Abstract Living

How to Build Connections with Influencers to Get Links, Shares, and Exposure

Making connections with influencers isn't just for fashion blogs and trendy Instagram accounts. You'll need a 'way in' no matter who you are or where you're going. Whether you're looking to write for big publications, get a boost to your social shares, improve your SEO, or just get on the radar of a blogger with a big following, you're going to need to start somewhere. In this post, I'm going to go through the process I used to write for TechCrunch, get guest blogging slots, and build relationships with social media personalities. It all boils down to a repeatable process with just a few points, and takes very little time or effort. Let's get into it... ## **A few steps before you get started** We’re all blinded by what we already know, An easy way to find influencers is to use Buzzsumo's Twitter influencer search. By typing in a keyword relevant to your niche, you can find editors, bloggers, and broadcasters that you can leverage to get more exposure. Alternatively, you can find publications in your niche and then find who's responsible for content submissions and editing there. Since this is a social-focused technique, the next step is to follow the influencer on Twitter and add them to a Twitter list. Now, add their RSS feed to your feed reader so you can keep up to date with what they're writing: Now you're set to get on with the rest of the process. ## **Retweet two of the influencer's articles** The first part of the interactions after getting started is to retweet two articles. This should be done over time, either with Buffer to Buffer the retweet, or manually by checking back. To stand out, you can even add a comment inside the retweet, like above. The more you say to start a conversation, the better the outcome will eventually be, and the faster you'll get to a comfortable stage where you can reach out personally and offer help / make an ask. ## **Leave two comments on their blog posts** The comments section is an excellent place to interact with bloggers. It's their home turf, and every blogger loves getting comments and responding to them because it means their work is being read and they're not just writing into the void. Even if they get a lot of comments already, more can't ever hurt. Especially if you say something more worthwhile than other people. Make sure you: - Add value to the post (explain how you've tried similar methods, or share some of your own experience) - Encourage a response (by asking a follow-up question) - Say thanks! - Sound like a real person Here's an example of a great blog comment made for relationship building: Overall, a thoughtful, conversation-starting response is the most important thing. Since you're subscribed via RSS, you can easily keep to date with what's being posted and just take a little time in the mornings to read it on your phone and comment. ## **Share two of their articles on different platforms** I don't often get my work shared on LinkedIn, but when I do it's usually by someone who's got an active following there and I remember the occasion because my Twitter feed is flooded, but my LinkedIn notifications update only rarely. The people who interact with me on LinkedIn stand out, and that's a tactic you can try too. Like before I mentioned how you can Buffer retweets so they don't go out all at once, you can do the same thing with social shares across multiple platforms. Buffer connects to Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn. The influencer could be grateful you're sharing their content on a platform where they don't have as much presence. ## **Send a personal email with an offer and a request** Do you know the most important factor that goes into an influencer deciding whether or not they'll open your emails? The name of the sender is the most important factor to 64% of respondents, so if they recognize your name as 'the person who I had a great conversation on Twitter with', they're way more likely to feel obliged to open and respond to your email. When Alex from Groove tried to build an 'inner circle' of influencers to help promote his content, he found that a good way to get shares and exposure was to ask for the influencers' opinion on the draft of a blog post in an email like this one: Alternatively, if you're reaching out to a journalist, you might want to try an email like this one: Dmitry from JustReachOut.io has compiled a list of 26 cold email templates, which he says he's used each one of to take his career to the next level at some point, and for requesting an interview with an influencer, he suggests using this one: ## **Your next steps...** To make it simple, I've compiled an SOP you can run to do influencer outreach here. Make sure you've compiled a list of 10-15 influencers, and that you run one checklist for each influencer and work through the list. Using that method, you'll find you get more followers on social media, more shares, better placement for guest posts, and more backlinks. And it all starts with a little work on social media, so I'd say the reward is fair for the work put in! Have you tried any similar methods or checklists? **Let me know in the comments.** If blogging is relevant to what you're working on, this is worth reading next: SEO for Freelancers: 4 Key Tips to Attract Clients on Autopilot.

10 Interesting Things to Do in Mission, San Francisco

Are you looking for a vibrant neighborhood in San Francisco that offers a unique blend of culture, art, food, history and entertainment? The Mission district is the place to be! Here are ten of the most interesting things to do while exploring this unique destination. ## Explore the Vibrant Street Art Scene As you walk through the Mission district, you will be enamored by the explosion of colorful murals adorning the walls of buildings. From historic political murals to modern abstract pieces, the street art scene in the Mission is unparalleled. The vibrant street art scene in the Mission district is a reflection of the neighborhood's cultural diversity, history, and social issues. The murals are not just visually stunning but also serve as a medium of expression for the community's voice. ### Clarion Alley Mural Project The Clarion Alley Mural Project is a continuous mural art project that began in 1992. It features over 700 murals that depict various social and political themes such as racism, homelessness, and immigrant rights. The murals are a reflection of the community's struggle and resilience in the face of adversity. The Clarion Alley Mural Project is a must-visit for anyone interested in street art and social justice. The murals are not just beautiful but also thought-provoking, inspiring visitors to think critically about the issues facing society today. ### Balmy Alley Murals For a colorful Instagram-worthy photo, head to Balmy Alley. Here, the walls are adorned with intricate murals by local artists that reflect the neighborhood's cultural diversity and history. The murals are a celebration of the community's heritage and a reflection of the struggles and triumphs of its residents. The Balmy Alley Murals are a living testament to the power of art in bringing communities together. The murals are not just a feast for the eyes but also a reminder of the community's resilience and hope for a better future. ### Women's Building Mural The front of the Women's Building in the Mission district is a standout attraction with its iconic mural featuring the faces of prominent women in history. The colorful mural serves as a reminder of the essential role of women in shaping the world we live in. The Women's Building Mural is an ode to the power of women in shaping society. The mural features the faces of women who have made significant contributions to various fields, including science, art, and politics. The mural is a celebration of the achievements of women and a reminder of the work that still needs to be done to achieve gender equality. ## Indulge in the Culinary Delights If you're a foodie, the Mission has a lot to offer. With a mix of Latin American cuisine, trendy cafes, and local farmers markets, you'll be spoilt for choice. Not only does the Mission district have some of the best food in San Francisco, but it's also home to some of the most innovative and creative chefs in the city. ### Taquerias and Latin American Cuisine The Mission district is famous for its delicious Mexican food. You can find some of the best taquerias here, each serving up their unique recipes for tacos, burritos, and quesadillas. Try La Taqueria, El Farolito, or La Corneta for a mouth-watering meal. But the Mission isn't just limited to Mexican food. You can also find some of the best Peruvian, Salvadoran, and Nicaraguan cuisine in the city. One of the best things about the Mission's Latin American food scene is the diversity of flavors and ingredients. From spicy salsas to tangy ceviche, you'll find a range of dishes that will tantalize your taste buds. And don't forget to pair your meal with a refreshing margarita or a cold cerveza. ### Trendy Cafes and Bakeries For a more laid-back vibe, head to some of the trendy cafes and bakeries in the neighborhood. Try Craftsmen & Wolves for their innovative pastries, or Dandelion Chocolate for their unique chocolate creations. If you're looking for a cozy spot to work or catch up with friends, check out Ritual Coffee Roasters or the popular Philz Coffee. The Mission's cafe scene is known for its creativity and attention to detail. From latte art to artisanal bread, you'll find that each cafe has its own unique twist on the classics. And if you're in the mood for something sweet, be sure to try the Mission's famous "pan dulce" or sweet bread. ### Local Farmers Market If you're in the mood for fresh, seasonal produce, the Mission has a weekly farmers market that makes for a delightful shopping experience. The market features local vendors selling everything from fruits and vegetables to artisanal cheeses and sourdough bread. Not only is the produce fresh and delicious, but it's also a great way to support local farmers and artisans. In addition to fresh produce, the farmers market also offers a variety of prepared foods and snacks. From tamales to empanadas, you'll find a range of delicious treats to enjoy while you shop. And if you're lucky, you might even catch a live performance or a cooking demonstration. Overall, the Mission's culinary scene is a must-see for any food lover. With its diverse range of flavors and ingredients, you're sure to find something that will satisfy your cravings and leave you wanting more. ## Dive into Mission's Rich History The Mission district has a unique history that is captured in its many landmarks and cultural institutions. The neighborhood was originally inhabited by the Ohlone people, who lived in the area for thousands of years before the arrival of Spanish colonizers in the late 18th century. The Mission district gets its name from the Mission San Francisco de Asis, also known as Mission Dolores, which was founded in 1776 by Spanish Franciscan friars. Today, the Mission district is a vibrant and diverse community that celebrates its rich cultural heritage through its many landmarks and cultural institutions. ### Mission Dolores Park Mission Dolores Park is a popular spot for relaxing and enjoying panoramic views of the San Francisco skyline. The park is also home to the San Francisco Mission, the oldest building in the city and a significant historical landmark. The mission was originally built as a place of worship and education for the Ohlone people, but was later taken over by the Spanish colonizers and used as a military outpost. Today, the mission is open to the public and offers guided tours that provide a fascinating look into the history of the Mission district. Visitors can explore the mission's beautiful gardens, chapels, and historic artifacts, including a 17th-century bell that was brought over from Spain. ### Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts For a deeper understanding of the neighborhood's cultural roots, visit the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. The center showcases art, music, dance, and theater, celebrating the diverse cultural heritage of the Mission district. The center was founded in 1977 by a group of local artists and activists who wanted to create a space where Latino artists could showcase their work and connect with the community. Today, the center is a vibrant hub of creativity and community engagement, hosting a wide range of events and programs throughout the year. Visitors can attend art exhibits, music concerts, dance performances, and workshops that explore the rich cultural traditions of the Mission district. ### El Rio Community Space El Rio Community Space is a popular dive bar in the neighborhood that has been around since the 1970s. The bar is famous for hosting community events, such as fundraisers, drag shows, and dance parties. It offers a unique glimpse into the neighborhood's counterculture scene. Over the years, El Rio has become a beloved institution in the Mission district, known for its welcoming atmosphere and commitment to community building. The bar has hosted countless events that have brought together people from all walks of life, creating a sense of unity and belonging that is at the heart of the Mission district's vibrant culture. ## Enjoy the Nightlife and Entertainment Once the sun sets, the Mission district comes alive with a plethora of nightlife options. ### Live Music Venues The neighborhood boasts many live music venues such as The Chapel and The Elbo Room, both of which feature local and international acts. If you're into jazz, head to Club Deluxe for live performances. ### Unique Bars and Clubs The Mission is known for its unique bars and clubs, each with its vibe and personality. Visit Trick Dog or The Armory Club for delicious cocktails or dance the night away at El Rio. ### Rooftop Movie Nights For a memorable movie-going experience, catch a rooftop movie at the Alamo Drafthouse. The theater is perched on top of a building in the Mission and offers stunning views of the city skyline while you enjoy your favorite movie. Whether you're exploring the street art scene or indulging in the culinary delights, the Mission district offers a unique and exciting experience for all. So the next time you're in San Francisco, be sure to check out the Mission! For another perspective on business, read 7 Marketing Tasks You Should Really Outsource to a VA.

