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darlingnisi · 3 years

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Paisley Park Job Alert : Social Media Coordinator

Purple Tumblr/Twitter/Instagram fam! YOU WERE MADE FOR THIS ROLE!

Qualifications

Bachelor's (Preferred)

Social Media Management: 4 years (Preferred)

Marketing: 1 year (Preferred)

Full Job Description

This position is non-remote and located in Chanhassen, MN, a suburb of Minneapolis.

Paisley Park seeks a Social Media Coordinator to collaborate on digital content creation and oversee day-to-day social media activity for Paisley Park and other Prince-affiliated social media channels.

Reporting to the Senior Marketing Manager, the Social Media Coordinator works across digital and social platforms to thoughtfully and creatively further the Prince legacy, bringing Paisley Park’s brand to a massive global audience.

RESPONSIBILITIES & EXPERIENCE

Planning & Assessment

Collaborate with Paisley Park marketing and agency teams to prepare social media plans for Paisley Park tours, programs, and initiatives.

Maintain content calendars for all Paisley Park social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, and any future platforms), and coordinate content for other Prince-affiliated social networks.

Measure content effectiveness (both paid and organic) and track against goals, implementing improvements as needed.

Content Development and Posting

Develop and publish compelling customized social media content for Paisley Park including shooting video, writing, editing, and posting for distribution across each channel.

Test and implement strategy for emerging social media platforms.

Assist the Prince Estate on fulfilling social media messaging, including coordinating postings and execution of Estate initiatives.

Community Management

Monitor inboxes and post comments across all owned Paisley Park channels.

Respond to inquiries in a timely manner.

Escalate requests as needed and factor community management trends into social media planning.

Other responsibilities as assigned.

Background & Qualifications

REQUIRED:

Bachelor’s degree.

4+ years marketing and brand social media oversight experience.

Excellent communication skills and attention to detail.

Fluency with Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and/or other social networks.

Strong Proficiency in MS Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.

PREFERRED:

Extensive experience with Adobe Creative Suite (including Photoshop), social media management tools (e.g., Sprout Social), and Basecamp.

Background in museums, attractions, and/or cultural performance venues.

WORKPLACE BENEFITS, CONDITIONS & REQUIREMENTS

Ability to work a flexible schedule that meets the needs of the role, including weekends, evenings, and holidays.

Must adhere to a pescatarian work environment while working on Paisley Park campus.

Must pass a background check and drug test prior to starting work.

Paisley Park offers a competitive benefit package to all qualified employees.

We are committed to creating a diverse environment and are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

Job Type: Full-time

Benefits:

401(k)

Dental insurance

Employee discount

Health insurance

Life insurance

Paid time off

Vision insurance

Schedule:

Monday to Friday

Education:

Bachelor's (Preferred)

Experience:

Social Media Management: 4 years (Preferred)

Marketing: 1 year (Preferred)

Work Location:

One location

Company's website:

paisleypark.com

Benefit Conditions:

Waiting period may apply

Only full-time employees eligible

Work Remotely:

COVID-19 Precaution(s):

Personal protective equipment provided or required

Plastic shield at work stations

Temperature screenings

Social distancing guidelines in place

Sanitizing, disinfecting, or cleaning procedures in place

APPLY HERE!

#Prince #paisley park #job #if I were about 10 years back in my career I'd totally do this #middle management now #writing strategy and managing teams who do similar things across contracts

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sepublic · 4 years

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Sense and Insensitivity!

Aaah, I swear this episode helped fix a crippling absence in my heart that I’ve been missing out on! I’ve got a fever, and the only cure is… MORE OWL HOUSE!!!

I feel like this entire episode is a rather meta joke about the writing process, especially with the whole bit about publishers and how they’re forced to do crunch-time; Pretty sure that’s a real thing, and if so, I applaud Dana and the crew for making sure to remind viewers! And also, Luz, SAME… I, too, understand the pain of being a writer!

There’s not much else to say about Piniet, but I like his design, premise, and voice! He’s pretty neat, and his ability to read entire books within seconds is… It’s much too powerful! I must have this power… Not gonna lie, I didn’t expect HIM to be the true mastermind behind it all (rather, just a lackey for John de Plume) but I guess it makes sense! I thought Plume was kind of an annoying narcissist, but after seeing what he’s going through I guess I can’t blame him for desperately drinking up any love and support he can get!

That scene with the cubes though… Pretty freaky stuff, honestly. Legit thought a dude died when Piniet stepped on him, but apparently not- Still, we never see them revert back to normal, and with Piniet conducting business as he usually does after this, YIKES. Also, love the chaotic energy of Not-Dana in this episode, I didn’t really see her coming into play here but it makes so much sense! Also, this episode can be seen almost as a metaphor for what happened in real life, perhaps- Piniet/Disney wanted to pull more writing from King/Alex Hirsch, who didn’t want to dedicate the rest of his life to Ruler’s Reach/Gravity Falls! Then Dana/Not Dana comes in, dazzles Piniet/Disney with her story/The Owl House, and King/Alex Hirsch is free to do as he pleases (in this case, becoming a VA) while poor Not/Dana has no clue what’s in store for her!

Subtle, Dana. I like it.

And Luz and King’s friendship! I love episodes that delve more into King and his insecurities, and I’d DIE for these two goobers! I love that while King and Eda are definitely partners-in-crime, there’s a certain silliness to Luz and King’s friendship that is unique to their relationship! Not to discount Eda and her bond with King of course… More on Eda later, naturally!

Typewriter was a hilarious character, and I love how Luz still wants to show unconditional support for King after he’s famous! It just shows how kind-hearted and empathetic she is… She knows what it’s like to be lonely and not taken seriously and she doesn’t want to take away the gratification from King! Likewise, I love how the show acknowledges that King may just be a tad-bit jealous of Luz and Eda, or at least he recognizes that they ‘have’ what he doesn’t… To King, his two friends seem self-assured and confident, like they’re living their own dream while he doesn’t! I can see why King acts selfish at times, he justifies it to himself because he thinks that Eda and Luz are already having it so good… Surely it can’t hurt to indulge himself once in a while, right?

But at the same time, King is not truly selfish. Once he realizes he’s messed up, he’ll go back on his mistakes to make amends, ASAP, throwing away whatever he’s gained for that precious friendship! Maybe the REAL power was the friends we made along the way…? Regardless, it’s clear that Eda and Luz, the latter especially, take his insecurities and thoughts a lot more seriously than anyone else, and I think that’s what’s so important to King! The fact that they listen to him, they humor him… And it’s because part of what makes them so well-off is King’s own presence! I just LOVE this trio you guys!

Also, imagine Boscha’s perspective of Luz and King after everything. I swear, these two –and Eda- are such utter weirdos and cryptids to everyone they come across, it’s amazing! I’m also low-key wondering who made King that scarf… I might want to check later. Not-Saria, planning to trash on that book if it fails you… I know how you feel. And beware King, “There’s more to life than shipping” is fighting words! They’re not FALSE, but still, it’s like that meme about how they hated him because he told them the truth! Like I said, this episode was hilariously meta and close to home, and you get the feeling that Dana is one of us- A fan that’s obsessed over things in the past and suffered laboriously through the pain of writing!

But… EDA AND LILITH! OH, how I’ve waited for this! I knew it, I knew it was coming, that delicious sibling interaction and team-up, and oh it feels SO good!

I’m glad to see that Once Upon a Swap hasn’t changed how Lilith feels! It’s pretty ingenius how her strategy for capturing Eda is just ‘procrastinate as long as possible’ and she manages to justify it! Of course, Belos probably won’t tolerate this strategy for long after a while…

Speaking of Belos- He needs the Bloom of Eternal Youth?!? Is it for some other purpose, or is the dude himself aging? Who knows HOW old he’s been, or how long his rule has lasted- For all we know he’s been the original creator of the Coven System himself! There are even some theories that he was the Boiling Isles Titan, or lived long enough to interact with it! Given how the Bloom was fake from the very beginning, has he been relying on ways to extend his youth throughout the years, or is the first time his years have caught up to him?

Does he want Eda, partially to mend this? What if the curse was cast by Belos on Eda, to drain her of her youth in a parasitic exchange? The show itself has more or less confirmed that Eda is getting older because of the curse! WHAT IF Belos killed the Titan, because he acted as a parasite by draining its life-force to keep himself alive- He DOES have an insectoid motif, and I guess you could connect insects to creatures like Mosquitoes and Fleas…

Anyhow, I’m glad to see that Eda will also go out of her way for Lilith, too! The mixed-feelings, aggravation, and genuine love between the two is so amazing… I love how the two are acknowledging that the other means well, and has their own reasons for what they’re doing! And I love how the show has confirmed it- That Lilith DOES want Eda to join the Emperor’s Coven, she just wants her to do it on her own terms, with her own agency! I love this complicated relationship between these two sisters, where they loudly proclaim that they’d sell one another to Satan for a corn chip, but then would move the stars for the other when no one else is looking!

Obviously the trailer spoiled us, but it was obvious from the get-go that Ratman Witch dude was a fake and it was a trap! Love how they play with the twist by just… Having Eda and Lilith not bat an eye! After all, this is some one-off goon without a name, VS the two most powerful Witches in the Boiling Isles (sans Belos, possibly)! I’d say I wish we got to see the two fight together, but let’s be real- There wasn’t even a fight to begin with. They likely combined a single spell together and ended it within seconds… And on a side-note, I like how Eda confirms that she and Lilith got into trouble together in the past, too! Hence ‘There she is!’ in Covention.

As for some smaller thoughts;

I find it funny, but not surprising, that Mattholomule has been relegated to physical labor in Piniet’s publishing company! Isn’t that child labor? We know Luz is fourteen, and he’s around her age, if not younger- Especially how Luz notes how light he is, and how Matt’s similar height to Gus indicates he’s about the kid’s age. I dunno, I don’t know Boiling Isles rules on child labor, if they even have any, and even if they did I doubt Piniet cares! I wonder how Not-Dana will get herself out of THIS conundrum with him… Not that I doubt she will of course! She’s got that chaotic energy and hasn’t survived this long for nothing!

And I love Luz, being all weird as she is, having to use her teeth to tear up the contract instead of her hands like anyone else would! I can’t quite understand her mind, but it’s part of what makes her such a favorite to me! At least a contract isn’t some organ from a monster you just came across… And clever of her to use the Light glyph for the book! I love King’s realization of a missed pun, and the unstoppable teamwork of him and Luz!

