13 New Tools to Outsource Your Content Creation in 2016

In its “State of B2B Content Marketing 2015” survey, digital marketing agency Regalix found that the majority (32%) of B2B brands surveyed were creating (and promoting) two pieces of content a week.

More significantly, they also found that 17% of brands surveyed were creating (and promoting) five or more pieces of content a week.

That's a lot of content.

It makes sense that it wouldn't all be carried out in-house – a fact illustrated by HubSpot's 2015 State of Inbound survey who found that 13% of companies were using freelancers to create content and 10% were working with agency partners – numbers that have risen year-on-year.

I get why – and it mainly comes down to cost.

Employ someone and you have to consider salary, workspace, and equipment; not to mention benefits like medical care and paid vacation time.

Conversely, freelancers are only paid for the work they do.

This is generally (though not always) more cost-effective than taking on someone in-house, and allows you to increase or decrease their workload as needed.

This makes outsourcing extremely flexible, which is a huge win for small businesses.

But don't get too excited just yet… there's a hard part: actually finding great freelancers and managing them effectively.

Thankfully there's plenty of tools designed to help you do just that (and many more being released all the time).

Let's take a look at some of the more recent additions to the market that can help you to outsource and manage your content creation in 2016.

1. Zapty

Zapty makes it easy to manage and collaborate on projects – exactly what you need to do to set tasks and discuss projects with your freelancers and most importantly of all, keep all communications in one place. Themeefy called it an “exceptional tool”.

How much does it cost?

Their most basic accounts are free (and are at present the only accounts available). Premium accounts are on their way and will start from just $2 a month per user.

2. SuperTasker

From the people who brought us PeoplePerHour comes SuperTasker: another tool designed to match companies with freelancers that can help them complete tasks (mainly in the digital space) like content creation, blog post writing, and WordPress website design.

SuperTasker's USP is the speed at which it professes to get your tasks completed. It uses “intelligent algorithms” to locate the freelancer best suited to take on your task, in the quickest time. This means your work starts immediately.

How much does it cost?

Depends on the task – anything from $5 for image resizing and cropping through to $249 for an animated video.

3. Bitrix24

Social intranet tool (think Facebook for businesses) Bitrix isn't exactly the newest kid on the block: it's been around since 2010. What is new is an update that means users of “free” accounts can now add as many additional users as they like, for free.

As with most “free” accounts it does come with some limitations: you're restricted to 5GB storage and there's a number of features you won't have access to.

That said, most companies should find a free account does everything they need, making Bitrix a pretty solid option for anyone in need of a user-friendly, cost-effective way to collaborate with freelancers.

How much does it cost?

As above, a basic account is completely free. The three levels of “pro” accounts will set you back $39, $99, or $199 monthly.

4. Nostromo

Nostromo is a digital project management tool that allows you to plan tasks, log hours, and manage workflow.

If you've got staff – either in-house or outsourced – you need a tool like Nostromo. Especially if you want to stay on top of what work's being done, what needs doing, and what it's costing you.

How much does it cost?

At present the tool is so new, it's free. Pricing plans will follow (although it appears they will begin from $5 a month).

5. Speedlancer

“The Uber of freelancing”, Speedlancer promises to deliver your work within four hours of the job being accepted by one of their “speedlancers”.

Personally, I'd question the quality that can be delivered in just 4 hours, but they claim to have “speedlancers” on board who've worked for The Huffington Post and The Guardian, so what do I know?

Either way, if you need something done, and fast, it's got to be worth a shot.

What does it cost?

Each task type is priced individually, but expect to pay $89 for a press release, $99 for a 1000 word blog post, or $219 for an infographic.

6. Flokzu

Flokzu is a “collaborative solution” that allows companies to assign and manage tasks, organize their work life, and measure performance.

If you struggle to track the tasks you assign to freelancers, this is exactly the sort of tool you need.

How much does it cost?

A basic account is free. Paid plans cost either $12 or $17 per user, per month.

7. Konsus

Konsus offers an on-demand matching service for businesses who have work that needs completing and freelancers that can complete it.

Their USP is to make the process of finding a freelancer as painless as possible. You simply tell them what you need, they provide you with a quote, and if you're happy with it a freelancer will get to work.

For peace of mind, the finished piece goes through “quality control” before being sent to you for approval, and you'll only be invoiced once you're happy with the work.

