Category: Marketing Automation

Small businesses are smart and scrappy. They’re accustomed to working with a small staff, limited resources, and trying to find ways to battle their competitors (who are often larger companies with larger budgets). But just because their budgets aren’t as big doesn’t’ mean small businesses should miss out on the advantages that come with having…
The post 6 Best Small Business Marketing Automation Tools for 2021 appeared first on Benchmarkemail.

Developing and delivering a five-minute presentation seems an easy enough task at first — until you realize the condensed format actually requires significantly more efficiency, focus, and attention to detail than longer presentation types.
When there’s less time to get your point across, every second counts more.
While short presentations can be unexpectedly challenging to create, when done correctly they can be more impactful than longer presentations.
Five minutes is just enough time for you to present a compelling narrative about one topic, without any filler or fluff. The time limit forces you to pack as much valuable information as possible into your presentation while maintaining a coherent structure.
The shorter format also encourages audiences to pay more attention.
But how can you ensure your short presentation accomplishes everything it needs to within just five short minutes? We’ve put together an (appropriately condensed) guide on five-minute presentations to help you get started.

How Many Words Are in a 5-Minute Presentation?
A person speaks on average 120 to 160 words a minute, which means the average five-minute presentation will be anywhere from 600 to 800 words. That means every word should be carefully chosen to support the central idea of your presentation.
When constructing a longer presentation, you might be more concerned about transitions and keeping the audience engaged with more extensive narrative elements.
In a short presentation, everything you say should directly tie back to your central premise and further advance your main point. By keeping a tight scope and using your words carefully, you’ll ensure your time isn’t wasted and the audience leaves with a clear, singular takeaway.
How many slides are in a 5-minute presentation?
Generally speaking, you’ll want to stick to just five or six slides for a five-minute presentation, but there’s no set limit on how many yours will require. You may choose to have twenty slides and to spend about 10 or 15 seconds on each depending on your subject matter.
More important than your slide count is what each slide contains. While it’s a good rule to keep your slides simple and focused on visuals (instead of text) for a presentation of any length, this becomes especially important when you’re dealing with a condensed presentation window.
It can be tempting with a small time window to try to cram in as much information as possible — resist the urge. Instead, focus on simple, clean visuals that (once again) all tie back to your central premise.
If you’re concerned that scaling back the scope of your presentation will leave things out, add a slide at the end of the deck with additional resources and information that your audience can access after the presentation is over.
5-Minute Presentation Example Format
If you’re looking for a starting point for your own five-minute presentation, we’ve created a basic outline below you can use to organize your initial thoughts in the planning stage.
You can choose to devote one slide to each section or multiple slides if you want to break them down further.
Feel free to make departures from the structure depending on the content or format of your presentation. Just remember not to give your audience too much to chew on — the key here is — you guessed it — tying every slide back to one central idea.
An Extremely Short Introduction
Your first slide should serve as an introduction to the topic of your presentation. Try to limit your title to around six words or even less. If your title is too long, it can become unwieldy and your presentation may confuse your audience by covering too much.
Remember: your audience (hopefully!) already has an idea of what you’re presenting on, so you don’t need to spend too much precious time or slide real-estate explaining what you’re going to cover — just jump right in.
A Problem Slide
Most presentations can be boiled down to a problem you’ve identified, solved, or are in the process of solving. Lead with that familiar narrative. It will give your presentation a clear starting point and prime your audience for the rest of your slides.
A Solution/Analysis Slide(s)
Now that your problem has been introduced, tell your audience what they need to know about what you’re doing about it. In shorter presentation formats, you’ll want to focus less on the details and more on the big-picture items. Ask yourself: what does your audience need to know when they leave the room? Anything that falls into the “nice to know” category can be cut and delivered to stakeholders after the meeting in a follow-up email.
A Conclusion Slide
The conclusion side allows you to bring a coherent end to your presentation and summarize the important takeaway points for your audience. Don’t skimp on your conclusion just because it’s a short presentation — it’s the last thing your audience will hear from you. A good conclusion will reinforce the other information you presented and ultimately makes your presentation as a whole more memorable.
5-Minute Presentation Examples
While we (unfortunately) weren’t in the room when these presentations were originally given — and therefore can’t confirm with 100% certainty that they ran for only five minutes — these decks all clock in at under 15 slides and use a simple format to convey a problem and solution.
1. AirBnB Pitch Deck