Given how King has already messed up a few times by being selfish, I have to suspect this will come into play in Really Small Problems, with King feeling like he’s begun to drive Luz away with his vanity and becoming desperate to rekindle their friendship! But as we all know, there’s nothing he needs to prove- Luz cares for him and vice-versa! And ironically, King indulging in ‘Mysterioso’s’ product is also him being selfish, but in general… I like how the show recognizes his crippling insecurity beneath it all, his feelings are valid and not unfounded. Even without the possibility of him having been an ACTUAL King of demons, the show still makes a compelling motive and reason for what he does!

Speaking of a potential backstory… It’s worth noting that King claims his name is actually a rank- So what was his real name, then? Does he even remember?Likewise, he mentions that becoming a famous author will help him in his reclamation of power…

All-in-all, this was a good, solid episode! It’s clearly a very relationship-driven episode, which as someone who enjoys the relationships between characters in this show- That’s amazing! It really establishes how characters truly feel about one another, while subtly setting the stage for something else… I love it!

Up-next is Adventures in the Elements, a totally-new episode that I have NEVER seen, and I will DEFINITELY discuss my new thoughts about it when it officially airs!

#the owl house #owl house #the owl house king #the owl house luz #luz noceda #the owl house eda #edalyn clawthorne #the owl house lilith #lilith clawthorne #the owl house piniet

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internetandnetwork · 3 years

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What Would Success for New Search Engines Look Like?

Since the early 2000s, Google has been the most popularly used search engine across the world. Over this period, from being just another typical Silicon Valley startup and longshot to becoming the protector of the internet, controlling algorithms with enormous business implications and building a reputation for spreading its business into various areas in the name of offering an improved user experience.

In recent times, the increased inspection over its business practices has resulted in government regulators getting tough on anticipated wrongdoings, and a fraction of users have also demonstrated a little inclination towards a more privacy-oriented search experience. Google is also facing opposition from other search engines regarding how it is presenting search engine alternatives to Android users in Europe.

This wave of opposition to the market leader may develop favorable conditions for other search engines to contend themselves. New search engines, Neeva, founded by the former Senior Vice President of Google Ads, and You.com, founded by Richard Socher, former Chief at Salesforce, have been announced this year. While snatching away a considerable fraction of search market share from Google may be a part of their overall objective, becoming successful as a new search engine is subject to a lot of factors and may occur in a subtle form.

REGULATORS WANT TO SEE MORE COMPETITION IN SEARCH

In the past several years, Google has been facing increased inspection over its alleged anti-competitive practices in different parts of the world. Back in 2018, the European Commission hit Google with the largest antitrust fine ever of roughly $5 billion. And just a year before, the EC had penalized Google with a $2.7 billion fine for favoring its own content in the SERPs.

But this is not it. It is alleged that Google is using its contracts and market power to neutralize the competitors, and the Department of Justice has filed an antitrust lawsuit against the search engine giant for the same at the federal level.

However, if it is found that Google did engage in anti-competitive strategies, then the question moves on to solutions.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust issued a lengthy report recommending various potential solutions, including “structural separation” in an attempt to re-establish competition. However, the company is projecting confidence and might take the dispute to court.

In case that happens, it will still take at least two years before any initial judgment comes out, and even after that, Google may pursue an appeal. Nevertheless, with the investigation over the company’s superior position in the market, reaching a turning point, potential competitors have eventually begun emerging from the thicket and trying to stand out from the market leader.

CAN ANYONE REALLY COMPETE WITH GOOGLE?

Considering the position that Google occupies in the market today, the number of users it boasts, and how it has established itself as a crucial part of our everyday lives, it seems a bit irrational. Honestly speaking, developing a search engine that could really go head-to-head with the search engine giant itself would mean that it should at the very least offer the same experience to the users, i.e., relevant, fast, handy, and cognitively low load search results. And let’s suppose the rival search engine actually manages to offer as good an experience as Google, it would also need to get those billions of users to trust them rapidly who today wildly favor Google. But the latter seems more plausible considering how Google is shifting from being the beloved startup to becoming the evil empire over the last couple of years.

Besides, building a search engine that can compete with Google is impossible without having access to the kind of data they do. They know what users clicked, liked, or disliked, what they found most relevant to what queries, and so on. Users turn to search engines for queries, and Google, over all these years, has gathered an enormous amount of data like no other. In addition to all this, the quality of search results matters too. And it would take years for a new search engine to be able to accumulate that kind of data.

Despite the bar being so high, these two search engines (Neeva and You.com) still believe that there are some areas of opportunities that Google hasn’t tapped into yet. In fact, they have already attracted investment towards that cause too. While undoubtedly it is a good thing, it is highly improbable to level the playing field with funding. Because let’s be honest here, even with Microsoft’s immense resources, Bing mostly failed to win over users or digital marketers from Google.

CATCHING GOOGLE DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THE GOAL

Rather than focusing on creating a search engine that could go head-to-head with Google, the goal could be to develop a powerful team of users who are interested in creating their own corner of the web. Moreover, this strategy won’t require the search engine to gather billions of users like Google in order to become successful.

The search engine DuckDuckGo uses a similar strategy to stand apart from the others and appeal to the user group who wants more privacy online. In fact, DuckDuckGo observed an all-time high number of monthly search queries, which was almost 2.4 billion last month. However, it is still far behind Google, which boasts more than 3.5 billion search queries per day.

Neeva will be offering a subscription-based service, which, according to reports, will cost less than $10 every month after its launch. The search engine strives to offer a personalized yet ad-free search experience to its users. There are chances that it may not need to overcome a lot of technological obstacles since it will be leveraging the existing data sources (such as Bing search results, Apple Maps, and weather.com) and content. This might help Neeva save a lot on its development budget while starting out. If the company successfully manages to captivate enough subscribers, it plans to reduce its monthly charges, making it an even more appealing alternative search engine for users.

On the other hand, the newly introduced search engine You.com hasn’t announced the exact details yet, but its website hints that it would help users with their buying decisions. Moreover, its early access survey also asks users several questions relevant to eCommerce.

While we don’t have enough information about it yet, if You.com plans to become an eCommerce player, it will have to go head-to-head with the eCommerce giant Amazon. Competing with Amazon is again a big challenge – from the scale of operators, particularly on the shipping and delivery side, to captivating enough investment to endure the continuous price wars that Amazon would happily engage in.

However, distinguishing itself in the eCommerce sector is still a more realistic path. There are still some features that You.com could introduce just like other eCommerce sites such as eBay, Etsy, etc. have managed to build a unique identity for themselves in their niches.

WHAT SUCCESS MAY LOOK LIKE FOR NEW SEARCH ENGINES?

The growth of the potential Google or Amazon competitors, in the long run, will, to some extent, rely on how successfully they are able to capture a substantial audience initially. It is hard to predict anything as of now since neither Neeva nor You.com have revealed more details or any expected launch date.

While their ‘secret ingredient’ as they revealed, is recognizing those audiences with specific needs that the search engine giant itself has failed to address yet seems like a good start, they shouldn’t have revealed it so early, at least until their launch. This might backfire. There are good chances that the users will continue using Google like they usually do, but use Neeva or You.com for particular purposes. But if the companies are able to retain the same level of focus, they could have a chance at becoming successful.

CONCLUSION – THE POTENTIAL EFFECT ON GOOGLE

With more feasible competitors coming into existence, the users and marketers will have more options, but this might also somewhat impact Google’s own strategy. Google may be compelled to react by catering more to users and SEO professionals’ preferences, which might ultimately upgrade the landscape for everybody.

With the rise of competitors, specific innovations may spark new innovations or implementations by Google. The impact on Google is unlikely to become visible anytime soon, considering that even a large extent of success for the competitors would still mean tiny numbers for Google.

While Google has never actually had a real rival before, they took some pretty sloppy measures when they anticipated one (in Facebook) like launching the social media platform Google Plus which has now vanished. So, as of now, we can only hope that something like that would happen again, which will finally set off an actual search market rather than just a monopoly.

Hariom Balhara is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles for Tireless IT Services. Tireless IT Services is a Digital Marketing, SEO, SMO, PPC, and Web Development company that comes with massive experiences. We specialize in digital marketing, Web Designing and development, graphic design, and a lot more.

SOURCE : What Would Success for New Search Engines Look Like?

#Search Engines #Google #tireless it services #digital marketing #SEO #internet

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hub-pub-bub · 5 years

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Whether you’re currently writing a book, querying agents or on submission to publishers, allow me to share this small-but-important truth: There’s an editor out there right now—sorting stacks of pitch letters, book proposals and manuscripts, thumbing through literary agent submissions, reading selections of the manuscripts she requested from authors directly—who is seeking to buy a book similar to yours.

So, in a sense, your future editor is out there thinking about you.

Picture this person for a moment: Perhaps she’s an associate editor for a mid-level imprint, working her way up at a growing publishing company. She majored in creative writing or English literature or journalism in college, where she developed a passion for Jane Austen or Jack Kerouac, Joan Didion or Anne Lamott. Whoever her muse, she knows good writing when she sees it. She wrote articles for the school newspaper or poems for the literary journal, nabbed a good internship after college and she’s worked hard ever since to finally land her dream job—acquiring and editing books full time and getting paid for it!

The 7 Deadly Sins of Novelists (According to Editors)

Now she fills the role of champion for her authors and books. She pitches the books she discovers to her own internal publishing team, during which she makes a case for both the editorial and business side for acquiring said manuscripts.

Her boss expects her to acquire a handful of new books every year, and though she’s still learning and growing into the job, in part, her performance is tied to the performance of her selections. If she acquires and takes a huge financial risk on a book and it bombs a year later, it reflects on her directly. Of course, like anyone in a new position, she needs time to grow and, sure, she might have more seasoned editors guiding her through this journey. But eventually, given a couple of years, her acquisitions become hers to own.

Does all of this create a little pressure on our friendly associate editor? You bet.

Every editor’s list of acquisitions is viewed (especially by management) as their own personal business within the greater publishing company, complete with its own profit and loss statement (P and L). As a result, each individual book might get more or less scrutiny depending on how it fits into the greater scheme. The worse the editor’s books perform, the harder time she’ll have convincing her team to take risks on her projects in the future.

