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Author: Franz Malten Buemann
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All the answers
In an expert-run industrialized economy, there’s a lot of pressure to be the one who’s sure, the person with all the answers.
Far more valuable is someone who has all the questions. The ability to figure out what hasn’t been figured out and see what hasn’t been seen is a significant advantage.
Rarest of all is the person with the humility (and confidence) to realize that even the list of questions can remain elusive. Finding the right questions might be the very thing we need to do.
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278 Social Media Holidays for Your 2021 Content Calendar [+Template]
Do you celebrate International Cat Day, Pizza Day, or Talk Like a Pirate Day?
There are a plethora of observance days worldwide during which marketers can share content relevant to their industries, get involved in a movement, or simply generate more awareness. But odds are, you probably don’t acknowledge these days until you see your favorite brand posting about it.These social media “holidays” are a fun way to connect with new and existing followers who share an affinity for a specific food, fictional character, or pet.
While we don’t suggest sharing content on social media and then adding an irrelevant holiday hashtag to it, these holidays can be a chance to promote your brand in a relevant way. Not doing so could cause you to miss valuable opportunities where your brand can join the conversations taking place among members of your target audience.
To help you plan for trending holidays, we created a list that you can bookmark, as well as a downloadable calendar so you can receive automatic reminders.
Downloadable Holiday Calendar
To help you keep track of all these unique holidays, here’s a Social Media Holiday Google Calendar.
Aside from 2021 holidays, we’ve also set dates on the calendar to repeat annually — either on the exact date they occur or the weekday they occur within the month.
Want to finish out your 2021 calendar with some upcoming holiday posts? Tap the + symbol in the lower right-hand corner of the calendar below to add it to your own Google calendar.
Use the Above Template to Plan Out Your Social Media Holiday Posts
National & Global Holiday Calendar: 2021
The list isn’t exhaustive (there are a lot of food-specific holidays out there), and these dates and hashtags may still be subject to change. But this is a great starting point for social media marketers who want to learn more about what’s trending and how they can plan their content in a way that will be fun and engaging on social platforms.January 2021 Social Media Holidays
February 2021 Social Media Holidays
March 2021 Social Media Holidays
April 2021 Social Media Holidays
May 2021 Social Media Holidays
June 2021 Social Media Holidays
July 2021 Social Media Holidays
August 2021 Social Media Holidays
September 2021 Social Media Holidays
October 2021 Social Media Holidays
November 2021 Social Media Holidays
December 2021 Social Media HolidaysJanuary 2021 Social Media Holidays
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January 1: New Year’s Day #NewYearsDay
January 2: Science Fiction Day #ScienceFictionDay
January 4: National Trivia Day #NationalTriviaDay
January 5: National Bird Day #NationalBirdDay
January 11: Human Trafficking Awareness Day #HumanTraffickingDay
January 11: Clean Off Your Desk Day #CleanOffYourDeskDay
January 13: National Sticker Day #NationalStickerDay
January 15: National Hat Day #NationalHatDay
January 18: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Third Monday of January) #MLKDay
January 20: Cheese Lovers Day #CheeseLoversDay
January 21: National Hugging Day #NationalHuggingDay
January 21: Get to Know Your Customers Day (third Thursday of every quarter) #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay
January 24: National Compliment Day #NationalComplimentDay
January 25: Opposite Day #OppositeDay
January 25: Community Manager Appreciation Day (Last Monday of January) #CMAD
January 28: Data Privacy Day #PrivacyAware
February 2021 Social Media Holidays
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February 1 – 28: Black History Month
February 2: Groundhog Day #GroundhogDay
February 2: World Wetlands Day #WorldWetlandsDay
February 4: World Cancer Day #WorldCancerDay
February 5: National Weatherperson’s Day #NationalWeatherpersonsDay
February 7: Super Bowl LV (Varies each year based on the U.S. Football season) #SBLV #SuperBowlSunday #SuperBowl
February 7: National Send a Card to a Friend Day #SendACardToAFriendDay