Dmitry Ozik, co-founder of HighYa, shared his experiences using Konsus to develop a series of guides on nutritional supplements:

“We knew we needed thorough, in-depth content to support our site's review sections, but we didn't have the time to put it all together ourselves. The Konsus team helped match us with a great writer, and we really appreciated the extra quality control steps.”

How much does it cost?

You pay by the hour – $19 p/h to be precise if you send Konsus more than 100 hours of work a month, $25 an hour for more than 50 hours work, or $29 an hour on a PAYG basis.

8. Penflip

Penflip is a collaborative content editing tool that makes it really easy to share, review, and comment on changes to your written work.

Best of all, it saves every change automatically, meaning you never need to worry about losing work or deciding to go back on an edit.

How much does it cost?

Free, if you don't mind your projects being public. Alternatively you can pay $10 a month for up to 50 private projects, or $25 a month to access the full range of features.

9. Gradlance

Gradlancer is a UK based site that helps companies find skilled students and graduates to help complete projects in anything from law, healthcare, web design, engineering, and of course, content creation.

How much does it cost?

You set your own budget, but you have to pay £19.95 to get the project listed.

10. Standupmail

Standupmail is a “simple progress reporting tool for teams”.

Its primary function is to collect daily updates from your team that summarizes their recently completed work, their upcoming work, and any problems that are standing in their way.

It's ideal for managers who can't be as hands-on as they'd like or for companies wanting a closer relationship with their freelancers.

How much does it cost?

$10 a month for up to five users, $20 for 15 users, or $40 for 30 users. Teams larger than 30 will need to enquire about their Enterprise package.

11. Valoso

Valoso call themselves the “Upwork” of video creation. In other words, they help you outsource video creation and editing by connecting you with their “talented video editors, videographers, and visual effects specialists all around the world.”

How much does it cost?

Whatever you can afford. You either set your own price, or leave it open and freelancers will bid for the job.

12. WordRake

Proofreading tool WordRake has been on the scene since 2011, but underwent a significant update towards the end of 2014 which widened its reach to cover all forms of professional writing.

Use it to check and refine your freelancer's work or purchase a copy for those you work with regularly so they can proof their writing themselves.

How much does it cost?

A year's license costs $129 for Word or Outlook, or you can “bulk buy” for better value.

13. Localancers

As you might have guessed, Localancers is a service that helps match businesses with freelancers based on location.

While locality isn't a concern for all businesses, working with someone nearby, or at least in your same time zone, certainly has its advantages.

Localancers helps to bridge that gap so you can find freelancers that will be working when you are.

How much does it cost?

Whatever you want to pay.

Wrap

So that's 13 new (and newly updated) tools that can help you outsource and manage your content creation in 2016.

If you're still craving more, sites like Product Hunt, HighYa, and Cloudswave can help you track down relevant tools and, more importantly, let you browse user reviews (so you can figure out which tools are going to be the best fit for your needs).

Do you know of any other new tools for outsourcing content creation or managing the outsourcers you work with?

Tell me about them by leaving a comment below:

Guest Author: Aaron Agius is an online marketer, web strategist and entrepreneur and you can check him out at AaronAgius.com

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Facebook showing live videos in trending topics with new video search coming to mobile

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Facebook isn't done making it easier for you to find live videos on the social network, both on desktop and on mobile. The company announced today that it has updated its search capability to help you discover when someone is broadcasting live. Those Facebook Live videos that become popular will be listed under the site's trending topics and the company is building out a dedicated search experience for on its mobile app to find a library of videos shared with you.

This week, the company launched new features for Facebook Live, including the ability to broadcast right into Groups and Events, added filters and Reactions. It also debuted a “Facebook Live Map” on desktop that gives people the opportunity to discover livestreams around the world, as well as a dedicated place on Facebook's mobile app.

As the company continues to double-down on its video efforts, it's looking to Live videos as a great opportunity and that could be ruined if it won't let people discover interesting broadcasts. The inclusion into trending topics certainly highlights what's interesting, especially if it's a livestream put on by a celebrity or is centered around a major event such as the Republican National Convention, the Olympics, protests around the world, or anything else.

Facebook already sends you a notification when someone you're connected to or follow broadcasts, but now this will highlight what else millions of people may be interested in, extending a video's reach. The company says a new indicator will appear to let you know when a “relevant Live video is available for a Trending topic.” A “small handful” of Live videos will appear in this area for now.