When you’re writing a book, preparing a proposal or query (for publishers or literary agents, because agents make decisions based on whether they think a publisher will be interested), it’s important to think about your future editor. He is a human being, just like you, and every day he is facing the very real difficulties of the changing market, the shifting retail landscape and his own internal company pressures. He, like many editors in this business, hopes to come across something special—a work of unique power or appeal or finesse or authority—that makes him feel like he did in college when he read Jack Kerouac.

As someone who once sat in the editor’s chair at publishers large and small, I know those simultaneous pressures and hopes firsthand. My first publishing job was as a junior editor acquiring and editing 10–12 books a year for a small, family-owned press. To be honest, for a long time I had no idea what I was doing—but I worked hard and soaked up every lesson I could. Despite my inexperience, over the course of several fairly successful years, I found myself the publisher of that small imprint: hustling to make budgets; publishing competitive, influential books; learning the fast-changing worlds of marketing and publicity; and managing a team that shared my goals.

1. Do Your Homework

Every category and genre of publishing is governed by unspoken rules. In the world of traditional trade book publishing, fiction and nonfiction aren’t the same. For instance, most editors sign nonfiction book deals based on one to two chapters. But for fiction, and especially with first-time novelists, editors typically need to read the full manuscript before a deal is done.

If you’re submitting the next high-concept business book to an experienced agent, or an editor at a business imprint, make sure you’ve done your research. Do you know what other books the literary agent has represented, or the editor has acquired in the recent past? Has that press recently published a book like yours?

Immerse yourself in books similar to your own. Read in the category, but also study the jacket, the acknowledgements page, the author’s blog and their previous books. Conduct industry research on publishing houses, editors and literary agents through sites like Publishers Weekly. Attend a conference, watch lectures on YouTube. Read relevant articles, essays and blog posts.

To know a category is to know the world in which your future editor lives every day.

2. Use Concise Communication

The volume of reading material that accrues on the desks of editors and literary agents is immense. These folks read mountains of content every day, sifting through stacks of submissions for eye-catching queries.

Which is why yours should get right to the point—in such a way that compels them to read more. Don’t belabor your initial synopsis or write a three-page email. If in doubt, the fewer words the better. Share a little about yourself, but only the most relevant points.

Most important: Any sample writing you include should read fast and clean. Editors aren’t looking for reasons to reject, per se, but when inundated, it’s far too easy to dismiss a submission for little things like spelling errors, awkward phrasing or poor formatting.

3. Sign With an Agent

Inking a contract with a good literary agent can help avoid some of the above issues. When on submission to publishers, agents almost always get a faster read than unsolicited queries—especially in certain categories. There are several reasons why this is the case. First, most literary agents take the time to build relationships (and a level of trust) with acquisition editors in the genres they work within. Second, because publishing professionals have such limited time, agents effectively serve as a filter, siphoning in projects with higher-caliber content. Plus, most have also taken the time to work with their authors to develop and shape their book concepts, which adds additional value for the publisher.

I’ve also had countless conversations with authors who published their books agentless, and suddenly found themselves in a strange new world with no idea how to navigate it. Their books released to the world and their lofty publishing dreams slowly wilted as they made mistakes, agreed to bad contractual terms, blindly trusted editors, or neglected their marketing and publicity campaigns. The best literary agents act as a trusted guide, thinking through these details long before a deal ever comes to fruition.

4. Grow Your Platform

Here’s a fact of life in modern publishing: Attracting (and holding) attention is difficult in any medium, especially in a world of social media, streaming television and unlimited self-publishing. As a result, presses look for projects with a built-in audience. It’s thus through a platform that authors can do just that.

I define platform as any outward-facing method a writer uses to attract a readership prior to publishing—which will, in theory, translate to that readership purchasing the writer’s book. It can manifest as anything from a YouTube channel, podcast, blog or Twitter following to an email newsletter or college classroom.

Think of your writing as a business, and take the initiative to build your influence via a robust platform, which will only increase your chances of publishing.

5. Forge a Relationship

Once you sign a book deal, you’ll be assigned a “champion.” More often than not, that person is an acquisitions editor or developmental editor, but it may also be the marketing manager or the publisher herself. While every press is different, often that person is your point of contact throughout the publishing process—from beginning to end.

Whoever your point person, be intentional in building that relationship. If possible, meet your champion face-to-face, or at least set up regular phone calls. Get to know her. This small investment of time and effort on your part can pay off big in the long run.

I’ve seen authors send a nice handwritten note after a meeting or a phone call, thanking the participants for their time. And sometimes I’ve seen those simple thank yous tacked to the wall of an editor’s office years later. A small, kind act goes a long way, and when you need a favor down the road, your champion will remember you.

Guide to Literary Agents 2019

6. Remember to Engage

Shift your thinking about the publishing process: Turning in your manuscript is not the end, but the beginning. The more engaged you are at each subsequent stage, the better chance your book has of making an impact in the market. Writing a terrific manuscript is step one, but you must also help to market, publicize and sell.

Seek to be included in the key publishing decisions along the way, including the final title, cover design, marketing and publicity strategy and so on. Believe it or not, each of these things is regularly decided without the author’s input—but by becoming a part of these decisions, you can bring your vision to the table.

7. Be Your Book’s CMO

Remember: You are your book’s Chief Marketing Officer. You are its first and last advocate. Be clear that this book is still your baby, while remaining cordial and professional.

Consider setting aside some of your advance (if you received one) to help market your book when the time comes. Thinking that far ahead is tough, but every bit of marketing is important: strong Book 1 sales pave the way for Book 2.

If you know your publisher’s marketing strategy (presuming you’ve stayed engaged in the process), then you can supplement it. For example, if the publisher focuses on store placement, ads in industry magazines, focused banner ads and a book tour, then perhaps you invest in hiring a freelance publicist to line up TV, radio or print interviews.

Once you’ve garnered a book deal, it’s easy to sit back and let the professionals handle everything for you. But resist, for your own sake (and the sake of your book). Your book is your baby. When it gets out into the world, you’re the best one to teach it how to walk.

You’ve devoted hours, days, months—even years— to writing and editing your novel or nonfiction book. With all that time invested, it’s natural to want recognition for your hard work and dedication. Take your writing one step further and tackle the publishing process. When you enroll in this online course, you’ll learn the details of the query letter format and how to write a query letter that catches the attention of agents and publishers. Learn more and register.

#writing #writers #authors #editors #publishing

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lauramalchowblog · 4 years

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9 Things Every Healthcare Startup Should Know About Business Development

By ANDY MYCHKOVSKY

In this post, I write down all my strategy and business development knowledge in healthcare and organize it into the top 9 commandments for selling as a healthcare startup. I think everyone from the founder to the most junior person on the team should know these pillars because all startups must grow. I should also note these tenets are most applicable for selling into large enterprise healthcare incumbents (e.g., payers, providers, medical device, drug companies). Although I appreciate the direct-to-consumer game, these slices are less applicable for that domain. If your startup needs help developing or implementing your business development strategy, shoot me an email and we can discuss a potential partnership. Enjoy!

1. Understand Everything About the Product and Market

You must also understand the competitive landscape, who else is in the marketplace and how they appear differentiated? What has been their preferred go-to-market approach and is your startup capable of replicating a similar strategy with your current team members? Also, do you understand the federal and state policy that most affects your vertical, whether that be pharmaceutical or medical device (e.g., FDA), health plans (e.g., state insurance commissioners), or providers (e.g., CMS)? For example, if your company is focused on “value-based care” and shifting payment structures of physicians to downside risk, do you intimately understand The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) and the requisite CMS Demonstration Models from the Innovation Center (e.g., MSSP, BPCI-A, etc.)? Make sure you do or at least hire someone to explain what is important now and in the future.

2. Create A Compelling Pitch

In my opinion, creating a startup’s compelling pitch to an incumbent healthcare entity requires satisfying three factors: strategic, financial, and clinical. Surely, your healthcare startup’s machine learning, AI-backed, blockchain-enabled data analytics platform may someday deliver better clinical results in some way, however, if it has no monetizable value for the incumbent healthcare entity, your idea is not going to sell. Also, you cannot just focus on financial benefit, without weaving in some tangential use cases to further the clinical mission and receive buy-in from the medical community. These are complicated entities with a variety of stakeholders and macro environmental challenges that must be somehow improved by your product.

For example, a hospital is not equipped to move 100% of their payment into a full downside risk value-based care contract just because you have a care management platform and iPhone app. These entities employ tens of thousands of workers and operate on very slim profit margins and continual reinvestment into building new facilities. They also employ a ton of nurses performing care coordination, discharge planning, and bedside care, who have their own opinions on what works best for their local community. At the end of the day, these providers receive payment from private and governmental health plans, at varying negotiated rates. If your healthcare startups business model is predicated on keeping commercially-insured patients out of the hospital and instead, treated at home, you are literally cannibalizing the hospital’s highest margin revenue. Therefore, how do you suppose to improve their financials and support their recently opened new hospital wing by keeping patients out of the hospital? You better have a very compelling reimbursement argument and concept that satisfies the CFO’s concerns.

3. Organize Stakeholder Outreach

There are a million different ways to engage with prospects nowadays. If you use email campaigns, be sure to obtain verifiably accurate contact information. You can scrape information from online sources or publicly available lists. You can ask conferences to provide attendee lists if you sponsor a table or event. You can work with trade associations to obtain contact information on members who are most relevant to your product. Whatever you do, make sure you’re sending simple, yet compelling emails through an automated mailing system to track engagement and follow-up. Try different subject lines or sender names. Don’t include attachments or external links unless you’re willing to risk being diverted into the spam folders.

Regardless, don’t just rely on email blasts. That’s lazy thinking. You need to think multi-level marketing to crack through that executive ceiling. Are you attending the right conferences with a set list of individuals to target? Maybe you need to pay someone who has the right connections and is willing to make introductions in-person? Are you providing free content in the form of webinars or podcasts that is co-produced and therefore advertised by independent organizations that have already garnered the trust of a particular audience? Are you willing to sweet talk office managers at a local medical practice to get 15 minutes of the founding physician’s time? You need to find creative ways to engage your target audience, without ridiculous tactics like sending gingerbread houses during Christmas season to multi-billion dollar health system executives or solely relying on targeted Instagram ads. Remember, healthcare is hyper-local. If you need a meeting with the head of a single cardiology practice in Atlanta, GA, go find the head of the former board chair of the American College of Cardiology’s local chapter.