7 Marketing Tasks You Should Really Outsource to a VA

It’s no secret that time is money in _any_ business. No matter whether you’re selling the hottest real estate around or making toothpicks for a living, you don’t have time to do everything yourself if you want to scale (or even run) your business effectively. You need to outsource some of your workload, but what should you offload? Whilst the answer is really “anything which you personally do not _have_ to do”, as long as your time could be better spent on something else, we have the top 7 tasks to outsource to a VA right here. These are the most common, time / resource consuming tasks which (frankly) we could happily see the end of. If you want more time to focus on the things that matter for your marketing efforts, go ahead and outsource these tasks before anything else! ## Gathering Emails Nobody likes the arduous task of trawling through hundreds of contacts, manually adding their email address to each one. Equally, the task of finding new contacts and their email address can happily chew up hours upon hours of your work day; hours which could be much better spent personally building a connection to those new contacts, rather than just finding them. Hence, whenever you have a task which requires the collection of email addresses, you should be outsourcing it to a VA. This is a prime example of everything an outsourced task should be; it’s time consuming, monotonous and doesn’t require any of your personal input or expertise to carry out. ## Finding Contact Handles This task has many parallels to gathering emails; finding other contact information such as Twitter handles or LinkedIn profiles can be just as time-consuming as gathering their email. Time which, once again, could be much better spent creating content to market, improving your website or, as with the emails, building a personal connection to said potential contacts. Essentially, instead of building the framework, you’re shaping your network. ## Curating Social Media Content If this is not already handled by your business process automation system, social media is something which you (by and large) don’t want to be dealing with. You want to have your social media accounts topped up with content that isn’t just an endless stream of self-promotion, but where exactly do you get content that resonates with your audience. Depending on your tastes, you might try social bookmarking sites like reddit, Inbound.org, GrowthHackers, or putting together a small list on Twitter of accounts that tend to share top notch content. Making a marketing process for this should be easy if you know the kind of content you’d like to curate. ## Visual Content Whether you’re designing the cover for your brand new ebook or just need to get some header images to pair with your Twitter and Facebook posts, you could spend the time to do them yourself. After all, if you just have to do one or two images you might as well take the 5 minutes it takes to whip up a good image. However, when you get to the stage where you need professional-looking infographics, 20 social media images a week and a new ebook every couple of months, it only makes sense to outsource the task to someone more qualified. Hey, just because the task is going to a VA doesn’t mean that it’s going to be worse quality! All you need to do is make some inquiries to learn who has experience with creating visual content, and then boom; you’re away. ## Blog Commenting Other than being a fantastic way to get your name and brand out there and seen on more popular sources, blog commenting is another monotonous task which can take up hours upon hours without ever being complete (as long as there are more blogs and new posts, blog comments can be made). So, rather than tackle it yourself, you can quite happily hand the task off to a VA without too much trouble. The only problem which can be posed by outsourcing this task is that the comments should have some sort of review process. This could either be yourself (even if you review each comment, you’ll still save the time taken to write them) or a permanent member of your marketing team, but there should be at least a little quality assurance before a VA is allowed to say anything under your name. ## Transcriptions Although this mainly applies to those of you who produce a podcast or video content, transcriptions are easy to do and provide you with extra content with relatively little effort. If you outsource the task you’re not even wasting any time on it - you’re essentially getting several mediums of content for the effort put into just the one. ## Content Creation (Be Careful Though) This may be a bit of a controversial one, but content creation doesn’t _always_ have to be handled by an internal member of your team. You can outsource your content creation to a VA with little problem and, although you’d better have a thorough employee onboarding process to help them along, it should take little time for them to produce similar quality content to yours in the same (or even a shorter) time period. As with the blog commenting, this should always be monitored and go through at least one of your team members before being pushed live; although many VAs are very talented and can most certainly deliver on what they promise, there’s always a chance that an error has snuck by them or that they haven’t got your tone right. And there you have it! With a little caution and training, VAs can be a massive boon to your marketing efforts if you let them take these time-consuming tasks off your hands. However, why not take it one step further? Get creative with analyzing your day-to-day tasks and you may find that you can outsource more than you thought to great effect! One more post that complements this topic is 6 Marketing Tasks You Can (and Should) Automate, especially around marketing.

Ebook Marketing: How to Generate 1,000 Leads Overnight

Vinay Patankar
27 Feb, 2018
Marketing
Sales-and-marketing-standard-operating-procedures

Do you want to build your email list and rank for highly desirable keywords with content that generates leads automatically? In this post I want to let you in on the best way I've found to get hundreds of targeted leads on our email with just one piece of content. I want you to be able to read this post, then go away and start doing the exact same thing as me. I'm going to start with the creation of the ebook, and then move through to promotion. ## **Writing the ebook** The ebook — a guide to business process automation — was written casually over the course of a couple of months. It consisted of all of our blog posts on the topic, tied together with an intro and outro, structured so it developed like you'd expect a book to. So, while we were building our blog and posting like usual, we were also creating an ebook in the background. This means we can rank for all of the chapters individually plus the ebook page, and it's much less work. Essentially, it’s one giant content repurposing project, allowing both the posts and ebook to generate leads. The way to start is to do a little keyword research. Once you've found a great keyword (high volume, low difficulty, well targeted at your audience), start to brainstorm 5-10 blog posts on the topic, all going after the long tail keywords related to it. Note the structure using a tool like Evernote or Trello, then start turning keywords into titles. Once you've got the titles down, blog away as normal until the book's written. The blog posts were all sent as links along with our graphical assets (icons, gradients, etc.) to a freelance designer hired through Upwork. She came back with a PDF and ePub version within the week, and then it was time to prepare to promote it. ## **Before promoting the ebook** Next up, we needed to find as many people as possible that we thought would like the ebook. To do this, I used BuzzSumo to scrape the names and Twitter handles of 250 people that talk and write about business process automation. We also gathered everyone who had been mentioned in the book because they're more likely to have a vested interest in its promotion. Handing it off to a VA to scrape the emails, I went about writing the landing page copy. The landing page copy for all of our ebooks follows the same structure: - Problem (you're doing too much in your business manually) - Solution (you can harness automation, if you know how) - Call to action - Who's this book for? - What's in the book? - Call to action We have a template of this in WordPress, so it's easy to duplicate it and work off of it to make sure you're not missing anything out. With the emails loaded up in Close.io, our CRM, and the landing page ready to go, I wrote an email template informing the outreach contacts I found earlier that we're launching a book they might be interested in, like this: ## **Launch day: ebook marketing in action** On the day of the launch, we posted the ebook on Product Hunt, sent emails to the list of influencers, and watched the email subscribers roll in. By some bizarre stroke of luck, we hit #1 in Books on Product Hunt despite the narrow audience of the subject. We also posted it up on reddit and inbound.org, which, as you can see, brought a comparatively small slice of traffic when checked against Product Hunt: ## **After launch day** To make sure we were capturing as many leads as possible, we went back to every relevant blog post and added a call to action to get the ebook. Since some of the posts had already started to rank in Google, it meant that we were able to capture some of that success and make it stick. We still find a few hundred leads coming in every month from the ebook, even after the launch day buzz has long gone. For a side project, it's well worth investing your time. ## **5 extra tips for success** There are a few things to know about this tactic before getting stuck in: 1. Make sure your landing page copy is long. Short copy and gated content doesn't rank at all well in Google 2. Write an announcement blog post and link your ebook's landing page in it to help it rank 3. Send the PDF file to everyone who's already on your list so they don't have to put their email in again 4. Use SumoMe's click triggers for creating call to action buttons anywhere on your site 5. Make sure your ebook is super relevant to your business, so the leads you get are the best quality Have you had success with ebook launches in the past? Let's chat in the comments. A useful follow-up on marketing is SaaS Email Marketing Tactics: How 281 Companies Automatically Nurture Leads.