February 8: National Boy Scouts Day #BoyScoutsDay
February 9: National Pizza Day #NationalPizzaDay
February 9: Safer Internet Day #SID2021
February 11: Inventors Day #InventorsDay
February 12: Chinese New Year #ChineseNewYear
February 13: World Radio Day #WorldRadioDay
February 14: Valentine’s Day #ValentinesDay
February 15: Presidents Day (Third Monday of February) #PresidentsDay
February 16: Mardi Gras #MardiGras
February 17: Random Acts of Kindness Day #RandomActsOfKindnessDay
February 18: National Battery Day #NationalBatteryDay
February 20: World Day of Social Justice #SocialJusticeDay
February 20: Love Your Pet Day #LoveYourPetDay
February 21: International Mother Language Day #IMLD
March 2021 Social Media Holidays
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March 2: National Read Across America Day #ReadAcrossAmerica & #DrSeuss
March 3: World Wildlife Day #WorldWildlifeDay
March 4: National Grammar Day #NationalGrammarDay
March 5: National Employee Appreciation Day (First Friday of March) #EmployeeAppreciationDay
March 5: National Day of Unplugging (First Friday of March) #NationalDayOfUnplugging
March 6: National Dentist’s Day #DentistsDay
March 7: National Be Heard Day #NationalBeHeardDay
March 7: National Cereal Day #NationalCerealDay
March 8: International Women’s Day #BeBoldForChange
March 8: National Proofreading Day #NationalProofreadingDay
March 10: National Pack Your Lunch Day #NationalPackYourLunchDay
March 10: National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day #NWGHAAD
March 11: National Worship of Tools Day #WorshipOfToolsDay
March 11: Popcorn Lover’s Day #PopcornLoversDay
March 12: National Girl Scout Day #GirlScoutDay
March 14: Potato Chip Day #NationalPotatoChipDay
March 14: Pi Day #PiDay (To go the extra mile, post this at 1:59, as Pi equals 3.14159…)
March 14: Daylight Savings #DaylightSavings
March 15: National Napping Day #NationalNappingDay
March 15: World Consumer Rights Day #WorldConsumerRightsDay
March 16: National Freedom of Information Day #FreedomOfInformationDay
March 17: St. Patrick’s Day #StPatricksDay
March 18: Awkward Moments Day #NationalAwkwardMomentsDay
March 19: National Let’s Laugh Day #NationalLetsLaughDay
March 19: World Sleep Day #WorldSleepDay
March 19: Red Nose Day #RedNoseDay
March 20: International Day of Happiness #InternationalDayofHappiness
March 20: World Storytelling Day #WorldStorytellingDay
March 20: First Day of Spring #FirstDayofSpring
March 21: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination #RacialDiscriminationDay
March 21: World Poetry Day #WorldPoetryDay
March 22: World Water Day #WorldWaterDay
March 23: National Puppy Day #NationalPuppyDay
March 23: American Diabetes Association Alert Day #AmericanDiabetesAssociationAlertDay
March 25: Tolkien Reading Day #TolkienReadingDay
March 26: National Spinach Day #NationalSpinachDay
March 26: Purple Day #PurpleDay
March 27: Earth Hour Day #EarthHour
March 30: Doctor’s Day #NationalDoctorsDay
March 30: National Take a Walk in the Park Day #NationalWalkInTheParkDay
March 31: World Backup Day #WorldBackupDay
March 31: Transgender Day of Visibility #TDOV
March 31: Equal Pay Day #EqualPayDay
April 2021 Social Media Holidays
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April 1 – 30: National Stress Awareness Month
April 1: April Fools Day #AprilFools
April 2: World Autism Awareness Day #WAAD
April 3: Find a Rainbow Day #FindARainbowDay
April 4: Hug a Newsperson Day #HugANewsperson
April 5: World Health Day #LetsTalk
April 6: National Walking Day #NationalWalkingDay
April 10: National Siblings Day #NationalSiblingsDay
April 10: Encourage a Young Writer Day #EncourageAYoungWriterDay
April 11: National Pet Day #NationalPetDay
April 12: International Day of Human Space Flight #InternationalDayOfHumanSpaceFlight
April 15: National Tax Day #TaxDay
April 15: Get to Know Your Customers Day (third Thursday of every quarter) #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay
April 15: National High-Five Day #NH5D
April 16: National Stress Awareness Day #StressAwarenessDay
April 16: National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day #PJDay
April 17: Haiku Poetry Day #HaikuPoetryDay
April 18: National Columnists’ Day #NationalColumnistDay
April 20: National Look-Alike Day #NationalLookAlikeDay
April 21: National Administrative Professionals Day #AdministrativeProfessionalsDay
April 22: Earth Day #EarthDay2021
April 23: National Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day #COUNTONME
April 23: National Picnic Day #NationalPicnicDay
April 23: World Book Day #WorldBookDay
April 23: Arbor Day #ArborDay
April 25: National Telephone Day #NationalTelephoneDay