Over the past few years, a ton of digital health startups have focused on the self-insured employer market due to contracting flexibility. If you focus on self-insured employers, think about the pros and cons of working with channel partners. There are a couple giants that own the entire employee benefit design and health insurance broker game, including Willis Towers Watson, Aon, or Mercer. Typically, brokers receive a healthy 3-6% commission fee off the total premium covered for all employees. If you want immediate distribution of your product or service to millions of employees across the country, you might have to pay one of these brokers an extra fee to offer your goods. In addition, the brokers will be looking for your startup to benefit their clients, employers, to save medical spending and improve employee engagement.

4. Identify Early Themes During Initial Pitch

We all have great ideas. They sound good on paper, and the team is bought in. You even received executive approval from the founders to initiate your sales process. The only problem is that during the first few meetings, which were 30-minute introductory calls with non-decision makers, the pitch hasn’t resonated. It feels like you’re selling an Apple Watch when the buyer only wants to talk about sun dials. I thought healthcare was ready for innovation?

The reality is that your product, back to lesson #2, is not satisfying their strategic, financial, and clinical needs. Or you’ve done a poor job clearly articulating the vision and how your small startup will be able to meaningfully improve a problem the healthcare incumbent encounters. Perhaps you’re pitching a $5,000 per month SAAS solution that could yield 3 times the ROI in savings to an organization? The problem is, the same company just spent $500 million on an Epic electronic medical record (EMR) installation and is concerned about losing $10 million this quarter because of contract disputes with a large payer. Sometimes your product just isn’t big enough to garner an executive audience. In that case, think about positioning your product with flexible pricing or partnership terms in a way that a middle-manager won’t need executive approval to sign.

Maybe you’re talking to a health plan about reducing dermatology spend because you have the latest and greatest technology, but the entire healthcare market is focused on providing cheaper transportation benefits to patients to reduce missed appointments (i.e., Uber, Lyft). That’s all anyone ever talks about at conferences you attend. If you’re the 10th most important thing that a Chief Medical Officer (CMO) is thinking about, either create a more compelling reason why they should change their list or find a different size stakeholder who is more immediately affected by your service.

5. Maintain Interest Level and Dig Deeper

Now that you have initial interest, continue to build momentum. It is incredibly easy to walk out of an initial meeting, with both parties having enjoyed the 30- or 60-minute conversation, but never move forward. Life is complicated and people get busy. You might think your healthcare startup is the next best thing since garlic knots, but that healthcare executive has 5 more pitches this week from other companies in your space. They also have budgets, HR issues, and bosses to deal with themselves. After a while, your follow-up emails and phone calls seem akin to your ex-boyfriend’s pitiful attempts. Reassess your strategy before further annoyance.

Can you introduce them to compelling referenceable clients that will speak kindly about your startup? Not in a way that seems cheesy, but able to articulate the good, the bad, and how your startup remedied the bad so it never happens again. If possible, these should be peers. A vice president at a fortune 50 drug manufacturer likely doesn’t want to talk to a junior-person at a small biotech startup. Know your audience and adapt. If the references don’t exist, are there other things you can do to “wow” the client? Do you have a demo? Can you analyze some of their data? Is someone on your team able to answer one of their questions via a mini-consulting project? Do you have an invite to a closed-door event that features some interesting topic area? At the very least, you have a Board of Directors, management team, and investors. Hopefully one of those can help build rapport at an executive level, in addition to your individual efforts.

6. Develop Detailed Partnership Terms

I am a strong proponent of protecting the company you work for during partnership discussions, but sometimes startups need to acknowledge the importance of closing a new partnership deal. You need to be flexible. You are a small healthcare startup negotiating against a large, bureaucratic organization with tons of legal representation. Don’t waste time debating term sheet after term sheet. It doesn’t matter if its non-binding. Discuss and agree on the high-level key structure, and then propose a draft of your definitive agreement or master services agreement with all the bells and whistles. This is going to take a while, so buckle in and try to set expectations on closing. By this time, if you’re good, you will have likely already signed an NDA and perhaps, a letter of intent (LOI) discussing the spirit of your partnership discussions with appropriate confidentiality and expectations around timing of a go or no-go decision.

Now you need to actually put pen to paper and define what your startup will provide to the healthcare company. They will want more details on data privacy than you have to provide. They will want to know detailed clinical workflows describing your process. They will want a detailed step-by-step breakdown of all the resources and time required by their staff and management, in order to be successful. Worst case scenario is that your product requires more time to be successful by the client’s team, than the benefit your product provides. You need to just survive and answer all their questions to the best of your ability. If you hit a brick wall, at some point just tell them honestly that you’re working on addressing a few of their concerns and they will be finalized before go-live.

7. Be Flexible Yet Confident During Negotiation

How important is this deal to you and the startup? If this potential client is your Moby Dick, then be prepared to make some adjustments to your base terms. Nothing in life is 100% favorable, nor should it be since a partnership includes two parties. One good referencable client can help make a splash in media, attract new investors, improve morale of the team, and light a fire under other potential clients who are dragging their feet. However, at some point the deal doesn’t make any sense for your startup. It pays too little, with too many requirements, and too low a probability that the partnership will expand by the time you need it. If this is the case, I hope your creative top-of-funnel strategy has successfully opened the doors of a few different clients at the same time. You should be moving down the funnel with as many prospects in parallel as possible. Don’t get sucked into focusing all your time on one pursuit, because Murphy’s Law exists.

Is the contract value of a new deal significant after go-live and highly sticky in terms of client retention? Meaning, once you sign this new partnership, do you have this healthcare incumbent locked in for a few years that drives significant revenue for your startup? If yes, then don’t die on the hill over fighting about implementation fees. Sometimes the cost of doing business in the medium or long-term requires short-term pain. If you need more funding to build functionality, think about managing your burn rate to account for this potential scenario. Does it feel like the liability section of the contract grew twice as large and shifted most of the responsibility to your tiny startup? That’s probably going to happen and you can’t do much about it. When you’re first starting out, the healthcare incumbents have the most leverage. It’s not a perfect scenario, but make sure the key fees and services are reasonable, and unfortunately accept the rest as the price of doing business.

8. Set Clear Expectations for Implementation and Go-Live

I love closing deals. But don’t set your implementation team up for failure. If they physically or technologically cannot meet the standards you’ve promised to the healthcare incumbent executive, and you’ve placed accompanying service level agreements (SLAs) with financial penalties owed by your startup, this is a bad deal. If you sign a deal that so drastically exaggerates the profitability of the partnership by limiting the minimum operational expenses required to perform, this is a bad deal. Don’t leave the account lead and operational teams out to dry, because there are real reputational risks associated with a bad deal in the healthcare industry. Executives all grew up together, hang out with one another, and move from organization to organization. If your startup is known as the one who can’t deliver on its promises, that will likely come back to bite the business development efforts and certainly impact churn rate and likelihood of harsh renegotiations with existing partners.

Overpromising and under-delivering in healthcare has real consequences. It won’t result in just someone’s food arriving late or e-commerce store unexpectedly shutting down, healthcare startups could meaningful harm a patient’s life. This of course represents the constant tension between sales and operations. I do believe that business development teams should do a better job at explaining the intricacies of the deal-making process to ensure the rest of the company understands the need for some flexibility. If everyone else feels like the sales leaders are the dumbest people at the company, you should remind them that everyone gets fired if the company doesn’t grow. Just don’t be an awful human being while discussing this matter.

9. Celebrate

No matter the outcome, a good business development team should celebrate the large and small wins. I’m not talking about trips to Hawaii, but you need to infuse some degree of optimism in your startup. Lack of growth causes a lot of problems. Sometimes you will get lucky, and the incumbent healthcare entity will take a chance on your product or team, despite lack of case studies or sophistication. However, that is increasingly becoming rarer each day. Therefore, any new partnership that will further the mission and grow the startup should be rewarded both financially and publicly across the company. With that being said, don’t act like your business development skills and compelling personality single-handedly closed the deal. Your team members across a variety of other departments all played a part, directly and indirectly. The engineering team built the product that was ultimately sold. The marketing team helped elevate the brand in the marketplace. The operational teams satisfied existing partners expectations so that they would provide positive reference calls.

In addition, the business development lead oftentimes has significant support in putting together materials, prepping for meetings, setting up logistics, managing subject matter experts, and reviewing legal contracts. I can bet that certain business development leaders think they’re Michael Jordan. Except, they forget that the Chicago Bulls didn’t beat the Detroit Pistons without Scottie Pippen and the rest of the team. Basically, if you’re the head of business development, show your team lots of love for the hard work and hours they’ve put in for far less financial reward.

Andy Mychkovsky is the creator of Healthcare Pizza. Follow him on Twitter (@AMychkovsky) and LinkedIn for future thoughts and updates. This post originally appeared on Healthcare Pizza here.

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kristinsimmons · 4 years

Text

9 Things Every Healthcare Startup Should Know About Business Development

By ANDY MYCHKOVSKY

1. Understand Everything About the Product and Market

2. Create A Compelling Pitch

3. Organize Stakeholder Outreach

4. Identify Early Themes During Initial Pitch

5. Maintain Interest Level and Dig Deeper

6. Develop Detailed Partnership Terms

7. Be Flexible Yet Confident During Negotiation

8. Set Clear Expectations for Implementation and Go-Live

9. Celebrate

Andy Mychkovsky is the creator of Healthcare Pizza. Follow him on Twitter (@AMychkovsky) and LinkedIn for future thoughts and updates. This post originally appeared on Healthcare Pizza here.

The post 9 Things Every Healthcare Startup Should Know About Business Development appeared first on The Health Care Blog.

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simplemlmsponsoring · 5 years

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New Post has been published on https://simplemlmsponsoring.com/attraction-marketing-formula/copywriting/are-your-free-trial-emails-making-you-look-desperate-heres-how-to-fix-that/

Are Your Free Trial Emails Making You Look Desperate? Here’s How to Fix That

A SaaS free trial starts like any relationship – full of hope, dreams and possibilities.

Your prospect starts a trial and gladly opens your welcome email.

She wonders what marvellous, mind-reading revelations she’ll find in your onboarding sequence. (“Please let this be the product that gets me!”)