When it comes to mobile, Facebook plans on launching a place dedicated to just featuring Live videos. There will be a search component, but it's not quite ready yet. However, the company explains that you'll just have to type a few keywords into the search bar at the top of the screen and you'll see videos that Facebook thinks matter to you. Only those videos that have been shared with you will be displayed.

In a way, this capability really formalizes Facebook's video efforts as it offers a centralized place where you can see a library of videos you're interested in and have recorded yourself. If it wasn't already apparent, this puts YouTube in the sights of Facebook since you can also explore different channels such as recipes from chefs, and more - all in a push to encourage original content on its site

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Why Interactive Content Is the Future of Content Marketing

No doubt you've heard the phrase “Content is king”.

However, I beg to differ. I believe that “Interactive content is king”.

An interactive piece of content has essential elements that are vital for businesses. These critical components can:

• Attract an audience


• Increase engagement


• Boost site traffic


• Improve conversion rate

Being a digital marketing professional, I have noticed that companies overlook the importance of interactive content, and later on, realize that they made a big gaffe. Eventually, they observe that their competitors have captured the potential buyers that they could have engaged.

Today, people like you and me (not everyone) spend most of our time on the Internet. Tell me, how often do you read the ENTIRE content on the sites you visit every day?

Well, you know the answer. People in search of information navigate across several websites daily but give their full attention to only a few sites. The reason for such a short attention span is pretty simple. On such sites, there is something that compels them to pay attention and that something is what we call interactive content.

A survey conducted by Demand Metric has shown that interactive content marketing helps businesses to get distinction in the market – especially among immediate competitors.

You cannot escape from the reality that online audiences has become more powerful than ever. Take an example of yours, before buying anything online, you start browsing several sites to ensure you make the best purchase.

If you own a business, what are you doing to attract customers to your product or services? Modern customers love to perform an online search before making a purchase and you need to provide them content to progress that journey.

Interactive content lays a firm foundation for generating and converting leads. Further, it makes your marketing plan livelier and engaging, so it yields magical outcomes for your business.

This blog further contains some critical reasons that stand for “why interactive content is the future of digital marketing?”

Attract and persuade buyers

Interactive content can arrest the attention of online audiences. A study by Demand Metric has unveiled that interactive content is highly effective in educating online buyers. Usually, it contains the most relevant and actionable information that encourages and compels users to buy products immediately.

I'm sure you include calls-to-action on your website to support your digital marketing strategy and attain higher conversions. Call-to-action buttons with a piece of interactive content persuade users to make quick decisions that are beneficial to your business.

(Source: blog.dmi.io)

Help boost business revenues

If you achieve success in attracting customers, then undoubtedly it will boost your sales and generate high revenues for your business. The success of any company is often measured in terms of customers they attract to increase their sales.

A study conducted by Aberdeen shows that companies have increased their conversion rates by more than five times by focusing on content marketing. Thus, you can say that interactive content influences the minds of buyers.

Encourage more engagement and sharing

Interactive content plays a vital role in maintaining the attention of online audiences when they come across your content in search of information. Thus, updating content frequently will allow you to target a wider audience.

Regular updates become all-the-more necessary because you cannot display outdated content all the time. For holding the attention of your followers, you have to change your web content over a course of time to (or “intending to”) feed them with the latest information.

Plus, interactive content ensures more reader engagement, which further leads to sharing of your content – especially on social platforms – in case they consider the content informative and useful.

Here are some excellent examples of interactive content:

• Infographics – One of the most trending styles to deliver information as it offers great engagement.

(Source: Quick Sprout)

• Podcasts – An effective way to deliver content through audio.

(Source: BBC)

• Videos – Help companies connect with online audiences in an interactive way.


• Webinars – Offer great interaction in the form of meeting, discussion, presentation and questions.


• Calculators – Another way to deliver content where you allow people to control parameters.

(Source: Content Marketing Institute)

Boost brand exposure and credibility

Well, it is all about competition, and you cannot take it casually. So you have to focus on getting maximum exposure for your brand along with growing credibility that comes with engagement.

By using interactive content, you can engage audiences to enhance your brand awareness. Once people start noticing your business, you will have a better chance of earning credibility.

I went through a case study of Mediavisioninteractive.com and found that they registered a tremendous jump of 300% in their leads because of improved brand exposure that they achieved through an interactive content marketing campaign.