How to Build Efficient Processes for Your Remote Team

Working remotely is a skill. People often don’t realize this. Working remotely is something you learn to do and you get better at with time. As a manager, you have to recognize this as much as anyone on your team. You have to recognize this because you have to take responsibility for your team members’ ability to deliver. That’s why I’m writing this article to give you an insight into some of the processes we use to keep our team’s productivity high while working remotely, and to give you some idea of how we constructed these processes. We’ll look at: - How to build a process without bringing in consultants - Tools you can use to improve remote working - How to optimize these processes over time ## How to build a process without bringing in consultants The first step to running any remote organization well is to create processes. The thing is, you probably already have a stack of processes you use day to day whether your team realizes it or not. The next step here would be to document these processes using a Standard Operating Procedure software. As such, the first thing we need to do is identify one activity central to your team’s activities so that we can begin to look at the method of improving the team’s performance. To make this easy, we’ll take an example process that I would use within my team as a writer - the content creation process. This process already exists. Let’s say it happens in the following way: 1. An article is assigned 2. Keyword research is undertaken 3. I do research for the article 4. I write the article 5. The article is formatted 6. The article is approved and published Super simple, no? What we have above is the most basic iteration of a documented process. Once we have this, we can start analyzing its constituent parts; adding detail or assigning roles where necessary. How is the article assigned? Does an editor send an email? Does the writer propose the article and have the idea accepted or rejected? These are the little questions that need to be asked of that basic documented process. Eventually, we’ll start to see that there are multiple smaller processes within this workflow. The process of researching for keywords could be considered a standalone process. The process of formatting an article could be too. You can see two basic version of these processes here: - Keyword research process - Blog prepublish process You don’t need to go into this level of detail at the beginning. Start by doing what you normally do and document each step of it. Every action you take, note it down. This will give you a clear linear flow of how your team operates on a daily basis. From here, you can present this process to your team and collaboratively improve it. Some team members might have tools they use to improve steps: e.g. Use an extension like Grammarly to be continually checking spelling and grammar, saving time in the proofreading. Your team are the ones who will be using this process regularly so they need to be the ones most comfortable with it. When your process is fully documented, make sure your team use it each time they undertake that activity. Over time, this will highlight any obvious mistakes in the process and naturally result in proposed improvements. In the meantime, we want to find ways to improve these remote processes. Which brings us to the tools which help remote teams thrive.... ## Tools you can use to improve remote working I’ll give you our 4 key tools to help a remote team get more done. I’m of the school where I believe less is more. Every interruption during a task is a potential moment for lost productivity. As such, if you keep your team working from the smallest number of platforms, you’ll see less moments of distraction. My 4 recommended tools: 1. Slack 2. Process Street 3. Airtable 4. Trello ### Slack keeps your team connected I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I hate email. I blame it on having done sales in the past. A few quick reasons: Email just isn’t fun to use. It feels formal and stale. Even the best organized inbox will distract you with unimportant mail. It’s terrible for multiple people to communicate through together. I don’t like using it on mobile. All of those problems, conveniently, are items where Slack does well. Provided you learn to use asynchronous communication techniques, a remote team using Slack can be really well connected. Slack’s instant message approach with both individual messaging and team channels creates a really well streamlined way of keeping up to date with each other, and other teams. We have a rule where all communication must exist in public channels. This fosters a stronger sense of company culture, and means that you learn from reading other people’s conversations. The knowledge spillover which results from public channels is a resource and you should be using it. Keeping communication strong across your team will make sure productivity doesn’t take a hit. No one likes mass emails, but a post in a public channel feels less intrusive. ### Process Street lets you track your processes Process Street lets you build your processes in template form and then run each process as a checklist whenever it needs to be done. As a manager, you can see these checklists and monitor the progress. It also means that when the template for the process is updated as part of your never ending attempts at optimization, all employees will now be working from the updated process. This simply allows you to standardize company activities and iteratively improve them. For example, you can use Process Street as your onboarding software to manage a new hire's onboarding process. You can centralize everything they need to know, like company policies and employees' calendar links, as well as provide training docs and tasks all from one place. What’s not to like? When you’re part of a remote team you need to make sure everyone is doing each task properly. The best way to do so is to Stick To The Process. ### Airtable is your database in the cloud We’ve moved a huge amount of our activity to Airtable over the last year. Airtable is primarily a cloud based database set up which allows you to view your data in a spreadsheet form. Much faster than Google Sheets much more comprehensive, Airtable lets non-techies manage data like they’d just done a course in MySQL. It’s a great place to store information and we first started using it to archive and track all of our output - articles and the like. However, in 2017, Airtable released a new feature which allowed line entries to be viewed as cards on a Kanban board. This along with an improving calendar feature encouraged us to switch over for our task management. The result being that all information entered into our task manager was now archived forever in our database. Very smooth and very manageable. ### Trello manages your tasks so you don’t have to Full disclosure: it is Trello which we’ve been moving away from. For us, the amount of data we had on our Trello boards made it slow and difficult to find things from the past. However, for less data-intense teams, Trello is a great option because it is intuitive and the Kanban system is a very effective means of organizing. When you’re working remotely, it is beneficial to be able to hop onto someone else’s Trello board, find the task they’re working on, and check their progress. Particularly if your work is reliant on some of their work. You don’t need to reach out to that person, you can simply enter their virtual office and see if they’ve uploaded that file you need yet. It saves you interrupting them and it saves you waiting for their response. ## How to optimize these processes over time Once your team are working from standardized documented processes, your job as the manager is to improve those processes. Utilizing tools like the ones mentioned above can improve your processes through speeding up communication or making helpful resources easier to locate. But optimizing a process requires you to pick it apart and look at different sections: 1. How well is the desired output being achieved? 2. How often does the process break down, and why? 3. How much of the process can be automated? There are whole libraries of books to help you improve your processes. You could use techniques related to the Deming cycle, like PDSA or PDCA to improve the quality of the output. Or, you could employ Six Sigma techniques to reduce the defects in the process, like DMAIC. But point three is even easier. Tools like Zapier, IFTTT, and Flow can be used to cut out some of the more time consuming menial tasks like data entry. They can also be used to set up notifications to other team members automatically when another activity is created. These third-party automation tools - of which Zapier is my personal favorite - can shave time of your processes and allow your team members to focus on the work they do best. ## Build effective processes designed for your remote team According to the McKinsey report Four Fundamentals of Workplace Automation, the typical marketing executive could save 15% of their working hours by automating simple tasks. Automation is here and it can help you. But automation will be of little use if you’re not working from set processes. Because if you’re not working from set processes, how will you know what to automate to attain best results - not just for yourself but for the whole team? With a mix of process management philosophies, cloud based modern SaaS products, and one eye on the future, you could drastically improve the performance of your remote team. Not with a whip. But by building processes which help them focus on what they do best. Related reading on processes: Why Your Remote Team Will Fall Apart Without Processes.