But then… she takes a moment or two away from you. Other commitments take priority. Although she likes your product, she’s forgetting about you – she’s not sure you’re The One. Plus, her friend just started seeing this other SaaS product, and she’s all “It’s sooooo beautiful” and why should she get a beautiful UI? Suddenly your “rich with utility” app isn’t quite so appealing. I mean, it’s a nice product, but it doesn’t make her eyes all

She’s losing interest in you.

She hopes you’ll just kinda go away. In a week or two, communication will cease. It’ll be like you never even met.

But you’re not gonna let her go so easily. After all, she was into you, like, two weeks ago. Maybe she just needs to hear from you more. So you start:

Internet-stalking her with retargeting ads Pushing messages at her friends and social network followers Sending her passive-aggressive don’t-leave-me emails like this:

Desperate, right?

The two of you only saw each other briefly. What’s all this “fall in love” talk?

The 2 Act-of-Desperation Mistakes SaaS Teams Are Making with Free Trial Emails

SaaS teams believe a trial signup equals a storybook romance.

They want to solve your problems and encourage you to date them take the right step to grow your business. SaaS businesses aim to win your love and affection by giving giving giving giving. Because giving is good, right? Users like it. They keep saying they like it.

Nobody stays with you because you’re a big ol’ giver. Yet SaaS teams do all this giving. And 90% of their trial users dump them.

Without a word of explanation. Just… dumped.

After working with dozens of startups on their email copy, here’s what I’ve identified as the core of what SaaS marketers are getting wrong.

1. Interest ≠ Infatuation

For some reason, SaaS teams are counting on the idea that a new user went into a sealed room with their free trial for 15, 30 or 60 days, and in that time they fell madly in love with the product.

If The Bachelor taught us anything, it’s that even a sealed room can’t create love.

Except real life is not a sealed room.

The reality is your free-trial user signs up for a trial… and then heads back into a massive, endlessly explorable digital and physical world, filled with rock-climbing classes and sangria-on-patios and deadlines and Facebook and existing processes and people and shiny distractions and shitty distractions. Within minutes of signing up for a free trial, everyone but the most insanely passionate trial users (who require almost no work to convert anyway) will go off and do something else. That’s a problem.

2. And the solution isn’t in your data

Startups look to the data! Growth-stage businesses look to the data! Everyone looks to the data!

But when you do, you don’t find answers. You find that your funnel is, depressingly, more of an inverted pyramid than a wide-mouthed funnel. Your cohort analyses are… sad. All the data sliced all the ways leaves SaaS marketers like you scratching ye olde head, wondering what’s wrong and how to fix what’s wrong.

Because here’s the thing: your trial users are interested.

But here’s the problem: SaaS companies have yet to crack the nut on how to convert interest into 1) activation, 2) revenue and 3) retention.

And while you could try other things, emails are your least expensive and most reliable option. I’ve seen them in action. And the fixes are simple enough that you should address your emails immediately.

So here’s how to make your free trial emails turn interest into infatuation into income.

First: Accept that your free trial emails, as they are today, are almost certainly chasing away money

When I first started consulting, I considered using a CRM to keep track of my leads. So I signed up for a free trial of Pipedrive to see what it could offer me vs. using email.

And the welcome email wasn’t the best I’ve ever received, but I was hopeful Pipedrive could help me organize who was in my client pipeline.

(Sidenote: Pipedrive is just an example. Nothing but love for their team!)

Check out the welcome email they sent me:

The webinar sounded good.

Was it actually good? I dunno – I didn’t end up going to it.

Life got in the way. Plus, I couldn’t get Pipedrive to work with my inbox without upgrading to a paid plan. So before I knew it, I hadn’t learned a thing about Pipedrive, I hadn’t started using it, and my free trial was ending. As my free trial came to a close, they sent me the email I mentioned above. Here it is again:

Let me pause for a moment to scratch the surface of the problems with that email:

Can we get a name in there? You know my name. I used it to create my account. You should use it to talk with me. That’s your opening line? Really? “This is just to remind you.” Ugh. Q: “Want to continue with Pipedrive?” A: Nope. Only using voice at the bitter end of the email…

So, sure, something like 50,000 people are in love with Pipedrive. Those folks converted in spite of that email. Congrats to Pipedrive.

But because you and I care a great deal about converting more trial users, let’s work on writing a better email.

And let’s start by stepping back a bit…

Behind the scenes of selling software (before the cloud)

Before the Internet, you had 2 ways to buy software.

If you were a consumer, it came in an unwieldy box from an electronics superstore like Circuit City (RIP!). Not much salesmanship there. If you were a corporation, you had a designated sales person who got you to sign a multi-year contract. Meaning an individual could assess a company’s particular situation and use various tactics to get the sale.

Then web-hosted apps became a thing. And companies realized they could make more money if they charged customers on a subscription basis. Now users could access apps anywhere, as long as there was a browser and an Internet connection. Meaning companies could cut down on the costs associated with packaging and commissions to retail stores. And take home at least 60% of the gross margins. The venture capitalists showed up in droves.

But even before the cloud and free trials, the practice of giving away software for free has always been very popular. The only difference is the delivery mechanism. Remember the days of AOL CDs in your mailbox?

Seriously, how much did AOL spend on direct mail?

The marketing strategy for software has stayed constant, unfortunately. And here it is:

Hook users with a free sample, with the hope they like it so much they buy the full version.

Drug dealers have a similar marketing strategy. There’s just one difference. Drug dealers don’t hope you’ll like their product. They know.

The SaaS marketer’s strategy is filled with hope.

Hope is what you defer to when you can’t science the shit out of something. Hope is what you defer to when you don’t know what you’re doing. Hope kills businesses, ends sales, frustrates marketers – and frustrates prospects. Hope isn’t for closers. Yet it’s at the core of your acquisition strategy.

SaaS marketing isn’t hope marketing – those free trial emails have gotta close the sale

Consultant Alan Weiss describes four reasons someone might NOT buy your product:

No need – “It’s a neat tool, but it’s not necessary for what I’m trying to accomplish.” No money – “I can’t afford it because I’m a startup” or “I have too many other financial commitments more pressing than yours.” No urgency – “This problem you’re solving for me is necessary, but it’s not my top priority right now.” No trust – “I don’t believe you have my best interests in mind.”

No need, no money, no urgency – what’s the 4th reason people don’t buy? via @copyhackersClick To Tweet

Weiss is talking about winning six-figure management consulting contracts, but he claims it works for any product or service you’re selling. And he admits to flying halfway across the world to close a deal if it means overcoming one of these objections. Few SaaS startups are in a place to fly eight time zones over just to close a deal. I mean, you’re selling an app for $25/month.

Instead of frequent flyer miles to solve your conversion problems, you’ve got basically 2 things: a name and an email address. You’ve gotta work with those 2 resources – and not much more.

So here’s a killer opportunity you may not be leveraging as much as you could.

It’s the Trial Ending email, and here’s how you can make it rock.

Here are 3 easy steps to close better with your free-trial-ending emails

To persuade trial users to pay for your SaaS product, you should use the trial-ending emails to:

Emphasize what the user will miss out on by not upgrading to paid. Contrast the outcomes of upgrading vs. not upgrading. Provide a single call-to-action.

Here’s what I mean…

1: Emphasize what the user will miss out on by not upgrading to paid

There’s nothing that motivates people more than telling someone what they’ll miss out on. In psychology, it’s called loss aversion.

So ask yourself:

What will users miss out on if they don’t upgrade to a paid plan?

To give you a few ideas, think of the key features in your product. But instead of naming them off in the email, turn them into benefits that change the way the user was doing something before.

The benefits of the feature should outweigh the cost of the product. And be painful enough that a user has to stop and think, “Will I miss out if I don’t grab my credit card?”

To demonstrate, let’s look at this email promoting Sumo Pro. Although a cart abandonment email, Sumo does a good job of telling me what I’ll lose if I don’t buy Sumo Pro soon.

Notice how Sumo stacks the benefits of upgrading to the Pro plan. They could have just said I’ll miss out on the heat map features. Instead, they point out that without Pro, I won’t know how engaged visitors are on my website.

And if a prospect is using their website as a way to capture leads…they’re likely to believe Sumo is THE solution to their conversion problems.

Plus, there’s nothing like a 10% discount to entice on-the-fence users to sign up in the next 24 hours. Not necessary, but it’s something extra for the user to lose out on.

2: Contrast the outcomes of upgrading vs not upgrading

Mid-century ad executive Rosser Reeves (creator of the value prop!) was finishing up lunch in Central Park with a friend. They came across a homeless man sitting on a bench with a sign. The sign read:

“I am blind.”

Reeves bet his friend that he could make the homeless fellow more money by changing the words on his sign. With his revisions, the sign now read:

“It is springtime, and I am blind.”

The result? The homeless man’s panhandling success increased and Reeves won his bet.

But why?

Sometimes missing out on benefits isn’t enough. It might be a proven fact that your product’s feature has helped others. But sometimes it’s not enough to persuade the skeptical trial user. So you need to change their mindset. You need to illustrate what would happen to the user if they choose to pay for your product… and how life would be if they didn’t.

It wasn’t enough for prospects to know that the homeless man was blind. After all, only a few of them dropped coins into his bowl.

But because Reeves mentioned springtime, prospects suddenly realized the homeless man couldn’t see the blue skies, the sunshine and blooming flowers in Central Park. And for that reason, they were compelled to give him money when they would have ignored him.

Here’s how to use contrast in your trial-ending email

To apply this in your trial ending email, consider how your product can transform your user’s outlook on business… or how terrible their life would be without your product.

Or in the words of Aaron Orendorff, ask yourself one of the following questions:

What heaven will this email deliver my subscriber unto?

What hell will this email save my subscriber from?

For example, here’s a trial ending email from Honeybadger, an error monitoring service for Ruby apps.

It’s cool that Honeybadger logged 220 error notices. But think about why engineering teams bother with error monitoring in the first place.

Plus, reminding the user that they now have to pay to track bugs? Come on. There’s so much hell this app could save a user from! Though the majority of software errors are a nuisance, there are ones that are downright catastrophic.

Let’s look at the version I rewrote below.

Any software developer worth a damn would do their best to avoid writing buggy software. Plus, an unscheduled meeting with high-level managers to discuss how your work caused weekend profits to plummet? If that’s not your idea of hell, I don’t know what is.