April 25: World Malaria Day #EndMalariaForGood
April 28: Denim Day #DenimDay
April 29: International Dance Day #InternationalDanceDay
April 30: National Honesty Day #NationalHonestyDay
April 30: National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day #AdoptAShelterPetDay
April 30: International Jazz Day #JazzDay
May 2021 Social Media Holidays
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May 1: May Day #MayDay
May 1: International Workers Day #IntWorkersDay
May 3: World Press Freedom Day #WPFD2021 #PressFreedom
May 4: Star Wars Day #StarWarsDay & #Maythe4thBeWithYou
May 4: International Firefighters Day #InternationalFirefightersDay
May 4: World Asthma Day #WorldAsthmaDay
May 4: Thank a Teacher Day #ThankATeacher
May 5: Cinco de Mayo #CincoDeMayo
May 6: National Nurses Day #NursesDay
May 7: World Password Day #WorldPasswordDay
May 7: Space Day #SpaceDay
May 9: Europe Day #EuropeDay
May 9: Mother’s Day #MothersDay
May 12: National Limerick Day #NationalLimerickDay
May 12: National Receptionist Day #NationalReceptionistDay
May 15: International Day of Families #FamilyDay
May 16: Love a Tree Day #LoveATreeDay
May 17: International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia #IDAHOT2021
May 21: National Memo Day #NationalMemoDay
May 21: National Bike to Work Day #BTWD
May 21: Endangered Species Day #EndangeredSpeciesDay
May 24: National Scavenger Hunt Day #NationalScavengerHuntDay
May 28: Hamburger Day #NationalHamburgerDay
May 28: Heat Awareness Day (Last Friday of May) #NoFryDay
May 29: Paperclip Day #PaperclipDay
May 31: Memorial Day (Fourth Monday of May) #MemorialDay #MDW
May 31: World No-Tobacco Day #NoTobacco
June 2021 Social Media Holidays
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June 1: Global Day of Parents #GlobalDayOfParents
June 4: National Donut Day #NationalDonutDay
June 5: World Environment Day #WorldEnvironmentDay
June 6: National Cancer Survivor’s Day #NCSD2021
June 6: Higher Education Day #HigherEducationDay
June 8: World Oceans Day #WorldOceansDay
June 8: Best Friends Day #BestFriendsDay
June 13: International Children’s Day #ChildrensDay
June 14: World Blood Donor Day #GiveBlood
June 14: National Flag Day #FlagDay
June 19: Juneteenth (Freedom Day) #Juneteenth
June 20: World Refugee Day #WithRefugees
June 20: First Day of Summer
June 20: Father’s Day #FathersDay
June 21: National Selfie Day #NationalSelfieDay
June 21: World Music Day #WorldMusicDay
June 21: International Yoga Day #InternationalYogaDay
June 24: National Handshake Day #HandshakeDay
June 25: Take Your Dog to Work Day #TakeYourDogToWorkDay
June 27: National Sunglasses Day #NationalSunglassesDay
June 30: Social Media Day #SMDay
July 2021 Social Media Holidays
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July 1: National Postal Worker Day #NationalPostalWorkerDay
July 2: World UFO Day #WorldUFODay
July 4: Independence Day (United States)
July 7: World Chocolate Day #WorldChocolateDay
July 11: Cheer Up the Lonely Day #CheerUpTheLonelyDay
July 12: Malala Day #MalalaDay
July 15: Give Something Away Day #GiveSomethingAwayDay
July 15: Get to Know Your Customers Day #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay
July 17: World Emoji Day #WorldEmojiDay
July 18: Nelson Mandela International Day #MandelaDay
July 30: Talk in an Elevator Day #TalkInAnElevatorDay
July 30: International Day of Friendship #DayOfFriendship
August 2021 Social Media Holidays
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August 1: Respect for Parents Day #RespectForParentsDay
August 2: National Coloring Book Day #NationalColoringBookDay
August 8: International Cat Day #InternationalCatDay
August 9: National Book Lovers Day #NationalBookLoversDay
August 10: National Lazy Day #LazyDay
August 11: National Sons and Daughters Day #SonsAndDaughtersDay
August 12: International Youth Day #YouthDay
August 12: World Elephant Day #WorldElephantDay
August 13: International Lefthanders Day #LefthandersDay
August 15: National Relaxation Day #NationalRelaxationDay
August 16: National Tell a Joke Day #NationalTellAJokeDay
August 19: World Photo Day #WorldPhotoDay
August 19: World Humanitarian Day #WorldHumanitarianDay
August 20: National Lemonade Day #NationalLemonadeDay
August 26: National Dog Day #NationalDogDay
August 26: National Women’s Equality Day #WomensEqualityDay
September 2021 Social Media Holidays
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September 4: National Wildlife Day #NationalWildlifeDay
September 5: International Day of Charity #CharityDay
September 6: Labor Day #LaborDay
September 6: Read a Book Day #ReadABookDay
September 8: International Literacy Day #LiteracyDay
