold on either of these platforms? Check out my guide on the best website builders for plenty of alternative solutions.

November 10, 2019

What Makes or Breaks an Ecommerce Purchase?

Every ecommerce sale can be tied to a decision made by the consumer. There’s a moment in the customer journey process that sways people to buy or pass on a product.

What defines this moment?

I often get asked what makes or breaks an online purchase. If you don’t know the answer to this, then you can’t run a successful ecommerce operation.

Lots of experts out there will tell you to “do this” or “do that” to increase ecommerce sales. But I always let the data do the talking for me.

Sure—in theory, nearly every strategy sounds good. However, if you can’t tie those strategies to concrete evidence, then it’s just guesswork. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t let my business rest in the hands of someone’s best guess.

That’s why I’m always on the hunt for the newest research and studies related to ecommerce and consumer behavior.

I recently stumbled upon an ebook called Understanding the Future of Ecommerce Personalization, published by AB Tasty.

The ebook reports the findings of a study where 2,000 people were surveyed throughout the globe. The survey questions were used to discover the advantages, concerns, and frustrations of consumers shopping online.

Based on these findings, I was able to draw conclusions on the factors that make or break an ecommerce sale.

When in doubt, turn to the data. All of the data below came from the AB Tasty report. I’ve thrown in my own two cents as well to provide actionable steps for ecommerce websites.

Improve Your Product Pages

Any visitor that lands on your product pages didn’t do so by mistake. By this point in the buying process, the consumer has already identified their need or want for a specific product.

From your product page, people are just a click or two away from finalizing a purchase. That’s why these pages need to be perfect.

It’s no secret that the ecommerce industry is booming. People are buying online more than ever before. But with that said, the process of buying something online has its flaws.

According to the research by AB Tasty, being unable to touch, feel, and examine a product is the most frustrating part about shopping online.

As you can see from the graph, this response dominated the other pain points.

Touching or feeling a product through the Internet is obviously not realistic, at least not in this lifetime. So your product pages must emulate that in-store experience as much as possible.

One or two images just won’t get the job done. You need to use lots of high-quality images of whatever you’re selling and show the product from every angle. The idea here is that you don’t want your customers to be surprised when the product arrives at their doorstep. It should be clear based on the product page. If there is any doubt, the consumer won’t buy.

Subtle changes on your product page can make a huge difference.

For example, Seafolly, an Australian swimwear brand, increased transactions by 7% after simply enlarging photos in their shopping carts.

A highly optimized product page goes beyond photos. It encompasses your branding, pricing, product descriptions, and more.

Analyze your existing product pages and ask yourself if you’re telling the full story. Can a customer look at this page and get all of the information that they would get if they could touch or feel it in a store?

I could argue that selling online gives you an advantage to brick and mortar shopping. In a store, customers can’t read a product description or watch a video demonstration of how to use the item. Use these tools to your advantage.

Offer Free and Fast Shipping

Price will always have an impact on the consumer’s decision to buy. People will look at the cost of your products and immediately decide if they are still interested.

There is nothing wrong with this. Your pricing strategy shouldn’t appeal to everyone and anyone with Internet access.

But when you add on extra fees, like shipping costs, it can turn people away who were previously interesting in buying.

If you refer back to the graph about the biggest pain points of buying online, you’ll see that “surprise fees” is tied for second in terms of the highest response rate at 17%. Furthermore, 10% of people surveyed said that “shipping times” were the most frustrating part about shopping online.

That means more than one-fourth of consumers worldwide have frustrations and pain points related to shipping when they shop online.

This is something that you can’t afford to ignore. Your shipping practices could be turning away one in four shoppers that land on your website.

Whether you’d like to admit it or not, you’re competing with Amazon. Your customers are used to getting two-day or even next-day free shipping. That’s become the new standard in online shopping.

So it’s hard for people to justify paying $7.99 in shipping costs to get their package delivered in a week. You need to offer fast and free shipping. There’s no way around it.

If necessary, adjust the prices of the products to make up for the difference. Even if it means a 10% or 20% raise in your pricing across the board. As long as your customers aren’t seeing prices that they perceive as “extra” it will increase their chances of buying.

Run Sales and Promotions

Personalization was a major theme in the study published by AB Tasty. After all, the word “personalization” is in the title of their ebook.

The reason why personalization is such a key factor in making or breaking an ecommerce sale is because it starts early on in the buying process. You can’t wait until the checkout page to try and implement a personalization strategy. But personalized sales and offers will guide your customers to make a decision.

Take a look at this graph, which gives a global perspective on how consumers feel about personalized sales, deals, and promotions.