SaaS Email Marketing Tactics: How 281 Companies Automatically Nurture Leads

Vinay Patankar
19 Dec, 2017
Sales-and-marketing-standard-operating-procedures
Technology

_The following is a guest post from Adam Henshall, content writer at Process Street._ Email automation has become the standard approach for marketers all over the world. This summer we decided to ask how it is done best. There’s only so much you can learn from one person self-reporting their own successes, or only examining the cycles of one or two companies. We decided to go one step further. We began a research project where we examined the sales cycles of 281 top SaaS companies from AngelList to Zenefits. We published an overview of this study at the end of August and launched a micro-site (Inside SaaS Sales) along with PersistIQ where users can browse all our data and access all emails and voicemails which we received. We learned loads about how these companies structure their sales cadences; when they automate, how persistent they are, who is presented as point of contact, etc etc. In this article, I’m going to pull apart their use of automation in email marketing and dig down into the data to give a few examples of how companies do it in practice. ## How many emails do top companies send? Our analysis was of 1183 emails, so the volume was pretty high to begin with! But what do we find each company doing? Companies very rarely send one email before backing off. This kind of soft touch approach negates the purpose of running an email campaign of any sort. Yet, throughout our research, we found that some companies still take this approach. In fact, 25% of companies we studied only sent one email before backing away and leaving the customer alone. The majority clearly favor a more persistent method, but those readers who aren’t employing email automation can at least take solace in not being alone in that approach. This article is going to focus more on the 75% - the ones who make an effort to run a marketing campaign, and particularly those which choose to segments of that. The average company attempts to follow up for 9 days. Given a focus on midweek rather than weekend, this accounts for essentially 2 business weeks. Within this period, we’re looking at an average of one email a day. Companies typically send one email a day until the end of their cycle - which varies depending on the company. A business like Slack choose to hit a short sharp campaign with 3 outreach emails in quick succession. This is in keeping with the general trends across marketing drip campaigns which we found typically consists of three emails - a radically different approach to the more sales-oriented measures, particularly those utilizing a high touch sales method. We’ll look a little closer at Slack’s approach later on in the article. ## Should I be automating my email marketing? Automation has quickly become the hot game in town, but not every company is joining in just yet. We found that 65% of companies hand you over to an automated marketing campaign. This still leaves a number of companies without an automated approach, but it is clear that the movement is toward greater use of automation potential. It is important to note, however, that automation and non-automation are not mutually exclusive. In fact, we found that 53% of the emails we received were from automated campaigns rather than sales people, but often these would both come from the same company. If we take the example of Salesforce, we find that the automated emails are sent out and then followed up on by a real salesperson. If you look at this automated email below, you will see a clear attempt to provide generic value: Whereas, if you contrast that with this email afterwards, you’ll see a much more personal attempt at outreach from a dedicated sales person: This demonstrates the importance of remembering to keep a human touch where it is appropriate to your business. It isn’t necessary to automate every step. For a service like Salesforce which can charge its customers reasonably high amounts of money, it is clearly of value to them to build automated emails while also leveraging the personal attention given by a salesperson. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Use automation wisely. ## What email marketing providers are companies using? When companies did use marketing automation, they weren’t building it all from scratch themselves. Like you would, they searched the market to find existing tools they could use to improve their automated workflows to deliver value to their customers. What I found marginally surprising was that these companies tended to use the same tools that we all use, rather than some gold plated premium service. In order, the marketing automation services used by the companies studied were: 1. MailChimp - 48.82% 2. Marketo - 21.16% 3. HubSpot - 18.74% 4. Other - 5.33% 5. Eloqua - 3.77% 6. Tout - 3.26% 7. Sidekick - 3.26% 8. Pardot - 3.26% 9. Marketing Clout - 3.23% 10. Sable _and_ Sendgrid - 2.17% As we can see, MailChimp dominate the list by some distance, seeing off both Marketo and HubSpot despite the two putting up a good fight. This is a resounding success for MailChimp and suggests that they’re a good option for small businesses who want to get started with marketing automation. I know from experience that the system is intuitive, so maybe it’s a good place to start. ## What tone of communication is most common? Running an email campaign is so much more than just lining up a workflow and clicking send. Like any other aspect of your product, you need to consider how it is structured, who it is aimed at, and what its purpose is. If we look again at the Salesforce example given above, we can learn a few small things from a tonal perspective. The automated email is personal and opens with a clear statement of Salesforce’s value, followed by a straight question directed at the reader. This keeps the email feeling personal despite the automation, and the statements are general enough to apply to anyone with as much as a passing interest in Salesforce and their service. Salesforce focuses on using clear and easy to understand language with a gentle sprinkling of statistics to help drive the value home. Across the board there was a trend toward clarity and an avoidance of overly technical jargon or typical sales-speak. One interesting thing we discovered in our study came from looking at whose name was attached to the emails. The Salesforce example has a generic team for the marketing email and “Strategic Accounts” for the more personal sales email. But that isn’t always the trend. We found, first and foremost, that sales campaigns through email tended to have two potential points of contact. One of those contacts often had “Sales” in their title, and these were likely the first to reach out. The use of higher positions was interesting, with CEO or Co-Founder being used to give the email more gravitas. I’m personally not sure how well this tactic works as it strikes me as possibly dishonest, but I’m sure some CEOs are hands on with their approach to certain emails - just I’m not sure why the CEO is taking the time out to email me personally… ## What is the purpose behind each email? A further consideration when looking at the content of the emails is the purpose of an email. Ignoring “verify your email” and other miscellaneous items, the purpose of an email was typically split into one of these three categories: - Encouraging you to use it more. - Upselling you to a premium service. - Describing technical capabilities. We’ve already seen examples of the last two from Salesforce. Describing technical capabilities was left to automation, while upselling was given to a real salesperson. My favorite example of the first approach comes from Slack: And a second, but this time with pizzazz: The emails are both short and sweet with a clear purpose. Slack have enough faith in their product that they know the most important first step of their customer journey is to get teams onboarded and using it. As such, this is their focus. Their sole focus. If you contrast this with a company like Epicor, who provide niche industrial services at high rates, you find Slack can stick to a few small emails rather than the high touch email and voicemail sales approach. ## Use an email marketing approach suited to your business So, there you have it. We’ve looked at how many emails you should send, when you should automate them, what provider you can use, what tone to employ, and what purpose you should put behind your email. But the key point is this: choose an email marketing strategy suited to your business’ needs. If you have a small number of very high value clients, don’t operate like Slack. Tailor your emails to your audience and your business objectives. With a little iteration and effort, you’ll have a campaign flourishing in no time! One more post that complements this topic is Ebook Marketing: How to Generate 1,000 Leads Overnight, especially around marketing.