(Source: Media Vision Interactive)

Complement web design

Interactive content is a significant contribution to a nicely-designed website. The look and feel of a website matters a lot when it comes to holding audiences. However, what actually engages them is interactive content distributed over the web pages.

Have a look at this screenshot from BuzzFeed that depicts how interactive content complements web design.

The screenshot is a simple quiz template that offers a funny way to interact, and it is something that a user can easily relate to.

(Source: BuzzFeed)

Here's another good one where Deloitte is presenting the summary of a white paper in a unique style, which is enough to attract visitors. It also nicely complements the website at the same time.

(Source: Deloitte)

Generate traffic

Interactive content plays a critical role in enhancing the level of user experience (UX) on your site. If the content published on your site is useful and informative, then undoubtedly your site will receive an enormous amount of traffic. Receiving more traffic will enhance your online presence and make your business attractive and fruitful.

The annual growth in the traffic of unique sites is 7.8x higher for content marketing leaders than followers (19.7% vs. 2.5%).

Generating traffic to a website is always one of the primary goals of any digital marketing campaign, and it can be well achieved through interactive content.

(Source: SlideShare)

Peugeot interactive content case study

For getting a good idea to understand “why interactive content is the future” I would suggest you to go through the case study of well-renowned automotive manufacturer Peugeot.

What I like the most about this study is that Peugeot received 223K page views per publication, which is undoubtedly an overwhelming number to achieve. Further, they received 35 percent of the total visits through mobile; it means they cautiously worked and gave preference to capture mobile users as well.

(Source: Ceros)

Have a look at some more more case studies, and check how you can influence your content marketing campaigns.

Guest Author: Abhyudaya Tripathi is a digital marketing expert with over 8 years of experience, and presently he is an Associate Director at ResultFirst Organization. He is extremely passionate about making information seekers and quest lovers aware of digital marketing. His area of expertise covers everything that comes under the umbrella of digital marketing that is content marketing, search engine optimization, social media optimization, conversion rate optimization, web designing & development, and other related domains.

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Facebook Live now streams to Groups and Events, gets Reactions, filters, and more

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Facebook is making some changes to its livestreaming product, adding features that should make your broadcasts more engaging, shareable, and discoverable. Rolling out over the coming weeks are the ability to broadcast live videos to Facebook Groups and Events, addition of Reactions and filters, and a new dedicated destination that highlights livestreams taking place throughout the world.

In a blog post, product management director Fidji Simo described Facebook Live as being a tool to “share a moment instantly with the people you care about. This means your friends, family, or fans can be there with you, and you can respond to their comments and see their reactions.” Over the past eight months, this has been possible, but broadcasting was limited to the audience based off of Facebook's privacy settings: The public, friends, or any other subset.

Above: Facebook Live setting to broadcast to a specific Group page.

Image Credit: Facebook

But what if you're interested in livestreaming to your fans or friends that are attending a specific event like your birthday party, wedding, or other occasions that you only want to have a curated set of people see? That's possible now with support for Groups and Events on the social network. Musicians, artists, celebrities, VIPs can host a broadcast within an event page to offer fans a behind-the-scenes look at what's going on or even schedule a live Q&A session - like a video-based Ask Me Anything event.

“We hope this new ability to both broadcast and watch live video within Groups and Events enables people to connect more deeply with their closest friends, family and the communities of people who share their interests,” Simo wrote.

New ways to participate

Facebook declined to state how many broadcasts have been created to date, likely to avoid showing its hand to Twitter, whose Periscope service has had over 200 million streams in one year. However, there is some pretty good engagement on Facebook Live: Simo explained that people comment at least 10 times more on the platform's livestream tool than with regular videos.

It's perhaps because of this trend that Facebook has now included Reactions into the mix. Launched in February, it's a way for people to better express how they feel beyond simply liking it. This is the first time that Facebook has used Reactions beyond the News Feed and posts, but it makes sense. Now broadcasters will get a better idea about their viewer sentiment - are they sad, happy, laughing, angry, or shocked by what they're seeing? Simo explained that when a friend reacts to your video, their profile picture will appear along with a “little starburst before their reaction appears.”

Above: Facebook's creative tools: filters and doodling while livestreaming

Image Credit: Facebook

Simply broadcasting au naturel isn't enough for Facebook, as it has added in five filters (like with Instagram videos) for you to choose from to personalize your livestream. In the future, you'll also be able to draw or doodle right on your video in real-time.