September 10: Stand Up To Cancer Day #KissCancerGoodbye
September 11: National Day of Service and Remembrance #911Day
September 12: Civic Day of Hacking #HackForChange
September 12: National Grandparents Day #NationalGrandparentsDay
September 12: National Day of Encouragement #DayOfEncouragement
September 12: National Video Games Day #NationalVideoGamesDay
September 15 – October 15: Hispanic Heritage Month #hispanicheritagemonth
September 19: Talk Like a Pirate Day #TalkLikeAPirateDay
September 21: International Day of Peace #PeaceDay
September 21: Miniature Golf Day #MiniGolfDay
September 22: Car-Free Day #CarFreeDay
September 22: Hobbit Day #HobbitDay
September 22: First Day of Fall
September 26: National Pancake Day #NationalPancakeDay
September 26: European Day of Languages #EDL2021
September 27: World Tourism Day #WTD2021
September 28: World Rabies Day #WorldRabiesDay
September 28: National Good Neighbor Day #GoodNeighborDay
September 29: National Women’s Health and Fitness Day #FitnessDay
September 30: International Podcast Day #InternationalPodcastDay
October 2021 Social Media Holidays
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October 1: International Day of Older Persons #UNDOP
October 1: International Coffee Day #InternationalCoffeeDay
October 1: World Vegetarian Day #WorldVegetarianDay
October 1: World Smile Day #WorldSmileDay
October 2: International Day of Nonviolence #InternationalDayOfNonviolence
October 3: National Techies Day #TechiesDay
October 4: World Animal Day #WorldAnimalDay
October 4: National Taco Day #NationalTacoDay
October 4: World Habitat Day #WorldHabitatDay
October 5: World Teachers Day #WorldTeachersDay
October 10: World Mental Health Day #WorldMentalHeathDay
October 11: International Day of the Girl #DayOfTheGirl
October 14: World Sight Day #WorldSightDay
October 14: National Dessert Day #DessertDay
October 15: Global Handwashing Day #GlobalHandwashingDay
October 16: World Food Day #FoodDay
October 16: Bosses Day #BossesDay
October 17: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty #EndPoverty
October 20: World Statistics Day #StatisticsDay
October 21: Reptile Awareness Day #ReptileAwarenessDay
October 21: Get to Know Your Customers Day (third Thursday of every quarter) #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay
October 24: United Nations Day #UNDay
October 25: Greasy Foods Day #GreasyFoodsDay
October 30: National Publicist Day #NationalPublicistDay
October 30: Checklist Day #ChecklistDay
October 31: Halloween #Halloween
November 2021 Social Media Holidays
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November 1: World Vegan Day #WorldVeganDay
November 1: National Authors Day #NationalAuthorsDay
November 1: National Cook For Your Pets Day #CookForYourPetsDay
November 3: National Sandwich Day #NationalSandwichDay
November 4: National Candy Day #NationalCandyDay
November 7: Daylight Saving Time Ends #DaylightSavings
November 8: National Cappuccino Day #CappuccinoDay
November 8: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine (STEM) Day #STEMDay
November 11: Veterans Day #VeteransDay
November 13: World Kindness Day #WKD
November 14: World Diabetes Day #WDD
November 15: Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day #CleanOutYourRefrigeratorDay
November 15: America Recycles Day #BeRecycled
November 16: International Day for Tolerance #ToleranceDay
November 16: National Entrepreneurs Day #EntrepreneursDay
November 17: International Students Day #InternationalStudentsDay
November 19: International Men’s Day #InternationalMensDay
November 20: Universal Children’s Day #UNChildrensDay
November 21: World Hello Day #WorldHelloDay
November 25: Thanksgiving Day #Thanksgiving
November 26: National Cake Day #NationalCakeDay
November 26: National Day of Listening #DayOfListening
November 27: Small Business Saturday (The last Saturday of November) #ShopSmall
November 29: Electronic Greeting Card Day #ElectronicGreetingCardDay
November 30: Computer Security Day #ComputerSecurityDay
December 2021 Social Media Holidays
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December 1: World AIDS Day #WAD2021
December 3: International Day of Persons with Disabilities #IDPWD
December 4: National Cookie Day #NationalCookieDay
December 5: World Soil Day #WorldSoilDay
December 6: Microwave Oven Day #MicrowaveOvenDay
December 8: Pretend to Be a Time Traveler Day #PretendToBeATimeTravelerDay
December 10: Human Rights Day #HumanRightsDay
December 10: Nobel Prize Day #NobelPrize
December 10: National Salesperson Day #SalespersonDay
December 11: International Mountain Day #InternationalMountainDay