How Your Marketers Can Improve Customer Service

Vinay Patankar
21 Nov, 2017
Support

_The following is a guest post by Ben Mulholland, a content marketer at Process Street._ I used to hate being put on customer support duty. I’m a marketer, not a support technician, and that Intercom notification noise has practically given me PTSD by now. Then I realized the benefits being on support had given me. Other than mixing up my daily tasks (which I’ve found can help me be more productive) it: - Forced me to learn our product inside-out - Brought me closer to my audience - Showed me what my audience wanted/needed to know - Kept me up-to-date with our product releases (features, bug fixes, etc) - Taught me more about our SaaS stack Rather than waffle on about every little thing support has taught me, let’s stick to those four points and expand them. Here we go. ### Support duty makes them learn your product inside-out Before being assigned to support duty, I had a basic understanding of what our product was, how you could use it, and what problems it could solve. After one week on Intercom chatting with customers, there was practically nothing I didn’t know about the product. This is a vital advantage of marketers who have taken support duties - they’re ultimately more aware of the benefits and limitations of your product, and so they know better how to position their marketing efforts. For example, without support duties I wouldn’t have known about the various use cases for our API, and by answering questions on the topic I inherently drilled the solutions into my own head. So, when I switched back to marketing I knew more of what our product could do, and therefore how to more easily tie it into topics such as integrating SaaS apps. Not only that, but I also knew what you _can’t_ do with our API, meaning that nothing in our marketing made false promises as a result of incorrect assumptions. ### It brings them closer to their audience There’s nothing like support duty to let you know what your customers really want. From the questions asked, along with Intercom stats such as the company size, what platform they’re using, and what product plan they’re on, I was able to better flesh out the personas of our target audience. This, in turn, led to us being able to better target a similar audience with relevant topics. For example, in manufacturing the most valuable feature of your product could be the ability to track the success rate of your processes. Knowing that means that we can benefit from making a point of that feature in any material which relates back to manufacturing. There’s also the element of direct communication between your marketing team and their audience. Having some of your most visible employees (eg, your blog’s authors) answer direct questions from customers is a great way to enhance the connection they have to both your content and product. Think about it - if you saw an article you liked, and then after reaching out to the support team manage to strike up a conversation with the author of that very article, there’s going to be an instant affinity to that team and author. ### Common misunderstandings become apparent Speaking of bringing your marketers and audience closer together, this also makes your team aware of the most common misunderstandings and points of confusion with your product. In turn, this means that your marketers will have a much better idea of what they should be writing about to cater to their audience. For example, let’s say that you’re an SEO SaaS startup, and your churn rate is in dire need to fixing. In your support box, ¾ of all free plan customers that leave are asking how to analyze the keywords their site currently ranks for, and what keywords they could branch off into. That’s an opportunity. If your marketers are on support duty they will automatically know that your audience needs to be told how to use your product to do this. Whether they create a single hefty blog post, a series of posts, a video, or an entire ebook on the topic, the content they create from knowing those questions will target key friction points your audience encounters, and help to ease them through their troubles. This knowledge of common/key friction points can even help to reduce churn through your marketing material, as you’ll both attract a wider audience and educate your existing customers in the same piece of content. ### They will know exactly what’s going on with the product First, a declaration - I’m not in any way saying that marketers who haven’t been on customer support duty won’t have a clue what’s going on with the product. An organized team (no matter the shared responsibilities) will keep itself in the know with little trouble. However, we still come back to the fact that the support team is closer to the product than marketing. For example, while you both may be told of updates that are coming to your platform, support will likely know of them first (through answering customer feature requests). Marketing (in my experience) is also far less likely to be notified of bug fixes when they’re pushed. Once again, this knowledge can be vital when organizing your marketing processes and content. If there’s a big upcoming update then there’s every chance you’ll have been told to produce some sort of promotional material to go along with it, but minor updates can slip under the radar instead of being tied into fresh material for the blog. For example, let’s say that your product is going to be updated to allow you to assign a group of people where previously only individuals could be placed. Knowing this, your marketing team could tie in some content which will allow them to mention how that’s possible using your app as an example. Honestly, the list goes on, but even with these four key elements, it’s easy to see why your marketing team should be taking part of your support duty roster. Yes, it takes up their time, but the knowledge gained and relationships built from doing so far outweigh the negatives. _Have any experiences of your own with mixing up your support roster? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below._ If improve is relevant to what you're working on, this is worth reading next: Improve Focus with these 12 Productivity Hacks.

What to Do if Your Remote Team's Feedback Loop Sucks

You’re working on a vital project. Jon’s just completed the edits on the ebook you’re supposed to publish tomorrow, but Mary has no idea. She’s working on an entirely different task no one knows exists. So, there you are, waiting all afternoon for Mary to give you the final approval on the ebook layout, wasting time on reddit. Her Slack’s set to away, and you can’t remember whose responsibility it is anyway, so you assume everything’s probably going to be alright. There are enough memes to keep you busy while you wait. The morning comes. Your boss is fuming. You can feel his anger through Slack. “We’re supposed to be sending this book to our email lists right now — why isn’t it ready?”. Jon thinks Mary was supposed to do it. You think it’s Jon’s fault. Mary’s gone silent. You all hate each other a little bit right now. The reason this whole mess was allowed to happen is because of a poor feedback loop. A feedback loop is the process of communication that happens around a shared task or project. If one person’s responsible for finalizing edits, they need to let the next person know their progress because the work all depends on a sequence of tasks completed in order. If you’ve ever been part of a situation like that (I know I have), then it’s because your team’s feedback loop is broken. That’s ok. It’s easily done in remote teams. In this article, I’m going to go through a few measures we take at Process Street to stop this kind of thing happening. ## The cure for no feedback loop: set expectations right now In an office, you might mention to someone on your way to the keyboard vending machine that you’ve just got done with whatever they were waiting on you for. Remotely, there aren’t too many opportunities for natural conversation. That means you should make sure your team is keeping records updated. Whether that’s commenting in Trello or another project management app, **the team needs to know that task updates go in one concrete place that everyone can see**. If you’re using Trello, comment on the card then drop a link to the card in Slack — your team’s group channel, not direct — and then whoever’s up next on the task can get the information they need and know where they should update you. This is the sort of information that should go in your employee onboarding process so there’s no chance for confusion. ## The cure for a slow feedback loop: daily standup meetings They’re not just a developer thing. A daily standup meeting gets everybody in the habit of communicating properly. It works like this; you get on a group call in the morning, and the team leader addresses each member one-by-one. They ask: - What did you get done yesterday? - What are you working on today? - What do you need help with? Standup meetings are a key part of Agile methodology, a set of project management guidelines that aims to abolish radio silence, long sessions of unchecked work and slow feedback loops. Usually, it’s used by developers but we adapt it into our marketing process because developers always get all the fun. A tool like appear.in or Google Hangouts is ideal for standup meetings because you get a fixed link for the team, and you can pop in or out at any time. Get everyone to add the link as a calendar event timed for 9am, so when the notification goes off, your team can hop onto the call and get going as quickly as possible. By putting what everyone has accomplished into context, the team knows what their next task will be and the gap between iterations will be 1 day at most. This isn’t a substitute for centralizing your updates in Trello or another project management app, but it does make damn well certain that everyone is one the same page because notifications are easy to ignore. ## The systems you need to put into place You can’t expect your whole team to become master communicators overnight. You’ll need to lay the foundations, first. At a bare minimum, you need all to be using the same shared task list that allows for comments and @mentions. On top of this, agree on a fixed chat app and a fixed video chat room for notifications and standup meetings. The chat app should have a group for your team where all team project work is discussed, so members are passively updated as work happens. Your choice of team tools will have a big impact on whether anything gets done. A fluffier, harder to grasp system you need in place is teamwork and rapport. It’s hard to grasp because there’s a difference between professional communication and being friends at work. It really helps to try and make friends, and usually contributes to a more relaxed and productive environment. The content creation team at Process Street gets on nicely. We have custom emojis. We sometimes Photoshop each other’s faces onto inanimate objects. This sort of thing helps free communication. Another thing you could try to get everybody talking is recognizing achievements in company channels. When the group chat is filled with positive messages, people want to contribute to the conversation and it feels natural to keep your team in the loop and look out for each other. Celebrating achievements also inadvertently announces progress on a project, even though its main purpose is to give a great employee the recognition they deserve. ## Final thoughts on solving feedback loop problems Not all remote teams are created equal. You’ll have members with all kinds of different experience, personalities and habits. Understanding this is important when solving communication problems, but **it’s key to remember that it’s all about encouraging the development of productive habits in your team**. Implement these guidelines, and you’ll never have to deal with awkward ‘I thought you were supposed to do it’ moments again. If you're digging into legal, you'll probably also enjoy Improve Focus with these 12 Productivity Hacks.