3: Provide a single call-to-action to upgrade

What’s the next step a user needs to take to upgrade from trial to paid?

Dan Pink calls this an off-ramp. You may recall Pink’s study of a college food drive: explicit directions prompted more donations from groups of individuals who had never donated to a food drive than groups of people who had a history of giving.

Translation? You can convince the most resistant people to do something if you make it clear what it is that you want them to do.

You can convince the most resistant people to do X if you make it clear HOW to do X, via…Click To Tweet

Mulesoft’s trial-ending email doesn’t make it clear what I should do next. Take a look:

Problems:

My trial is over. If I wanted to watch a webinar, I should have seen it before this email. Now you want me to read a case study? I have to talk to a human being to extend my free trial? Pass…

Compare this with DocuSign’s email, where it’s obvious what they want me to do: Upgrade my account.

And they do an excellent job of reminding the user what they’ll miss out on, which is making it easy for others to do business with them.

Think about the number of steps your prospect has to go through to convert / actually pay for your SaaS. If you add six links to your email asking the user to do different things, they’re going to get confused. And maybe start to wonder if paying for the product is the right thing to do. And while gaining Likes on Facebook or Follows on Twitter might be a nice-to-have… your goal is to move that trial user into a paying customer – so don’t lose sight of that.

Two Ways To Get a Response From Passive Trial Users

What about those trial users who don’t convert even after you’ve optimized your trial-ending email copy?

Keep in mind that these non-converters have already spent time interacting with your app in some way. They have an opinion. If you’ve written the most persuasive trial ending email and they STILL haven’t converted, send them a trial expired email.

Here are two ways to go about it:

Ask for advice. Get them to do something (that doesn’t require money)

Lemme show you now.

1: Ask for advice

If you never ask, you’ll never know what keeps your prospect from buying, and you’ll never figure out their level of interest.

According to Robert Cialdini, if you ask a person for advice on what you could do better, it puts them in:

“A merging state of mind, stimulating a linking of one’s own identity with another party.”

Translation: If you can get a person to think about the ways they would improve their business, it creates a bond. The bond may not result in becoming a paying customer, but you could possibly win them over by other means.

When free trial users finish up with Autopilot, Autopilot initiates a customer feedback survey that is explicit about how long it takes to complete: 60 seconds.

Thanks to this study, Autopilot found out:

“27% of our expired trialists don’t buy because they’re still evaluating their options. Us asking both nudges them back into the product and gives us insight into conversion barriers. It’s a win-win.”

A 60-second survey might not solve your business problems, but it can give you the motivation to undertake more in-depth customer research. If you want a technique for that, take a look at the Jobs-to-Be-Done framework.

2: Get them to do something (that doesn’t require money)

So what if they didn’t buy right now? It doesn’t mean they will never buy it. There are plenty of no-cost ways for them to engage with you, too. Neil Patel suggests other forms of action, like reading a blog post or replying to an email.

The call-to-action doesn’t always need to be Upgrade Now. But it’s important to get the prospect to commit to taking smaller steps that could lead to an eventual purchase.

Ruben from Bidsketch does this by sending blog content to his free trial users who don’t end up converting:

Bidsketch might not be the proposal software solution for you right now, but they want you to become a better entrepreneur. So go on, read their blog post on emotional intelligence. The more you read from them, the more you might grow to like them – and people ultimately do business with people (and businesses) they like.

How to fix your 90% free trial failure rate

You could have all the ad money in the world and still trying to figure out your trial-to-paying conversion rate – when all you may need to do is rewrite your trial ending emails.

It’s a no-brainer task that you can knock out within a few hours of reading this. To recap, here’s what to add to your writing to-do list…

In your trial-ending email, be sure to:

Emphasize the benefits the user would miss out on. Contrast the outcomes. Provide a single call-to-action.

For your trial-expired email, you can:

Ask them for advice. Get them to do something else (that doesn’t require money).

And keep this in mind: If users sign up for your trial, there is a little part of them that wants to make your product work.

So choose your (email) words wisely. Because it could be the thing keeping your SaaS product from turning interest to infatuation to income.

~Sophia

The post Are Your Free Trial Emails Making You Look Desperate? Here’s How to Fix That appeared first on Copywriting for startups and marketers.

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facesofunicef · 7 years

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“Do what you believe in, go with your gut and let your energy and ideas lead you”

Guillaume Michels, Global Product Manager, Internet of Good Things (IoGT), UNICEF Kenya.

Tell us a bit about your background.

I grew up in a quiet part of France, surrounded by volcanoes and beautiful nature. I have been living abroad across almost all continents for either work or study. I previously worked for large organizations like Orange, a mobile network operator in one of their R&D centres in London. Most of my early professional experiences were in Innovation Marketing and Strategy. I also created a start-up to promote reading and help authors or publishers get their work discovered online. Some of the applications we built made it to the App Store’s top 10 and one application was even advertised in the Parisian subway! After this experience, I had the opportunity to join the UNICEF Innovation team and use my skills to break down barriers to information for the benefit of children.

What do you do?

I make knowledge accessible.

What’s your working day like?

On a typical morning, I would check what has happened in other time zones – whilst I was offline. If necessary, I make calls to liaise with our teams in country offices located in Asia and check on progress of IoGT. After which, I will work with country offices in the Middle East and in East and West Africa. A lot of my work also has to do with tracking product development with our technical partner based in South Africa. I review prototypes and discuss the next phase of development with our technical development team. As the day goes on, I liaise with our team in New York and end my day catching up with colleagues and our partners in Latin America and Silicon Valley. It can be quite full on to deal with so many time zones, but it’s also exciting to think that the work doesn’t stop, as when someone closes their computer someone else is getting online to continue our mission.

How would you describe your job to a 5-year-old?

Funnily enough, I recently discussed my work with my adorable niece Eva who just turned 5! I said something like… “Well, you see Eva I make some very basic websites – a bit like the apps you use on Daddy’s tablet – so that people can find out tips and advice to help them learn new things. We give people access to information so they can raise healthy babies, make sure children are protected from disease and don’t fall sick. Sometimes people live too far from a doctor or a school, but they have a mobile phone which allows them to receive information. With my work, I help people find useful information so they can live longer and have a healthy life with their family.”

What did you want to be when you were a child?

I wanted to be a vet, have four dogs and live in a big house in the forest wearing a leather jacket – A bit like Mc Giver but helping animals.

How/when did you join UNICEF?

I joined UNICEF 2 years ago originally for a 4-month contract in our Nairobi office, and I’ve stayed on ever since.

What are the most satisfying parts of your job?

The scale at which we can now reach and provide people with helpful information. I love the impact my work can have, for example, adolescent girls can find out the right information about puberty, sexual and reproductive health and how to protect themselves from harm and violence or find information on where to get assistance if they need it. Also my work’s ability to give young people access to information on their rights, so they can fight for them to be respected. And giving young parents some reassurance by giving tips on how to raise healthy children.

What’s the most challenging aspect of your job?

It’s making sure that nobody gets left behind – that we indeed, reach the most vulnerable communities and disconnected areas.

What’s your best UNICEF experience/memory?

I remember a user testing session we ran in Rufisque, which was about 40 minutes from Dakar. We interviewed young people to get their feedback on our content and mobile product. During the session, we asked adolescents how they liked the content we had created with the Senegal office and if they were finding it relevant. Our test users were surprised by the level of localization our colleagues in Senegal had done with the content produced. They also helped us by recommending expressions that resonate with the youth like becoming a true “NandiTic” – a cool young techy person in Wolof. It was great to see their enthusiasm and hear first-hand that what we do is very relevant to them.

What’s one of the biggest risks you’ve ever taken in your life?

Creating a start-up and starting from scratch when I could have followed the path of staying in a comfortable job within a large organization.

What are your passions?

Playing guitar and writing songs, going to concerts, skating, surfing, photography and of course hanging out and having great food with my awesome family and friends.

What advice would you give others who are seeking a similar job as yours?

Do what you believe in, go with your gut and let your energy and ideas lead you. Do not follow the path of least resistance. The world needs more doers, not more paper pushers. Get out there and make it happen, people will respect that and the smart ones will give you a chance and will support and join you.

Who do you look towards for inspiration?

It goes from Oscar Wilde, “life’s too important to be taken seriously” to Gandhi, “be the change you want to see in the world”, Banksy “laugh now but one day we’ll be in charge”, Serge Gainsbourg “aux armes et caetera” and the Ramones “hey ho, let’s go!”.

Geniuses are usually quite crazy people that believe in themselves and who think differently. Those who challenge the status quo are my constant source of inspiration. Ah yes, and my beautiful grandmothers too – for all their kindness and knowledge.

My colleagues don’t know that…

I took my grandma on a road trip before she got too ill so that she could visit her old friends. It’s one of the things I am most proud of doing. In our busy lives, it’s important to remember to spend time with the ones we love when we still have time to do so.

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softwareacct · 4 years

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After the Dust Settles: Are You Ready For The Tough Financial Discussions

Over the past few weeks, the IT community as a whole has been stepping up and committing tremendous resources to ensure businesses and individuals can carry on their work and provide vital education and communications. Most are realizing that as a people and industry, we are all in this together. The best way to help clients, employees, and others make it through a global pandemic is through direct communications, prudent planning, and a strong commitment to excellence.

Your customers need you now more than ever before. Due to circumstances out of their control, as well as yours, many of these businesses are being negatively impacted on a financial and a structural perspective. Most non-essential organizations are closed or operating far below their standard capacity. Employees may be working from home or in different onsite locations to meet state and local health department guidelines. Some businesses are furloughing or eliminating employees to stave off long-term cash flow issues, while others maintain the status quo and hope for a quick resolution.

The reality is that relatively few companies will be in the black when the dust settles. Other than those currently making or delivering life-sustaining products and services, many organizations will be cash flow deficient, at least for the short-term, with much uncertainty surrounding their financial standing once things return to ‘normal.’

Government stimulus and supplier options may cushion or even erase the financial pain for some of your clients, but MSPs must prepare themselves for tough discussions regardless of duration. Before you begin those discussions, it’s essential to take a step back and assess your company’s current situation, and then start mapping out strategies to put your business and your clients in the best possible financial position in a post-pandemic world.