December 21: Crossword Puzzle Day #CrosswordPuzzleDay
December 21: First Day of Winter #WinterSolstice
December 27: No Interruptions Day #NoInterruptionsDay
December 31: New Year’s Eve #NYE
Sources: National Day Calendar, Sprout Social, TrackMaven, Holiday Insights, Brownielocks, National Peace Corps Association, Sparkflow, There’s a Day for That
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in January 2017 but is updated annually for comprehensiveness. The most recent update of this post was March 2021. -
G2 Reviewers Prefer UJET Compared to NICE, Genesys, Talkdesk and Five9
G2 Ranks UJET #1 in User Satisfaction for the 6th Consecutive Quarter!
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – September 28, 2021 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time – UJET, Inc., the world’s first and only CCaaS 3.0 cloud contact center provider, has been named the leader in G2’s Fall Grid® Report for Overall Satisfaction in Contact Center Operations Software. Based on actual product user reviews, G2 reports that UJET consistently receives the highest satisfaction ratings in the industry, beating out major players in the contact center space.
UJET also earned 51 badges, including Leader, Best Usability, Best Support, Users Most Likely to Recommend, Leader Enterprise, Momentum Leader, Easiest Setup, High Performer Enterprise, Easiest to Use, Best Meets Requirements, Best Results, Best Relationship, Most Implementable and Easiest Admin.
Key Takeaways include:UJET has a 98 out of 100 score for user satisfaction – the highest of all category vendors evaluated
UJET is #1 in Satisfaction for Enterprise, Mid-Market & Overall Contact Center Operations Grid
UJET is the leader across 16 G2 Fall Reports for 2021“This continued recognition from G2 and our users really reinforces that there’s a changing of the guard taking place in the contact center market,” said Baker Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer, UJET.
“The old omnichannel vendors are heavily invested in and promoting the status quo, but the market is desperate for disruption and innovation.
We’re grateful for the feedback from our UJET customers, because it validates that we’re delivering that innovation, and reinforces our commitment to making bold moves on their behalf.”
“Rankings on G2 reports are based on data provided to us by real users,” said Michael Fauscette, Chief Research Officer, G2. “We are excited to share the achievements of the products ranked on our site because they represent the voice of the user and offer terrific insights to potential buyers around the world.”
Reviewers praise UJET for its ‘ease of use, functionality, and support,’ highlights from some of our favorite reviews over the last quarter include:“UJET is the best customer support tool in the market! You can call and chat with customers and it’s very user friendly. Admin access will get you all the required reports to calculate customer satisfaction.” – Team Leader
“UJET was quick to grab from the start. Simple, yet elegant. Calls always go through and it sounds better than my phone, even! I love how you can view your own stats in real time. Perhaps what I liked best was how once I got used to the product, it was a walk in the park to use daily. Straightforward and easy!”– Corporate Customer Service Representative
“I recently started using UJET and I must admit, it’s pretty awesome and very easy to use! It’s definitely helpful for me to see how many calls I’m taking as it helps me always strive to take more and more calls.” – Help Desk Assistant
Additional Resources
Read the 2021 G2 Fall Contact Center Operations Report for full details on UJET’s G2 rankings in comparison to other CCaaS vendors
Hear directly from customers why they selected UJET and the difference it is has made in their contact centers
Hear from some of the most innovative and disruptive companies around the world on how UJET is helping to transform their customer experience
About UJET
UJET is the world’s first and only cloud contact center platform for smartphone era CX. By modernizing digital and in-app experiences, UJET unifies the enterprise brand experience across sales, marketing, and support, eliminating the frustration of channel switching between voice, digital, and self-service for consumers. Offering unsurpassed resiliency and the flexibility to deploy across leading public cloud infrastructures, UJET powers the world’s largest elastic CCaaS tenant at up to 22,000 agents globally and is trusted by innovative, customer-centric enterprises like Instacart, Turo, Wag!, and Atom Tickets to intelligently orchestrate predictive, contextual, conversational customer experiences.