SEO for Freelancers: 4 Key Tips to Attract Clients on Autopilot

Vinay Patankar
24 Jul, 2017
Blogging

When you’re looking for freelancing opportunities online, you’re entering a massive competitive marketplace. Whether you're a designer, a writer, or a developer, you already have the skills — now you just need the customers. There are a lot of mistakes freelancers make, but in this post we’ll run you through a series of marketing techniques and processes to help customers find your expertise. In short, you need to understand what your customers are looking for, optimize your site, and drive people toward your product. Let’s look at how this can be done through 4 particular sections: - How to optimize keywords - How to structure pages - How to generate backlinks - How to exploit long tail keywords ## How do keywords help me? The first step you as a freelancer might take is understanding that your website is not going to be the focal point of a network the size of the New York Times. According to SimilarWeb, the New York Times had 346m visits in December 2016 and just over half a billion the month prior. I hate to break it to you, but you’re not going to beat that. The way you can break into a position of prominence and make more money is to find a relatively untapped part of the network and target that spot. You can think about what services you are offering and what your competitors are offering. Can you make yourself a little different? Can you describe yourself in different ways? Simply ranking high on Google helps your prospective clients trust you more. We at Process Street use Ahrefs as our keyword research tool, however you can also check out this video to see how you can select and optimize your keywords with Google’s Keyword Planner, or read a comparison of Moz vs. Ahrefs. The key to great keyword research is in ABC: Always Be Comparing... As part of your workflow, you want to gather as many potential keywords relevant to your business as possible. Hundreds. Then you want to use one of the above tools to provide you with as much data as possible on all these different terms. If you need some assistance in coming up with all these keywords, you can use Google’s search suggestions, synonyms from Thesaurus.com, or other keyword finders like keywordtool.io or KeywordShitter. When you have all your keywords and their data, you need to know how to analyze them. Our rule of thumb is to filter by volume and then pull out all the keywords which seem to have low keyword difficulty scores. This data shows you where the weak points in the existing networks are. Your keywords are the tools you will use to exploit them. - Find keywords with high volume and low keyword difficulty to target. - Use Ahrefs or Google Keyword Explorer to gather this data. - Follow a clear keyword research process to get best results every time. ## What’s involved in optimizing my website? According to the Freelancing in America 2016 study from the _Freelancer Union_, there are 55 million freelancers operating in the United States alone. And these freelancers are doing well; according to the same study, freelancers contributed $1 trillion to the US economy in 2016. What does this tell us? Well, lots of things. But one of them is that there are lots of competitors’ websites out there, so you better have a really good one! However, it’s not all about having the prettiest website on the internet. You want to build that strong point in your network, but your best tool for that isn’t HTML5 - and it’s not just keywords either… A 2016 report from Ahrefs showed that the power of keywords alone has been reduced by Google’s algorithm changes. Using optimized keywords is still a vitally important part of improving your on-page SEO, but other factors in how you structure your content and site play a large part. According to Ahrefs, you should: - Ensure that the load time of your pages is minimal, - That you have entered meta tags for your title and description within your tags, - That your content is broken up clearly into sections with and tags, - That these subtitles target your keyword or its related keywords, - That you’re updating your pages and adding new content, - and, that you’re using https on your domain to provide visitors with security. However, most of all, the #1 factor, the decider of who ranks on Google… the mighty backlink. ## How can I generate backlinks? The holistic answer to tackling not just backlinks, but the other factors mentioned above, is to introduce a content marketing strategy. If you’re regularly putting out blog posts which are relevant to the niche in the market you’re angling for, then you’ll start to build your reputation. You’ll be creating new web pages regularly and structuring those pages so that Google can read them easily and see your value. Moreover, if you’re producing quality content then you’re able to easily generate backlinks. The first step is to properly promote your content. This way, you’ll already have links back to your domain from social networks and content aggregators. In doing so, you’ll drive traffic and those visitors may even pass the link on. At this point, you’ve built your reputation in two ways: in the eyes of Google and in the eyes of your audience. To build on this, you can start guest posting and have others guest post on your blog. If you have a reputable blog, others will want to take advantage of that and publish their work on your site. This gives you more content and also results in the original author promoting content attached to your domain. Win win! Before you know it, you’ll be guest posting on other blogs and driving even more backlinks your way. - Begin a content marketing campaign. - Write content for your blog and promote it across the internet. - Write content for other people’s blogs and link back to yours. - Have others write content for your blog and promote it. - Link to your previous work in future blog posts on your site and on others. ## How can I target specific customer searches? Now that you’ve got a comprehensive list of the different keywords you want to be able to target, you can begin to structure your website to better address those needs. The first thing to remember is that your favored keywords only enter you into a particular category. If you know exactly what your target customers are googling, you can construct “long tail keywords”. These are different long phrases which you will want to use across all of your content. However, a great way to begin to exploit them is to construct specialized landing pages specifically targeted at reaching those terms. This gives you a specific representation of your product or service which you might want to send someone to from an article or email campaign. Practically, for SEO purposes, this gives a specific facade to your company which is engineered for certain oft-googled phrases. You can use a service like LeadPages.net to create multiple landing pages and optimize the pages through A/B testing. With the ability to make a large number of landing pages comes the ability to target your company in different ways all at the same time. These landing pages can focus on specific long tail keywords, specific geographical areas, and different segments of the market - budget, mid-range, premium. Each of these sites is more likely to show up in Google for their specific niche than an all purpose home page. - Use a tool like LeadPages.net to make multiple landing pages. - Focus each landing page on a different niche service by targeting long tail keywords. ## Implement these SEO techniques today! Through these tips and following a content marketing strategy, you’ll drive up your traffic and rocket your SEO in the process. You’ll be a freelance superstar in no time. A single website on the internet is often described as being a needle in a haystack. But that’s not the case. This needle can choose where in the haystack they want to be located. Put yourself on the outside of the haystack at head height and your odds of being found are significantly higher. Particularly, when you realize how many people are staring at that haystack looking for you! A useful follow-up on blogging is How to Generate an Infinite Supply of Ideas for Your Blog.

How to Generate an Infinite Supply of Ideas for Your Blog

Vinay Patankar
04 Jun, 2017
Blogging

Writer’s block is a terrible thing. You know that you need new content to fill up your calendar and keep your audience engaged, but you can sit at your desk for hours, resulting in nothing but tearing your own hair out in frustration. The good news is that even the best writers get writer’s block. The bad news is that you’ll never solve it by forcing the issue - it’s the equivalent to repeatedly slamming your head against a brick wall instead of just using the door. After hitting that wall many times, I decided to do something about it, resulting in the following system that I (and the rest of my team) now use to generate great ideas for content month-in-month-out. # First, understand your enemy Writer’s block is caused by one (or both) of the following: - Lack of inspiration (your mental cup is empty) - Outside sources (stress from physical illness, bereavement, the end of a relationship, etc) Outside sources are largely beyond your control, and so shouldn’t be worried about too much. Not only that, but it’s also the lesser of our two factors - even a calm mind will struggle to generate ideas if there’s nothing to draw from. So the problem we’re left with is one of resources. Think of your mind as a furnace, with knowledge as coal and ideas as your flame. With nothing to fuel your fire it will (at best) produce mediocre results, but with a stockpile of knowledge you can fan the flames and produce something truly spectacular. Still, if lack of knowledge is the issue then how the hell do you go about it? There’s almost so many ways that it’s difficult to start, and all seemingly use up valuable time which you just don’t have in your 9-5 life. Don’t worry - I was in the same situation, and I’ll tell you exactly what worked (and still works) for me. # Listen to podcasts By far the easiest way to top up your mind while keeping your current schedule is to listen to business podcasts when you’re otherwise stuck with naught but dead air. For example, all of the following are great opportunities to fit in an episode or two of a podcast without spending any extra time to do so: - While exercising (daily workouts are also brilliant for productivity in general) - During the daily commute (be careful if driving while listening) - Toilet breaks - While cooking - When traveling (airport queues? That’s a good 3 podcast episodes right there) Essentially, any time where you’re not listening to anything or require a lot of focus on other tasks (such as researching/writing a blog post) you can make more productive by listening to podcasts. I honestly can’t count the number of ideas I’ve gained from just listening to an episode while walking around the shops every couple of days! As for recommendations of which podcasts to listen to, that would depend on your purpose, type of content, and niche. However, these are a good place to start: - ProBlogger (Darren’s 31 day challenge is awesome for new and experienced bloggers alike) - Business Systems Explored (a deep dive into the systems you can use to improve your business) - The Productivity Show (an all-around great resources for tips on how to be more productive) - Almost any high-quality marketing podcast # Use an RSS feed So, you’re taking in information through podcasts - that’s great, but it’s not enough. You need to be keeping up to date in your niche in order to know which ideas are best to follow up on sooner rather than later. This is where your RSS feed comes in. If you’re anything like me, then you’ve probably subscribed to a next-to-uncountable number of blogs’ email list in an attempt to keep up to date. The problem with this is that people (myself included) are sooner or later going to slip up, especially if a distraction is available. A distraction such as, I don’t know, the rest of your inbox? RSS feeds, meanwhile, collect all of the posts published by the blogs you subscribe to and put them all in one place, ready for you to blast through whenever you have the time. My team, for example, tends to check their feeds in the mornings and evenings, noting down their ideas as they go. There are obviously many ways of setting up / tracking your RSS feed, but as Drew Hendricks recently pointed out, Feedly is an incredible app for doing just that. By attaching your RSS feed to a mobile app, showing stats such as the number of upvotes / shares, highlighting the most popular posts, and generally making it easy to read several posts in rapid succession, Feedly is our app of choice. # Record ideas ASAP The amount of ideas you generate is completely irrelevant if you have no way of recording them when inspiration strike. I can tell you from experience that unless you record your ideas _as soon as possible_ you’ll forget them, and if you forget them they will very rarely surface again. So, how do you make it easy for yourself to jot down ideas the moment that magic lightning hits? Well, there are a couple of ways: - Use a note taking app on mobile - Integrate apps to automatically create notes - Record everything in an easily navigated location For note-taking apps you can use pretty much anything, but I’d recommend either Evernote or Do Note (by IFTTT). Evernote is a strong contender from how easy it is to create a note, and the flexibility in terms of integrating with other apps, but Do Note is the ultimate in simplicity. Integrating your apps essentially means that any notes you make will be detected, categorized, then pushed automatically into another program. This pairs up nicely with recording your ideas in an app like Trello or Airtable. For example, you could use Zapier to integrate Evernote with Trello. Then, when a new note is created in Evernote with the tag “idea”, Zapier could be told to push a link to that note into a new Trello card in your “Ideas” column. It may sound like a massive undertaking, but everything I’ve talked about in this post can be achieved in your “dead time” - I’ve even found that having a podcast episode at the beginning and end of work is a great way to firmly stamp out your work/life balance, and ease into each side as needed. _How do you generate your own ideas? Have you tried anything I’ve talked about? I’d love to hear from your in the comments below!_ A useful follow-up on blogging is SEO for Freelancers: 4 Key Tips to Attract Clients on Autopilot.