While the results vary slightly by region, you can see that the majority (nearly 50% or more) in four of the five regions say they wouldn’t even shop at an ecommerce site that didn’t give them personalized offers.

At a minimum, the overwhelming amount of consumers surveyed agreed that personalized options were nice to have.

Just a fraction of respondents in every region said that they don’t want personalized offers. But you need to stick with the majority here.

Personalized offers can come in all different shapes and sizes. For your existing customers, it could mean sending them an email with a new product or discount related to their purchase history.

For example, let’s say you own an online sports equipment store. A customer buys a snowboard and snowboarding boots. After they make that purchase, you can send them an email for discounts on things like snowboarding goggles, a snowboarding jacket, a ski mask, and gloves.

Sometimes personalization can be based on something simple, like the physical location of your website visitor.

If someone is shopping from Hawaii, you probably shouldn’t be promoting snowboards and skiing equipment on the homepage. A surfboard, kayak, or paddleboard would be a better option.

Be Transparent About Data Security

To truly personalize the customer experience, ecommerce brands are collecting data related to the browsing behavior of website visitors.

While consumers want personalized offers, they still have concerns about privacy. Based on the graph we saw earlier about the frustrations of online shopping, 17% of consumers say they are worried about the privacy of their personal data. That was the second highest response on the list.

AB Tasty took that one step further, by asking consumers how they felt specifically about this topic. These are the results:

The results are pretty similar in every region. The majority of people admit that they are uncomfortable sharing their personal data, but they understand that it’s part of shopping online.

Roughly 25% of consumers are fine with data collection and don’t have any concerns about it.

A small, but still significant, percentage of respondents say they don’t want any data collection. They would even be willing to pay higher prices to avoid it.

I found these results interesting, especially when you compare them to the graph that we saw earlier related to consumers wanting personalized sales and promotions.

There is no doubt that people want personalized offers. But they are still uneasy about where those offers come from. The idea of being tracked online makes people uncomfortable.

It’s all about context. As an ecommerce store, you need to understand this.

Be transparent and tell your website visitors how and why you’re using data collection practices. Emphasize the benefits, instead of just stating that you collect data. Explain that the value of personalization outweighs any perceived disadvantages of data collection.

Entice Customer Loyalty

One of the biggest benefits of ecommerce personalization is customer loyalty.

It benefits you as the store owner because your customers will keep coming back and buying more products. But it also benefits the customer because it improves their online shopping experience.

Check out the statistics on this infographic related to personalization and customer loyalty.

The results show that simply offering a customer loyalty program isn’t enough. The most successful loyalty programs are paired with personalization.

In fact, customer satisfaction with loyalty programs is eight times higher when personalization is used. So how can you accomplish this?

The best customer loyalty programs are based on rewards. So you need to find a way to reward your customers for shopping. But if you treat all customers and purchases the same, it won’t add any personalized value to each person.

Think of a punch card at a local coffee shop. Every time you buy a coffee, the cashier punches a hole in the card. After you buy nine coffees, the tenth one is free. That’s a basic loyalty program.

The problem with this system is that it treats all purchases the same. Customers buying a $1 espresso are getting the same rewards as someone buying a large $7 specialty drink.

So when you create an ecommerce loyalty program, you could reward customers based on the amount they spend, rather than just the frequency of their purchases.

This adds a higher level of personalization to the program since no two people will have the exact same total spending. When a customer tracks their status in the loyalty program, they can clearly see that the offers are geared specifically toward them.

AB Testing

Your ecommerce store will never be perfect.

Yes—you can use the tips I’ve used in this guide to make changes to your product pages, homepage, and checkout process. But there will always be room for improvement.

The best way to fully optimize your website for conversions is by running A/B tests. Again, this takes the guesswork out of your decisions.

Rather than just assuming that your CTA button phrasing, color, and placement is correct, test out different variations to see which one converts at the highest rate. This is a constant process. You should always be testing different elements of your site to optimize it for conversions.

Conclusion

So what makes or breaks an ecommerce purchase? It’s not just one thing.

As a whole, there are several elements and factors that influence a consumer’s decision to buy or look elsewhere for their needs.

Refer to the data. Overall, personalization converts.

Brands that use digital tools and data to create a personalized shopping experience increase revenues two to three times faster than brands that don’t.

98% of marketers say that website personalization is a valuable method for improving conversion rates. 59% of businesses say that sales revenue is a direct benefit of digital personalization.

If you want more information and data about ecommerce personalization from a global perspective, you can read the full report published by AB Tasty.