Learn more at www.ujet.cx and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.Media Contacts
Holly Barker
UJETpr@ujet.cx
The post G2 Reviewers Prefer UJET Compared to NICE, Genesys, Talkdesk and Five9 appeared first on UJET. -
The Secret To A Great Customer Experience Is A Great Employee Experience
The key to a great customer experience starts on the inside. Another way of saying it: What happens on the inside of the organization is felt on the outside by the customer. The way to ensure a positive internal culture is The Employee Golden Rule, which is to do unto employees as you want done unto customers. This is where the customer experience begins. Here are six ways to create a better employee experience.
Vocabulary
Feedback
Recognition
Accessibility
Communication
Empowerment
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2021/09/12/the-secret-to-a-great-customer-experience-is-a-great-employee-experience/?sh=7d3d071c82c4
submitted by /u/vesuvitas [link] [comments] -
The Best Free Business Budget Templates
Whether you’re a solopreneur or running a massive corporation, you need a business budget to understand where your money is coming from and going. A business budget template can help keep the numbers organized, making it easy for you to track revenue, plan for expenses, and save for future growth.
You don’t have to be an accountant to organize your business budget. There are thousands of business budget templates out there to make the process easy. Once you understand what a business budget is and how it can work for you, you can use one of the following free templates to start organizing your finances.
The business budget follows a set template, which you can fill in with estimated revenues, plus any recurring or expected business expenses.
For example, if you run a digital marketing business, you might know that you typically make about $10,000 for your work creating campaigns, plus an extra $5,000 for your digital courses. You’d list the estimated revenue from all of your business’ revenue streams as incoming money for the business.
Then, you have your recurring expenses, which you would list as outgoing money. This could include employee salaries, office expenses, and software and technology costs.
How to Create a Business Budget
Creating a business budget is a straightforward process, but it can be more complex for larger companies. Here are the basic steps to creating a business budget.
1. Find a Template or Make a Spreadsheet
There are many free or paid budget templates online these days, so you can either use one of those to start, or make a simple spreadsheet with custom rows and columns based on your business. We list a few helpful templates below.
2. Fill in Revenues
Once you have your template, you’ll start by listing all the sources of your business’ income. With a budget, you’re planning for the future, so you’ll need to estimate this based on previous months’ or years’ revenues. For a new small business budget, you’ll rely on your market research to estimate the first revenues for your company.
3. Subtract Fixed Costs for the Time Period
Fixed costs are the recurring costs you have during each month, quarter, or year. Examples include insurance, rent for office space, website hosting, and internet.
4. Consider Variable Costs
Variable costs will change from time to time. Examples include utility bills, advertising costs, office supplies, and new software or technology. While you may always need to pay some variable costs, like utility bills, you can also shift how much you spend toward things like advertising expenses when you have lower-than-average estimated income.
5. Business Budget Planning
Unexpected expenses might come up, or you might want to save to expand your business. Either way, you need to review your budget after including all expenses, fixed costs, and variable costs to find out how much money you can save. It’s wise to create multiple savings accounts for emergencies and for money meant to go back into the business to drive growth.
How to Manage a Business Budget
There are a few key components to managing your business budget to keep it healthy.
Budget Preparation
The process all starts with properly preparing and planning the budget at the start of each month, quarter, or year. You can also create multiple budgets, some short-term and some long-term. During this stage, you will also set spending limits and create a system to regularly monitor the budget.
Budget Monitoring
For larger businesses, you might delegate budget tracking to multiple supervisors, but even if you are a one-person show, you need to regularly monitor the budget. That means setting a time in your schedule each day or week to review the budget and track actual income and expenses, then compare the actual numbers to the estimates.
Budget Forecasting
With regular budget tracking, you can always know how your business is doing. Check-in regularly to determine how you are doing in terms of revenue, where you have losses, where you can minimize expenses, and how you can move more money into savings. You can use well-tracked budgets to create more accurate budgets for future time periods.
Why is a Budget Important for a Business?
A budget is crucial for businesses. Without one, you could easily be drowning in expenses or unexpected costs compared to incoming money.
The business budget helps with several operations. You can use a business budget to keep track of your finances, save money to help you grow the business or pay bonuses in the future, and prepare for unexpected expenses or emergencies.