How we Rebranded our Company in 3 Months

This post was written by Benjamin Brandall and originally appeared on the Process Street blog and is the story of how Cameron and I rebranded our startup Process Street. In the lifecycle of every startup, there comes a tipping point. For companies focused on aesthetics and creating something beautiful, there's a time where the founders need to shift towards their product — look inward and think deeply about the problems it solves, who's it for and how to refine user experience. For product-focused startups like Process Street, a necessary early shift is _towards design_. Just look at Apple — that's a company which thrives on making quality design and usability available on the mass market. ### Apple 2016: Would their product be as influential if their website still looked like this? ### Apple 1999: The simple answer is no because **the brand evolves with the product**. This is article tells the story of how Process Street rebranded itself. We've included lots of useful resources and tools to help you along the way if you're thinking of doing the same doing the same. Let's go! ## It started with a product, not a logo or a brand Our CEO, Vinay Patankar, had the idea to build Process Street from his own frustrations with workflow management software. While running a global team he found that there wasn't software out there which would let managers write process documents, create checklists, assign their team and track activity easily. While touring the world after leaving Australia in search of the entrepreneurial dream-come-true, he met Cameron McKay. Cameron is our CTO, a computer science graduate who built Process Street from the ground up and, alongside Vinay, took the company from idea to AngelPad in less than a year. Here they are in Argentina, where they met and started building Process Street. In this picture from 2014, you'll notice the logo isn't the same as it is now. And what's with those blues? The thing is, at the dawn of Process Street, branding and design were the last things on their minds. Based on past failures, Vinay knew the most important thing is to get a usable product together as soon as possible. Focusing on other areas before you've got something that can be sold or funded is a way to burn money, not make it. Here's what Process Street used to look like when it was a Bootstrap WordPress theme: While it's good enough for a first pass, there were some inherent problems with it. The most serious being that the light blue chosen for the main brand color didn't work inside the app. As user experience improved and the app became more visual, the light blue contrasted badly with the rest of the design. For the favicon, the P and S were condensed into a square — a pretty clunky and unmemorable way to do it, but the founders simply weren't designers. ## December 2014: Major app overhaul, minor site adjustments After graduating from AngelPad, Process Street had the time and money it needed to start redesigning the product to increase user retention. As for the marketing site, the changes were minor. We added a full-width product image above the fold, a more 'contrasty' blue (I'm also not a designer...) and a cleaner design. The logo stayed the same. While a great product can make up for bad presentation, great design doesn't fix a crap product. To stay hyper-focused on UX and building features, Cameron rebuilt the site in a day or two before returning to codeland. While Slack has its IRC hashtag, Trello has a board with lists, and Intercom has its... smiling microphone, Process Street had just a block with letters. Our latest redesign came when we decided to get rid of our logo and make something more recognizable. Here's how that happened... ## A logo idea came in the middle of the night I was talking to Vinay about where he got the idea to change the logo, and he said it just sort of... came to him while he was on his laptop in the middle of the night. This is the image which sparked it all off: It's the logo for Designmodo's Flat UI Pro, so we weren't going to use that, but Vinay wanted to go with a flat diamond for a few reasons: 1. Diamonds are the symbols for a decision in a flow chart. This is something integral to the app. 2. Diamonds are a sign of quality. Process Street is a quality product _and_ helps with quality control because it ensures teams execute tasks by following a procedure. 3. The app and landing page is designed flat. The logo had to fit in with it. So, we cashed in our $100 discount from Tim Ferriss' promo code ("Tim") and headed over to 99Designs to post a competition! Here's the brief: **Create a new logo \[Modern/Flat/Fun\] for business software startup @ProcessStreet** We got some fantastic entries! We narrowed the pool of over 200 designs down to just 6, shown below: While none of them were spot on, they provided the ideal basis for a concept we could present to a designer. ## Working with Koombea design agency One of our investors, Jonathan Tarud, invested a combination of cash and service credit for his design agency, Koombea. They assigned us a brilliant lead designer, Mario Rocchi who took our logo, started creating iterations and uploading them to Basecamp. And, as you can probably see from looking anywhere on our website, we chose this one! Tada! 🎉 The logo formed the entire basis for the next step — a complete overhaul of our marketing site. ## From logo to landing page Deciding on a logo was important because it gave us two solid elements we knew would be included in the rest of the site — the blue, and the font (Cabin). We presented Mario with an overwhelming selection of sites we loved and wrote down what we loved about them. Keeping all of this in Basecamp gave us a place to have a group discussion while pinning everything in place. We added Mario to our Slack team as a single-channel guest and integrated the channel with Basecamp, so every time activity happened there, it would post a message in the channel. Here's a selection of sites we loved which inspired Process Street's design: ### x.ai We loved x.ai's super-minimalist landing page and the amount of whitespace. ### Freckle We loved the immediacy of the product and the fun color scheme Freckle use. ### Trello We loved Trello's use of icons, the large, easily readable font, and their bold, cartoonish colors. ## Prototyping the landing page in InVision Mario came back to us with _loads_ of possibilities based on these recommendations. Here's a few we had a tough time deciding between. Eventually, as you'll see if you check our landing page, we settled for the top right option and then worked with Mario as he perfected in InVision. InVision lets designers work with clients and present them with interactive prototypes. Clients can comment on elements, then designers can make iterations and resolve the comments. It worked so well for us, we'd highly recommend InVision for anyone working with a designer. Finally, we decided that blue can get a bit too blue sometimes. Enter Process Street Teal and Process Street Red — incidentally two of my most favorite colors in the world. Check it out on our pricing page! ## We had 100 glyph icons designed See that little paintbrush icon in the header image? Mario designed that. Thanks to Koombea, we have more than 100 new glyph icons to use in header images, demo videos, landing pages and product demonstrations. Since he gave us the Sketch files, they're easy to manipulate even by us non-design folk. ## We blew our whole budget on design Process Street employs 5 full-time technical employees but 0 designers. We didn't need Koombea to implement the site, just design it. From there, Cameron got it up and running quickly. It would have been silly to ask Koombea to spend time on that -- instead, we spent everything on their design services. This meant we got graphics for social media, header image templates and graphics for features that hadn't even been released yet. Forward thinking, eh? We updated our AngelPad profile, Google Apps Marketplace, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Here's our shiny new Facebook profile: And some future feature graphics (as a sneaky way of telling you to hold on for all this good stuff): Woo. Looking smooth. And as for the blog header image graphics — Koombea cut about an hour a day from my workload with those little beauties, and I must say, they look fantastic. :) Check out the final designs in action: Homepage - Product page - Featured templates - Colors applied in the app - I hope this has given you some insight into our redesign, and shown you the steps we went through so you can take the ideas and apply them to your own company rebranding. What do you think of the design? Let us know in the comments! One more post that complements this topic is Startup Idea: Evernote for Spreadsheets, especially around business.