Shared struggles

As that old saying goes, ‘the best offense is a good defense.’ No matter how great your revenue streams are at present, every MSP should be developing fluid plans with various options to address all the actual and potential short-term scenarios. A proactive approach will help protect your financial situation and ensure your firm is fully capable of supporting your clients when the dust settles.

Start with a strategic view. Have you had one-on-one conversations with each client’s decision-makers to assess their operational and financial health? One goal should be to determine how long those businesses can maintain their current level of activity without reducing their workforce (if they haven’t already) or having to close their doors.

Now is the time for an honest dialog between entrepreneurs. In some cases, you may be able to share management best practices or COVID-19-related banking or government resources that can benefit both parties (more on that later). Listen and show empathy for their situation, since they may be experiencing similar problems, and remind them that you’re in this together.

The channel experts suggest MSPs hold firm on pricing and services. Support your clients as much as possible, especially those that significantly shifted their workforce. Consider options such as delayed billing, with extended repayment plans, or temporarily cutting services or trimming the unused seats from furloughs and layoffs. Avoid price reductions and contract negotiations as much as possible and suggest putting off those discussions for 90 days or more (if possible). You can be empathetic without negatively impacting your MSP’s long-term cash flow.

Don’t let COVID-19 reshape your financial model

Technology and innovation, two of the bright spots to come from this pandemic, are your value proposition, and MSPs should be careful not to undervalue their services in light of what some may view as a ‘buyer’s market.’ Most business owners have real concerns about revenue shortages and cash flow fluctuations, but some will leverage the situation to get price discounts and free services from their suppliers.

Are your current clients truly suffering financially? Many organizations, including managed services providers, are actually growing during the pandemic. Some essential businesses are busier now than ever before (i.e., grocers, cleaning services, delivery companies), and others are relying as much, if not more, on IT services to run and secure their operations.

That’s not an easy thing to gauge, and few business owners are going to willingly share accounting data to back up claims of lost revenue or increased expenses to cope with the pandemic. As with any relationship built on trust, MSPs must take their clients at their word and help them resolve any payment issues that arise over the coming weeks and months.

If businesses are asking your team to drop seat counts or cut back on services, it’s usually a sign that things are not going well. However, in the current situation, the leadership team may simply be conserving resources and altering its emergency business plan to position the company for a healthy return after the pandemic restrictions lift.

With all the available government funding and loan options, organizational strategies and options are plentiful, even for those companies that are furloughing employees or otherwise reducing their workforce. Don’t assume your clients don’t have a viable financial plan. Be confident and supportive in those discussions and realize that now is the perfect time to talk regularly with key decision-makers. These ‘executive to executive’ conversations can, if done well, strengthen your relationships and create a more open dialog with these clients. Check-in and ask what they need to make it through the current crisis.

Use caution. Some savvy business owners will use the situation to renegotiate contracts with suppliers, including those that provide and support the very IT infrastructure that is keeping them operational during the crisis. Hold firm and remind your clients of all the valued services your team continues to deliver and only discuss discounts on a case-by-case basis. Avoid making across-the-board pricing decisions and manage the exceptions.

In those limited cases, provide temporary adjustments with set expiration dates, and be sure to get it in writing ‒ with your attorney’s approval. As mentioned previously, the best offense is a strong defense. Protect your company’s long-term interest by developing a solid (yet fair) strategy for dealing with contract renegotiation and price reduction requests. Develop a plan that allows your team to show empathy without compromising your cash flow.

Be sure to remind your clients of the value you bring to the table. If your business has to cut back to make up for pricing discounts or a significant increase in A/R, it will be harder to protect and support their business. You are all in this together.

Share stimulus resources

Technology is just one area where MSPs can help their clients (and other businesses). Some tend to forget that B2B is about building more than sales relationships with other owners, but personal connections that can benefit both organizations. In uncertain times, most everyone is looking for the latest information about government and lending programs, as well as tips and best practices for navigating through the endless red tape.

If you’ve spent any time deciphering the details in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, or have a personal relationship with an expert on that topic, discuss those resources with other entrepreneurs. Collaboration and information sharing is vital in times of emergency. Discussing the stimulus options available to small businesses may be just as valuable as stopping a significant cybersecurity threat today.

After all, those financial incentives can help ensure your clients can cover their payroll expenses the next couple of months and keep most, if not all, of their seat licenses intact. That’s a win-win opportunity for MSPs.

Resources such as are not only invaluable for providers, but that same information can be just as advantageous for the businesses you support. Why not set up a webinar or teleconference for your clients with a CPA who has a firm handle on the current stimulus options? Using social media and newsletters, your firm can distribute similar resources and best practices to a broader business audience and make introductions to local experts who can help them navigate through the various grant and loan applications.

Now is the time to be proactive and creative. What else can you do to support your clients and community and give people a hand up in this time of crisis? After the dust settles, you can worry about lesser things and refocus sales and marketing efforts, but for now, the best support you may be able to offer some clients is empathy and information. Help them weather the storm and develop even stronger relationships. In the end, with a sound financial plan and effective communications, your standing with clients will be higher, and revenue streams and cash flow will return.

The post After the Dust Settles: Are You Ready For The Tough Financial Discussions appeared first on ConnectBooster.

#automate real recurring revenue #Leading Invoicing solutions #accounting #accounting software

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connectbooster1 · 4 years

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After the Dust Settles: Are You Ready For The Tough Financial Discussions

Shared struggles

Don’t let COVID-19 reshape your financial model

Share stimulus resources

The post After the Dust Settles: Are You Ready For The Tough Financial Discussions appeared first on ConnectBooster.

from ConnectBooster https://www.connectbooster.com/blog/after-the-dust-settles-are-you-ready-for-the-tough-financial-discussions/

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holytheoristtastemaker · 4 years

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Online retail giant Amazon has been hit by a wave of strikes as workers protest against ‘unsafe working conditions’ and ‘corporate inaction’ during the pandemic Striking Amazon workers across Europe and the US are walking out of company warehouses over the lack of protection being provided to staff during the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Amazon’s frontline logistics workers, including drivers and those who operate the e-commerce giant’s fulfillment centres, are citing a number of reasons for striking, including a lack of protective latex gloves and hand sanitiser, overcrowding during shifts, and high barriers to quarantine pay. In Spain and Italy, which have both been badly affected by Covid-19, Amazon refused to shut down facilities after news broke in early March that a number of workers had contracted the virus. This prompted Spanish union Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) to lodge an official complaint with the country’s labour authorities about Amazon’s response to the crisis. “They’re putting financial gain before workers’ health,” a union spokesperson said. Strikes began soon after on 16 March 2020, when employees at Amazon’s Castel San Gionvanni warehouse in northern Italy went on an indefinite strike to protest the lack of safety measures in place. “Here it’s not possible to work with the amount of persons that we are, as we are constantly walking along each other, touching the same things, eating in the same space,” said Beatrice Moia, a safety workers’ manager at Amazon’s main Italian logistics hub. “We had a quite long meeting of over three hours with the company, we tried to apply here the protocol signed by unions and companies for safety, but we haven’t found enough common grounds to ensure safety.” The next day, workers at Amazon’s Piacenza warehouse, which is located just outside Milan in northern Italy and houses 1,100 staff, walked out over the lack of proper hygiene and social distancing measures. Profits over safety On 17 March 2020, the Amazonians United NYC union published an open letter demanding a number of protections for its US-based warehouse workers from the coronavirus. These included paid sick leave regardless of diagnosis, childcare pay and subsidies, increased hazard pay, an end to rate-based write ups, and a full shut down of the facilities as soon as someone tests positive. So far the open letter has been signed by 5,210 logistics workers, including those from Amazon’s European fulfillment centres. On the same day, Amazon set out plans to hire an additional 100,000 staff to cope with the surge of demand in online shopping. It also committed to raising the hourly rate of pay for its retail workers in the UK, Europe and the US by £2, €2 and $2, respectively. The first US-based Amazon worker to get the virus tested positive on 18 March 2020, prompting four senators, including Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders, to publish an open letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. “We are concerned by reports that managers at Amazon’s warehouses continue to hold ‘stand up’ staff meetings before every shift – meetings that result in dozens of staff crowded together in rooms for 10 or 15 minutes at a time – in contradiction of guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),” wrote the senators. “We are also concerned by reports that hand sanitiser and disinfectant wipes are in short supply at Amazon warehouses across the country, and that some Amazon warehouses are not receiving any additional cleaning.” The senators went as far as to say Amazon was actively prioritising “efficiency and profits over the safety and well-being of its workforce”. The company’s policies also prompted attorney generals in 14 states and Washington DC to send a letter to Amazon, as well as its subsidiary Whole Foods, on 25 March 2020 condemning its sick leave policies as “inadequate to protect the public health” during the crisis. “By limiting paid sick leave to only those employees who have been diagnosed with Covid-19 or who have been placed into quarantine, the companies are placing their other employees, their customers and the public at large at significant risk of exposure to Covid-19,” they said. Strikes spread to the US Following a similar pattern to their European counterparts, workers in the US began taking action after Amazon decided to keep warehouses open. The first US-based Amazon strikes occurred on 30 March 2020 – one at the company’s JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, New York, and one at a delivery station in Chicago. In both cases, workers cited Amazon’s refusal to close the buildings for cleaning after suspected cases of Covid-19. These were quickly followed in the coming days by additional strikes. On 1 April 2020, for example, workers walked out of the DTW1 warehouse just outside Detroit, while DCH1 warehouse workers in Chicago carried out a series of safety strikes throughout that same week. Both sets of workers cited a shortage of cleaning supplies and hygiene equipment, as well as crowded working conditions, and are demanding the warehouses be shut immediately with full pay for employees. However, hours after the original walkout at the Staten Island facility, Amazon took retaliatory action against its lead organiser, assistant manager Christian Smalls, who had been working at the company for five years. In a letter to Amazon chief Bezos, published by the Guardian, Smalls cited a lack of proper protections and Amazon’s secrecy around the number of cases as reasons for the strike, and argued the company was making workers risk their lives. He also commented on his firing. “Because Amazon was so unresponsive, I and other employees who felt the same way decided to stage a walkout and alert the media to what’s going on. On Tuesday, about 50-60 workers joined us in our walkout. A number of them spoke to the press. It was beautiful, but unfortunately I believe it cost me my job,” he wrote. “A few days before the walkout, Amazon told me they wanted to put me on ‘medical quarantine’ because I had interacted with someone who was sick. It made no sense because they weren’t putting other people on quarantine. I believe they targeted me because the spotlight is on me.” The empire strikes back However, the same day as Smalls’ letter to Bezos, Vice uncovered written notes from a meeting attended by the CEO, which detail Amazon’s strategy to discredit Smalls and the wider movement of workers organising to better conditions during the pandemic. “We should spend the first part of our response strongly laying out the case for why the organiser’s conduct was immoral, unacceptable, and arguably illegal, in detail, and only then follow with our usual talking points about worker safety,” wrote Amazon’s general counsel, David Zapolsky. “Make him the most interesting part of the story, and if possible make him the face of the entire union/organizing movement. He’s not smart or articulate, and to the extent the press wants to focus on us versus him, we will be in a much stronger PR position than simply explaining for the umpteenth time how we’re trying to protect workers.” [Smalls is] not smart or articulate, and to the extent the press wants to focus on us versus him, we will be in a much stronger PR position David Zapolsky, Amazon In a statement to Vice News, Zapolsky said his “comments were personal and emotional”, and that he was “frustrated and upset that an Amazon employee would endanger the health and safety of other Amazonians by repeatedly returning to the premises after having been warned to quarantine himself after exposure to virus Covid-19”. In response, New York attorney general Letitia James is now calling for an investigation into the firing of Smalls. “It is disgraceful that Amazon would terminate an employee who bravely stood up to protect himself and his colleagues. At the height of a global pandemic, Chris Smalls and his colleagues publicly protested the lack of precautions that Amazon was taking to protect them from Covid-19,” she said in a statement. “In New York, the right to organise is codified into law, and any retaliatory action by management related thereto is strictly prohibited.” James added that her office is “considering all legal options”, and will be calling on the National Labor Relations Board to investigate the dismissal. According to Smalls, however, Amazon’s tactics will not work as he is already in contact with logistics workers across the US looking to take similar action. “I am getting calls from Amazon workers across the country and they all want to stage walk-outs too. We are starting a revolution and people around the country support us,” he said. “If you’re an Amazon customer, here’s how you can practice real social distancing – stop clicking the ‘Buy now’ button. Go to the grocery store instead. You might be saving some lives.” A second strike is now being planned at the Staten Island facility where Smalls was fired from. When contacted for comment on this story, Amazon’s press team directed Computer Weekly to a couple of related blog posts it has recently published on this topic, which acknowledge that “expressions of protest” have been made by members of its workforce, but the company insists these are small-scale. “These incidents have occurred at a very small number of sites and represent a few hundred employees out of hundreds of thousands. We want to be very clear that we respect the rights of these employees to protest and recognise their legal right to do so,” the blog states. If you’re an Amazon customer, here’s how you can practice real social distancing – stop clicking the ‘Buy now’ button Christian Smalls “It is vitally important that we keep people safe during this pandemic, and one of the primary ways we can do that is to ensure everyone at our sites is taking precautions, such as social distancing, frequent hand washing, and disinfecting surfaces. “We did not, and have not ever, terminate an associate for speaking out on their working conditions, but we will act swiftly with individuals who purposely put others at risk. “What you probably read and hear less about are the hundreds of thousands of Amazon employees who are doing incredibly important work every day to support their communities and who are working with their local teams to drive improvements that further enhance the health and safety of their work environment. “We are all learning and adapting quickly through this process, and their feedback has led to changes to over 150 processes across operations and the roll-out of significant health and safety measures,” the blog added.