You can also review the business budget to determine when to take the next leap for your business. For example, you might be dreaming of a larger office building or the latest software, but you want to make sure you have a healthy net revenue before you make the purchase.
Best Free Business Budget Templates
1. Marketing Budget TemplateImage Source
Knowing how to manage a marketing budget can be a challenge, but with helpful free templates like this marketing budget template bundle, you can track everything from advertising expenses to events and more.
This free bundle includes eight different templates, so you can create multiple budgets to help you determine how much money to put toward marketing plus the return on your investment.
2. Small Business Budget TemplateImage Source
For small businesses, it can be hard to find the time to draw up a budget, but it’s crucial to help keep the business in good health.
Capterra offers a budget template specifically for small businesses. It works with Excel, and you input projections for the year. Then, the spreadsheet will project the month-to-month budget, and you can input your actual revenue and expenses to compare and easily see profits and losses.
3. Startup Budget TemplateImage Source
What if you don’t have any previous numbers to rely on to create profit and expense estimates? If you are a startup, this Gusto budget template will help you draw up a budget before your business is officially in the market. This will help you track all the expenses you need to get your business up and running, estimate your first revenues, and determine where to pinch pennies.
4. Free Business Budget TemplateImage Source
You might be familiar with Intuit, as many companies big and small rely on Intuit’s services like Quickbooks and TurboTax. Even if you don’t use the company’s paid financial services, you can take advantage of Intuit’s free budget template, which works in Google Sheets or Excel.
It features multiple spreadsheet tabs and simple instructions. You enter your revenue in one specific tab and expenses in another. You can also add additional tabs as needed. Then, like magic, the spreadsheet uses the data in the income and expense tabs to summarize the information and even determine net savings and the ending balance.
5. Department Budget SheetImage Source
A mid-to large-size company will have multiple departments, all with different budgetary needs. These budgets will all be considered into a massive, company-wide budget sheet, but having a specific template for each department can help teams keep track of spending and plan for growth.
This free template from Template.net works in either document or spreadsheet formats and can help different departments keep track of their income and spending.
Create a Business Budget to Help Your Company Grow
Making your first business budget can be daunting, especially if you have several revenue streams and expenses. But once you get it set up, it’s easy to replicate regularly, and it’s even easier to get started if you have a business budget template to follow.
With a helpful business budget template, a little planning, and regular monitoring, you can plan for the future of your business, including bonuses, new product or service offerings, and expansions. -
The Goldilocks fallacy
One way to tell if the audience is happy is to ask a simple question: “Do you want it spicier?” (or the equivalent).
If half the people want it to go in one direction and the other half want the other, then you know you’re at ‘just right’. You’ve minimized the number of unhappy customers.
Here’s the problem: This assumes that there’s a normal distribution of preferences. In nature, many things are in fact distributed like this. Height, for example, or sensitivity to loud sounds. Most people are in the middle, fewer people are at either end. The goal when making something for everyone, if everyone is distributed normally, is to seek out the middle.
But!
Personal preferences aren’t normally distributed. Most people don’t care at all, some people care a lot.
And!
In any market with choices, you’re no longer going to be able to serve everyone, because given a choice, people will make a choice.
So, seeking the Goldilocks equilibrium is a trap. While it might diminish criticism, it maximizes apathy. While it might increase your appeal to a hypothetical middle-of-the-road consumer, it might be that there aren’t many of these.
For many products and services, the middle is hollowed out. What you’re left with are the people who want a lot more or want a lot less of whatever it is you’re able to adjust.
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How to make your loyalty programme personal
It has long been established that customer loyalty is the driving force behind the most successful brands on the market. The companies that understood the importance of building trusting relationships with customers have grown and expanded over time. They have seen the power of retention over acquisition and acted upon it for best results. If you’re just…
The post How to make your loyalty programme personal appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine. -
Top 13 ways to grow your Instagram page and followers
Top 13 ways to grow your Instagram page and followers
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Migrating your Audiences from Mailchimp to Campaign Monitor
A quick, easy guide for migrating your audiences from Mailchimp to Campaign Monitor.
Moving stinks. Whether you’re moving across town or across the country, the process is never pleasant. And typically, the same goes for moving software tools.
Even when you’re switching to a tool you’re excited about, the moving process can be a pain. The interface is slightly different, there are new terms to learn, and getting all of your data moved from one platform to the next can be a hassle.
But, rest assured, we’re here to help! If you’re a Mailchimp user looking to migrate to Campaign Monitor, we’ve put a detailed tutorial together on how you can easily make the switch, allowing you to continue your marketing efforts without missing a beat.