A Look at The SaaS Stack in Our Tech Startup

What keeps an innovative startup ticking over? At Process Street, we’re a huge fan of using the software other SaaS startups put out there in conjunction with the ever-dependable big names. Here are the 18 SaaS products we use at Process Street, and why we think they’re the best options out there. ## **Analytics: Mixpanel, Google Analytics & Jetpack** For analytics, we use 3 different products for slightly different purposes. Mixpanel is for in-app analytics. We use it to track trends, user engagement and sign-ups, getting an overall picture and week-by-week comparisons and helping us reduce churn by noticing patterns. Google Analytics is our go-to source for tracking conversions and referral traffic. This means we can measure the effectiveness of the content and the promotion separately. Jetpack is a WordPress plugin that simply tracks the views on pages. The only time we use it is to get a current view of page traffic since Google Analytics can take 24 hours to update, but Jetpack does it instantly. ## **Project Management: Trello & Basecamp** Trello is used by marketing, development, growth and support teams as the main home for tasks, attachments and status updates. During the employee onboarding process, we add new hires to the team boards and make a personal board for them which contains their first round of tasks and helps them get into the habit of using Trello. Basecamp is the tool of choice when collaborating with designers. When we had our site redesigned by Koombea, Basecamp was the ideal tool to neatly store resources and collaborate over designs until the iterations were moved into InVision to be prototyped. ## **Personal Productivity: WorkFlowy & Evernote** WorkFlowy — a tool for taking quick notes — is the best way we’ve found to make both simple notes and complex plans. Project proposals and plans go into WorkFlowy, where it’s easy to structure complex ideas because of the way the app’s designed: Evernote is where we keep everything from rough notes and screenshots to entire blog posts. With its Zapier integration, it also turns into a way to add text to any other app just by tagging the note. TaskPaper is a fancy text editor disguised as a to-do list app. Anyone who has kept their to-do items in a TextEdit file will like the added functionality, including tags, smart search syntax and projects. Other popular choices include Any.Do, Wunderlist and Todoist. 1Password is a password manager that keeps every password you use safely encrypted in a vault protected by a master password. It lives up to its name because one password is all you have to remember. While Chrome’s ‘remember this password’ feature is good enough, 1Password is usable cross-browser, OS and device. ## **External Communication: Intercom & Close.io** Intercom is our favorite customer support tool. All of our support conversations and in-app messages to users goes through Intercom. It’s easy to keep up with the tickets, loop in other departments and get notified when high-ticket customers reach out. Close.io is an awesome CRM. It’s built around search, meaning that you can create complex search queries and narrow down lists of hundreds of thousands to exactly what you’re looking for. We use it for sales and marketing outreach, as well as managing all content communications. ## **Internal Communication: Slack & Appear.in** While Trello is great for storing and organizing tasks, Slack is our main tool for internal communication. Its IRC-like interface makes it easy to chat with groups and individuals. Plus, the integrations with Slack, Intercom and the other tools we use. Appear.in is a permanent video chat room, which means you sign up and get a fixed URL your team can pop in and out of at any time. It’s much better for us than Skype, because you don’t need accounts or to initiate/end video calls at all. ## **Workflow Management: Process Street** Process Street is, of course, the tool we use for workflow automation, business process management, employee onboarding and content promotion. We break projects down into processes and assign these processes to teams and individuals. As they progress with the project and automate their workflows, we can easily get an overview by just looking at the Process Street dashboard. ## **Email Marketing: MailChimp** MailChimp is the home for all of our automated and one-off email campaigns. Every blog post email and product update goes through MailChimp, where we can track opens, clicks and trends. For me as a content creator, opens and clicks are a great signal that a topic has resonated with our readership. Since these readers came into our product and read our content, there are parallels across a few topics, like productivity and processes. ## **Content Promotion: Mention & Buffer** Mention scours the internet for brand mentions and backlinks, which means that when we’re linked to we get a notification and can then promote the post, both as a ‘thank you’ to the author and to maximize the exposure of a piece we’re being featured in. When we’re linked or mentioned, we then add the post to Buffer. Buffer lets you tweet the same link across multiple accounts (we have 12 linked up in there) in one click, and queues the posts up so they go out at the best time for your audience to see them. Content Writing: Google Docs & WordPress The Process Street blog is built on the perfect blog builder, WordPress. WordPress is ideal for drafting in a visual editor with a preview — much better than working with pure HTML. For guest posts, or collaborative work, we use Google Docs. In-line comments and suggestions make it great for working with writers as an editor. When you’re done you can copy a shareable link and forward it to the target publication for review. I haven’t found an easier way to collaborate and share articles. Alternote is an Evernote plugin that makes it bearable for content writing. Since I like to have all of my resources nearby, I can create a unique tag for each blog post, then use the Web Clipper to save sources with that tag. Here’s an example: Data Management: Airtable There’s probably over 100,000 records in our Airtable database. Everything from keywords to contacts lives there, and that makes it easy for us to reference and link together everything related to Process Street. We moved to Airtable after the frustration of managing data with Google Sheets set in. Spreadsheets littered between accounts, with random titles and dodgy permissions were making for a terrible data management experience. With Airtable — especially when you link it up to Zapier — you’ve got a far more efficient user experience. SEO: Ahrefs, Moz & SEO Spider Ahrefs an SEO powerhouse. You can use it to research keywords, monitor backlinks, and, what we love most about it — track every keyword a URL is ranking for. When we’re running campaigns to rank specific keywords, like we did with employee onboarding, Ahrefs provides the single best status update on that project within a few seconds of checking. Moz is a tool we only use for bulk keyword difficulty checks because Ahrefs is the better tool for us. In addition to keyword difficulty, I personally have Mozbar installed for Chrome which lets me quickly check Domain Authority (a rough guide as to how much weight a backlink holds from that domain). SEO Spider crawls URLs and looks for broken domains. Even with a free account, you can get 500 results from just pasting a domain in. You get to see how many 4xx errors are on that domain, and which links are broken. Then, you can start doing broken link building (as detailed in our marketing processes guide). File Management: Google Drive Google Drive is where I keep my Google Docs, graphic assets like SVGs, and upload any large file to share with my team. Its Trello integration means you can attach any file that’s already inside Drive, saving you from uploading it in multiple places. To see why we use Google Drive instead of Dropbox, check this comparison. App Integrations: Zapier Zapier connects every app I’ve listed here together. Impressive, right? Every app linked together means you can transfer data between them and automate a ton of boring work. For us, it’s a better version of IFTTT because it has more features. Here are some of my favorite examples, featuring apps like Evernote and OneNote: Copy Evernote Notes to OneNote Post Trello Activity to Slack Send a Slack Message for Checked-off Process Street Tasks Development: JIRA JIRA is the home of our planned features, user stories and dastardly bugs. Developers can add, track, prioritize and assign issues to their team, then feed that information to a live Slack channel. For example, whenever a new feature is pushed to the live server, a Slack channel gets updated with the feature’s new information and we can do a short write-up to announce it and test the feature to hunt bugs. When we’re linked or mentioned, we then add the post to Buffer. Buffer lets you tweet the same link across multiple accounts (we have 12 linked up in there) in one click, and queues the posts up so they go out at the best time for your audience to see them. ## **Content Writing: Google Docs & WordPress** The Process Street blog is built on the perfect blog builder, WordPress. WordPress is ideal for drafting in a visual editor with a preview — much better than working with pure HTML. For guest posts, or collaborative work, we use Google Docs. In-line comments and suggestions make it great for working with writers as an editor. When you’re done you can copy a sharable link and forward it to the target publication for review. I haven’t found an easier way to collaborate and share articles. Alternote is an Evernote plugin that makes it bearable for content writing. Since I like to have all of my resources nearby, I can create a unique tag for each blog post, then use the Web Clipper to save sources with that tag. Here’s an example: ## **Data Management: Airtable** There’s probably over 100,000 records in our Airtable database. Everything from keywords to contacts lives there, and that makes it easy for us to reference and link together everything related to Process Street. We moved to Airtable after the frustration of managing data with Google Sheets set in. Spreadsheets littered between accounts, with random titles and dodgy permissions were making for a terrible data management experience. With Airtable — especially when you link it up to Zapier — you’ve got a far more efficient user experience. ## **SEO: Ahrefs, Moz & SEO Spider** Ahrefs an SEO powerhouse. You can use it to research keywords, monitor backlinks, and, what we love most about it — track every keyword a URL is ranking for. When we’re running campaigns to rank specific keywords, like we did with employee onboarding, Ahrefs provides the single best status update on that project within a few seconds of checking. Moz is a tool we only use for bulk keyword difficulty checks because Ahrefs is the better tool for us. In addition to keyword difficulty, I personally have Mozbar installed for Chrome which lets me quickly check Domain Authority (a rough guide as to how much weight a backlink holds from that domain). SEO Spider crawls URLs and looks for broken domains. Even with a free account, you can get 500 results from just pasting a domain in. You get to see how many 4xx errors are on that domain, and which links are broken. Then, you can start doing broken link building (as detailed in our marketing processes guide). ## **File Management: Google Drive** Google Drive is where I keep my Google Docs, graphic assets like SVGs, and upload any large file to share with my team. Its Trello integration means you can attach any file that’s already inside Drive, saving you from uploading it in multiple places. To see why we use Google Drive instead of Dropbox, check this comparison. ## **App Integrations: Zapier** Zapier connects every app I’ve listed here together. Impressive, right? Every app linked together means you can transfer data between them and automate a ton of boring work. For us, it’s a better version of IFTTT because it has more features. Here are some of my favorite examples, featuring apps like Evernote and OneNote: - Copy Evernote Notes to OneNote - Post Trello Activity to Slack - Send a Slack Message for Checked-off Process Street Tasks ## **Development: JIRA** JIRA is the home of our planned features, user stories, and dastardly bugs. Developers can add, track, prioritize and assign issues to their team, then feed that information to a live Slack channel. For example, whenever a new feature is pushed to the live server, a Slack channel gets updated with the feature’s new information and we can do a short write-up to announce it and test the feature to hunt bugs. You can compare this approach with Looking for a Co-Founder for New Startup - UI/UX for more on startup.

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Thoughts on building startups, scaling businesses, productivity, travel, and living intentionally.

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