To maintain the broadcast's experience after you're off the air, Facebook Live now also supports Replay Comments, which provides more context in terms of what's being discussed when on air. Right now, you're not sure exactly when viewer comments are being addressed, but Replay Comments displays the comments as they occur when you're watching the video later, making it seem like you're part of the “live” experience.

Easier ways to find livestreams

Before today, in order to find when someone was using Facebook Live, the notification either had to appear in your News Feed or come from someone you're following. Now there's a destination within the social network that will display the live streamed videos that are both happening now and what you can watch later.

Facebook has released what it calls a “Facebook Live Map” for the desktop that lets you view footage from people who are sharing their experiences through Facebook Live.

Lastly, if you stumble upon a video that you think a friend may be interested in, Facebook has added a sharing option that will send a push notification to whoever you want inviting them to watch the event with you. You no longer have to leave the broadcast just to share the Facebook post with someone - it's all done while watching the video.

Rolling out now

Videos have become one of the main focuses of Facebook recently with chief executive Mark Zuckerberg seemingly ecstatic about its potential. The company once said that it's “excited that people are embracing this new format, and we're working to make it available to more people around the world.” Since its launch in August, people in more than 60 countries around the world can share live video on Facebook.

These latest updates are aimed to make Facebook Live more appealing to the company's 1.59 billion monthly active users. It'll help stave off competition from not only Periscope, but also eventual challenger Google, which will launch its YouTube Connect app soon.

While being introduced today, these features are rolling out over the coming weeks for Facebook's iOS and Android apps. So if you don't have it right away, be patient and hopefully you'll get these updates soon.

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WhatsApp turns on end-to-end encryption by default

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Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp today announced that it has turned on end-to-end encryption by default. That means content that people share, whether they be text messages, voice messages, photos, and videos, are now more secured.

Users will simply need to update to the latest version of WhatsApp to get the new encryption, according to a blog post.

“The idea is simple: when you send a message, the only person who can read it is the person or group chat that you send that message to,” WhatsApp said. “No one can see inside that message. Not cybercriminals. Not hackers. Not oppressive regimes. Not even us. End-to-end encryption helps make communication via WhatsApp private – sort of like a face-to-face conversation.”

Encryption continues to be trendy. The iMessage messaging protocol available on Apple's iOS devices has had end-to-end encryption, and the encryption of an iPhone 5c was the subject of a recent standoff between Apple and the FBI. Bespoke encrypted messaging apps have also picked up traction. Telegram, which has an encrypted chat mode that users have to manually turn on for each chat, now has more than 100 million monthly active users.

Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2014 for more than $16 billion. Now the service has more than 1 billion monthly active users.

Open Whisper Systems, which is behind the Signal encrypted messaging app, has been working with WhatsApp to enable encryption over the past several months. More detail on the encryption is available here (PDF).

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5 Ways to Grow Your Business With Customer-Centric Content

The digital revolution is growing your customers expectations for immediate response and service.

You may not even realize it, but you have most likely already made some changes to the customer service strategy of your business.

Thanks to social media, customer service has been steadily moving into the forefront for businesses. Those who focus on it are seeing success over those who have opted to continue with the same policies of the past.

If you have been following the trend, you have likely already changed your marketing strategy and even implemented customer service training across all departments. The changes that we have seen as part of this trend are only a glimpse of what is to come in the future.

What does this mean for your content marketing strategy?

Of course, your content must match this new outlook on customer service. Your content marketing plan must meld into this focus on the customer and away from “telling” customers about your products and services. Your content will need to focus on engaging your customers and drawing them in with interesting information that is relevant to each customer at that very moment.

In short, content is becoming much more individualized and personalized in order to capture the frugal attention span of today's educated, digital customer.

This article will feature 5 ideas for changing your content to match the trend of customer-centricity.

1. Customize your content to be accessible to your customers

(Source: Forrester.com)

Forrester Research refers to this as the mobile mind shift, which is “the expectation that any desired information or service is available, on any appropriate device, in context, at your moment of need.” Your content must be accessible on any device at any time.

In 2015, Forrester research uncovered some very telling data on consumer expectations: 18% of customers expect immediate delivery of any requested information or services within context.

By the end of this year, that number will escalate to include close to half of all consumers. As smartphone usage increases across the world, this will continue as a global phenomenon.

What does this mean for your business?