Read on for a step-by-step Mailchimp migration guide.
Steps for migrating your Mailchimp audience to Campaign Monitor
Step 1: Log into Mailchimp and export your audience
Select which audiences you’d like to migrate to Campaign Monitor. Then, select “Export Audience” to collect your users quickly and easily.Step 2: Download CSV file
Now that Mailchimp has generated a file that you can export, select the “Export as CSV” button to download your list. Note: It can take some time to generate the CSV if you have a large list.
Once the file is generated, you’ll have a CSV file that looks like this when you open it:Step 3: Log into Campaign Monitor and create your list
Once you have your CSV file, it’s time to head over to Campaign Monitor. Log into your Campaign Monitor account here.
If you don’t already have an account, you can sign up for one here. Creating an account is free, so you can test out the platform for yourself before paying.
After you log in, click the “Lists & subscribers” tab from the top menu. You’ll see an option to create a new list. Select “Create a list” to begin.Then, name your list and click “Continue to import”.
Step 4: Import your list
Find the CSV file you exported from Mailchimp and drag the file into the box shown in the screenshot below. Dragging the file in will automatically start the file upload.Step 5: Match customer data
Map the fields in your Mailchimp CSV file to custom fields in Campaign Monitor. If you already have fields in your list that match the fields in your CSV file, Campaign Monitor will automatically match them for you.You have now successfully imported your Mailchimp Audience into Campaign Monitor! If you have more than one audience in Mailchimp that you want to import to Campaign Monitor, you will need to follow the tutorial above for each audience.
Learn how to do even more on Campaign Monitor by visiting our Campaign Monitor 101 video collection.
Mailchimp migration glossary
Migrating can seem overwhelming. But the more you know, the easier it is. Here are some Mailchimp definitions that you should know during the migration process.
Audiences
Mailchimp recently made the move from a dedicated email platform to a multi-channel marketing hub. With this change, Mailchimp renamed “lists” to “audiences”. The key thing to know is that an audience is basically just a list where your data is stored.
Note: Audiences are identified as lists in Campaign Monitor.
Subscribed contact
Someone who has opted in to receive your email marketing campaigns.
Note: Contacts are identified as subscribers in Campaign Monitor.
Unsubscribed contact
Someone who opted in to receive your email marketing campaigns, but has unsubscribed since then.
Non-subscribed contact
Someone who has interacted with your online store, but hasn’t opted in to receive your email marketing campaigns.
Tags
Tags are labels you create to help organize contacts. Tagging lets you bring your own contact structure into Mailchimp, letting you label contacts based on data you know about them.
Note: Tags can be uploaded as custom fields in Campaign Monitor.
Groups
Groups are separations in your list based on subscriber interests and preferences.
Note: Groups are identified as segments in Campaign Monitor.
Why switch to Campaign Monitor?
Campaign Monitor was founded in 2004 by two email marketers who wanted a simple yet powerful platform for email marketers on teams of any size.
While other platforms focus on building out an omnichannel solution (at an increased cost), Campaign Monitor continues to provide email marketers with mobile-ready and customizable email templates, smart and simple tools for marketers of all experience levels, and friendly support and deliverability teams.
You can look forward to features like:Award-winning worldwide support
A dedicated, experienced deliverability teamFlexible pricing
Free marketing resources
Free image gallery
Simple drag-and-drop technology
Professional template library
Email developer and coding options
Smart segmentation
Link review toolAdvanced tools like countdown timer and engagement segments
Visual journey designer for automated campaigns
Over 2 million marketers at 250,000 businesses around the world are using Campaign Monitor to deliver exceptional email experiences. From agencies to publishers to small businesses, Campaign Monitor can help anyone get the most out of email. See how we serve customers from all industries here.
If you’re not sure about committing to Campaign Monitor, we offer a free trial for you to look around and give it a test drive.
Pricing starts at as little as $9 a month, and we offer pay-as-you-go credits. Campaign Monitor pricing doesn’t charge for unsubscribes in your contact count — your plan will be based on active subscribers.
Wrap up
If you’re looking to switch your email marketing provider, migrating your lists and joining Campaign Monitor couldn’t be easier.
Have questions? Check out our support page for more information on our product.
Editor’s note: this post was updated for accuracy and freshness in September 2021.
The post Migrating your Audiences from Mailchimp to Campaign Monitor appeared first on Campaign Monitor.