http://damianfallon.blogspot.com/2020/04/coronavirus-amazon-warehouse-workers.html

#SEO #Local SEO training

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projectlabsco · 4 years

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Project Management Job Description

The project management job descriptions you see in profiles on LinkedIn might not represent exactly what you would do in the role. That’s because project managers do so many different things! In this article, we’ll look at the things that make up a typical project management job description, and then look at some specialist industries plus the role of a junior project manager. I’m going to give you a ton of info for you to either create a job description for your own vacancies or get ready to apply for a job role, knowing exactly what you are going to be assessed against. You should be able to copy and paste from this article to create a job description – and then simply edit it to fit the role you are writing it for. Ready? Let’s dive in! What is a job description? A job description (which you might hear abbreviated to JD) describes the role. It explains what the role does, and what the position is responsible for. Sometimes you’ll get a person specification alongside the job description, either as a separate document or built in to the JD. In this article, I’ll share both the role-specific elements you’ll find in a job description, and also notes about the requirements for the role or the person specification that employers are likely to be looking for. A general project management job description The first part of a job description is the job purpose. Here’s an example job purpose for project managers. Job purpose To scope, plan, manage and implement projects. Responsible for managing the delivery of the project from the original definition through to go live and including the handover into live service, according to our organisation’s project management methodology. The job description then goes on to lay out the role’s accountabilities and activities. Below is an example of the duties of a project manager. Accountabilities and activities To plan, scope and deliver projects. To ensure that all project requirements and solutions comply with our organisation’s Information Governance processes and other policies. To ensure a plan is created and maintained to deliver projects within the agreed criteria. This includes deliverables, costs, development and implementation. To manage multiple projects concurrently as required. To establish and maintain relationships with key stakeholders to ensure that the project output is achieved including third parties and suppliers. To ensure adequate project controls are implemented and applied. To lead the project team and co-ordinate business involvement as required. To provide progress reports on all projects at the required frequency. The job description can also include other sections like Freedom of Action and Environment. Freedom of action The freedom of action section of the job description is brief. It explains how the role fits into the organisation structure. For example: The Project Manager will operate as a member of the [team name] team, reporting directly to the [job title of role’s line manager]. The post holder will be expected to adhere to current internal policies, procedures and guidelines as required. Environment The environment section of a job description is another short statement you may see. Not all job descriptions for project managers have it, but I think it’s a useful inclusion as it helps candidates understand where they will be expected to work. Just add a few bullet points to the job description under the environment heading, like this: Flexible approach to working hours. Full UK driving licence. Based in [location] but with extensive travel/the possibility to work from home/etc. Person specification Here are some of the elements you could include in a project manager’s job description, as they relate to skills. Skills and Behaviours: Ability to plan and prioritise effectively. Strong organisational skills. Ability to communicate effectively, with tact and diplomacy, both orally and in writing, at all levels. Ability to work on own initiative, with a logical and analytical approach to problem solving. Excellent interpersonal skills. Leadership, motivational, negotiating and influencing skills in a matrix environment. Self-starter, proactive, self-motivating and with good time management skills. Able to provide guidance to colleagues. Able to work independently but also as part of a team. Good questioning and listening skills. Actively demonstrates our company’s values. The person spec or person profile section might also talk about the required experience and certifications the job holder would be expected to have. This will vary based on the expectations of the employer, and the culture/location of the organisation. Project management job descriptions: Software and IT An IT project manager job description will have many similarities with the general JD and role profile I’ve outlined above. However, as you’d expect, there will also be a number of technical requirements. For example: To ensure that projects deliver outputs supported by the appropriate documentation, enabling the wider IT team to provide successful live operations and adequate post implementation support. To oversee the software design, build and testing process according to our internal guidelines. To comply with all IT security and data governance requirements, as laid out in our IT strategy and policies. To work with colleagues across the IT team, acting as the liaison for architecture and strategy, platform, infrastructure, application, testing, security, data management, development, procurement and relevant third parties. In the person spec for an IT project management role, you might see a statement about technical communication, like this: Ability to present complex technical details to a non-technical audience. The job profile might also ask for a certain type of technical background, specific industry experience or certifications. Project manager job description for construction The job description for a project manager in construction covers a lot of things that you’ll see in any role profile. However, construction project management job roles will also have a large element of construction-centric responsibilities. To be appropriately skilled and educated in construction methodologies and procedures. To demonstrate proven skill at leading a multi-disciplinary team of experts to deliver the end result. To negotiate contracts and deliverables with suppliers. To liaise with the relevant agencies to secure permits and licences as appropriate to ensure the work can continue according to the detailed timeline. To source and acquire the appropriate equipment, supplies and resources, and to monitor (or oversee the monitoring of) stock levels to avoid delays. To ensure all health and safety standards, and all other appropriate standards, regulations and laws are adhered to at all times. The role profile might ask for certain experience, certifications, or other preferred attributes that the candidate should have. Project manager job description: Marketing A marketing project manager is someone who carries out projects within the marketing department of an organisation. Their focus will be on leading projects with a primary goal of improving and developing the marketing capabilities of the business. Marketing projects are often campaign-led. The marketing project manager will be responsible for taking the strategic goals of the campaign, breaking down the work and ensuring that the goals are reached through the delivery of the planned tasks. A marketing project manager job description might include an element of ‘doing’ as well as coordinating the work. For example, they might be responsible for copywriting for campaigns, social media management or designing the sales messaging. The role may also include the responsibility for recruiting specialist agencies to carry out marketing tasks, or freelancers, so there could be a large element of coordinating the work of third parties. Junior Project Manager/Project Co-ordinator job description There is quite a lot of cross-over between a junior project manager and a project manager, in terms of skills. However, the extend to which you have to take responsibility for tasks is very different. Here is a sample job description for a project co-ordinator. To provide project team co-ordination, for example (but not limited to): Room bookings and catering Drafting and circulating agendas Organising meetings and training sessions Attending meetings to act as the notetaker, then preparing meeting minutes Co-ordinating the procurement process for anything the team needs to buy To provide project co-ordination, for example (but not limited to): To ensure that project action, risk, issue, change and dependency logs are updated and maintained, and that action points are being dealt with, as instructed by the project manager To liaise with stakeholders and project team members to gather status reports and monitor progress To draft project communications e.g. newsletters, intranet copy and email broadcasts To provide weekly progress reports to the project manager To assist with the production of progress reports at project and team level, and eventually be supported to prepare the reports independently To maintain the project document files, maintain project-specific document templates and ensure version control standards are adhered to To organise project team celebrations Any other duties as required Summary This article has outlined the project management job description elements you can expect to see across a number of different roles. Whether you are writing a JD and role profile for a job you are recruiting for, or simply trying to work out if you’ve got what it takes to do the project manager’s job, this article has given you an insight into the roles and responsibilities of one of the most interesting and flexible jobs out there. Pin for later reading: from WordPress https://ift.tt/37wol87 via IFTTT

#IFTTT #WordPress

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