It means customizing your content and making it accessible to your customers in the format they are seeking it. That means mobile friendly data and technology that accommodates your customers' expectations. This goes beyond just a responsive design, but also means a customization of the type of content based on the individual customer.

2. Make sure you are speaking to your customers

(Source: Forrester.com)

Use context to include and draw in your customers. Have a “you” mentality when writing rather than a “we” mentality.

For years now, writing with a “we” mentality has been viewed as condescending. Talk to your customers and include them. You already know from crafting email subject lines and blog post titles that the word “you” grabs the attention of the reader and is all-inclusive. Focus all of your marketing communications in that fashion.

Review your copy for words like “we” and “us” and make sure that if you use those words it is truly in the intended context and doesn't mean “including you, our customer”.

Besides being inclusive of your customers, always work with them and remember how much more expensive it is to acquire a new customer than to retain a current one. Instill excellent customer service policies across all departments in your company. This ensures that every interaction with a representative from your company will be a positive one.

3. Engage customers based on where they are in the customer life cycle

(Source: Forrester.com)

Just as I explained in item #1 about customizing your content, part of that specialized and targeting technology must include connecting with each of your customers directly.

Prepare to craft an experience – drive conversations dependent on where each customer you are communicating with is in their consumer life cycle process. Do not create experiences that blanket all of your customers into one.

Make them feel special and important to your company by customizing their experience in a way that makes sense for where they are in their journey as a customer of your company. A server wouldn't offer a customer dessert before they have finished their appetizers, so don't send automated communications to all of your customers, segment them based on actions or a time line.

You will find that investing in the technology to do so benefits your customer service skills, increases sales, consumer loyalty, and is even something that will become to be expected by consumers or they will flock to your competition that offers this instead.

As an important trend in the life cycle of the consumer, it is also important to remember that the “close” or sale isn't the end of the cycle and never treat it as such. Always gear your message as to “what's next” for each customer as an individual.

4. Listen to the voice of your customers

Turn customer data into information you can use to better market to them. With new technology and the entire new aspect brought about by the Internet of Things, listening to the voice of your customers' goes way beyond the traditional means of surveying and talking to them.

With all of the new data being collected by technology, you have to turn that data into insights about customer behavior, customer choices, and trends.

Education, explanation, and a gradual move into this new technology are all going to help ease your customers into it and give them a learning curve when necessary.

(Source: ERDM.com)

Ernan Roman is a leading expert of “Voice of Customer” research and marketing. He explains, “Our Voice of Customer research indicates that engagement/relationship strength has twelve times more influence on retention and repeat purchases than customer satisfaction does”.

In other words, customer satisfaction is expected, but knowing your customer's needs and delivering them on the platform they prefer is even more important. This applies in B2C and B2B business arenas.

5. Pay close attention to the dramatic changes in customer behavior

Dramatic changes are occurring as consumers become more digitally inclined and expect your business to advance at the same level.

Forrester Research shows that these dramatic changes in customer behavior, especially in regard to their expectations of digital advancements are leading us into a new marketing revolution. A new world for marketers where you must embrace technology and implement it to connect with your customers like never before. The more advanced your customers are technologically speaking, the more customization and specialization you can offer them.

How educated are your customers?

With the amount of data that is readily available. It is important to understand what information your customers have access to. This can help you have informed and honest communications with them.

(Source: CMSWire.com)

According to CMSWire, “in order to put customers at the center of the design of a marketing strategy, marketers must adopt a customer-centric framework. This type of framework is how you can plan out your content and distribute it in a way that will reach your customers according to their preferred channels”.

Takeaways for your business

Besides investing in new technology and advancements, what can your company's marketing department do to stay on top of this changing environment?

The first thing you should reconcile immediately is the idea of “those aren't my customers”. If you truly believe your customers are not ready for this new technology and smart digital revolution, chances are you will be left in the dust by your competition.

Instead, educate your customers and take them on this new technological journey with you. Reduce friction between your company, your staff, and your customers, and instill confidence with your customers.

Form a marketing strategy that includes a mix of safe, moderately risky and high risk, complicated strategies. This will always keep you innovating and never stagnant in your industry among your competition.

Following this 70:20:10 rule will ensure you are always innovative, cutting edge, early adopters, open to exploring new technology, and never left behind.

Guest Author: John Wieber is Partner at Webmoves.net. John has 14+ years experience in web development, ecommerce, and internet marketing. He has been actively involved in the internet marketing efforts of more then 100 websites in some of the most competitive industries online.

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