AirBnB Pitch Deck from
Malcolm Lewis

2. Buffer Pitch Deck

The slide deck we used to raise half a million dollars from
Buffer

3. Mixpanel Pitch Deck

Mixpanel – Our pitch deck that we used to raise $65M from
Suhail Doshi

How Do I Create a Killer 5-Minute Presentation?
Here are some best practices to follow when crafting a short presentation.
1. Focus on the most important part.
The greatest challenge you’ll have when designing your presentation is choosing what to focus on — but from the format we discussed above, you can see how important it is to have a single premise to design your presentation around.
It’s easy to become overambitious in your presentation or to be overwhelmed by the information you want to present. Choosing a single idea to focus on gives you clarity when designing your speech and allows you to cut extraneous information. It also provides a narrative structure that your audience can more easily grasp.
2. Research, fact-check, and do it twice.
Your presentation is your chance to shine — but the shorter format also means that each point you make is going to be more visible, memorable, and consequentially more vulnerable to scrutiny.
Take the time to thoroughly research the subject of your presentation and ensure every point you make is both technically accurate and easy to understand. This will put you in a better position to field questions and discuss your subject in-depth. With a strong command of your subject matter, your delivery will also be more confident and convincing.
3. Appeal to how people learn best: stories.
A story can give meaning to your presentation and elevate it to more than just facts, figures, and some flashy slides. Building your presentation around a simple, easy-to-understand narrative (like the problem/solution narrative we showed you in the template avoid) can make your content more digestible. Your presentation will only last for a few minutes, but the story you tell needs to stick around in your audiences’ brains for longer — and stories naturally help humans understand and retain information more easily.
4. Don’t skip that practice session.
Just because your presentation is only five minutes doesn’t mean you should try to wing it. Your audience’s time is valuable, and practicing your presentation before you deliver it to them will help you make the most of it.
From CEOs to interns, everyone can benefit from practicing their presentations in advance, no matter how confident they are.
If you’re able to deliver much (or all) of it by heart, your delivery will be much more natural, allowing you to develop a stronger connection with your audience. And once nerves hit, you’ll have the muscle memory to fall back on and carry you through the rough patches!
5. Relax and don’t rush.
You only have five minutes to present, so it’s only natural to feel pressure to go a little too fast. Stay relaxed throughout your presentation and avoid distractions, such as someone informing you that you only have a minute left.
Staying focused on your presentation itself will improve your delivery and give you more confidence, even if you’re normally terrified of public speaking.
If you find yourself needing to speed through your presentation to squeeze it into a five-minute window, that’s a good sign you’re trying to do too much and need to consider cutting your slides down.
You Know Your Audience Best
When creating your five-minute presentation, think about your audience and craft it to appeal to them.
The information you decide to highlight and the way you frame it will be vastly different depending on who your presentation is meant for.
It’s natural to be nervous going into your presentation, especially if you don’t like public speaking or have a fear of it, but with enough consideration and practice, you’ll be a master of whatever subject you hope to present.

A presentation aimed at persuading an audience to take a specific action can be the most difficult type to deliver, even if you’re not shy of public speaking.
Creating a presentation that effectively achieves your objective requires time, lots of practice, and most importantly, a focused message.
With the right approach, you can create a presentation that leaves a skeptical audience enthusiastic to get on board with your project.
In this post, we’ll cover the basics of building a persuasive presentation. Let’s dive in.

What is a persuasive presentation?
In its most basic form, a persuasive presentation features a speaker who tries to influence an audience to accept certain positions and engage in actions in support of them. A good persuasive presentation uses a mixture of facts, logic, and empathy to help an audience see an issue from a perspective they previously discounted or hadn’t considered.
How to Plan a Persuasive Presentation
Want to make a persuasive presentation that connects with your audience? Follow these steps to win friends and influence people within your audience.
1. Decide on a single ask.
The key to convincing your audience is to first identify the singular point you want to make. A good persuasive presentation will focus on one specific and easy-to-understand proposition. Even if that point is part of a broader initiative, it ideally needs to be presented as something your audience can say “yes” or “no” to easily.
A message that isn’t well-defined or which covers too much can cause the audience to lose interest or reject it outright. A more focused topic can also help your delivery sound more confident, which (for better or worse) is an important factor in convincing people.
2. Focus on fewer (but more relevant) facts.
Remember: You are (in the vast majority of cases) not the target audience for your presentation. To make your presentation a success, you’ll need to know who your audience is so you can shape your message to resonate with them.
When crafting your messaging, put yourself in your audience’s headspace and attempt to deeply understand their position, needs, and concerns. Focus on arguments and facts that speak specifically to your audience’s unique position.
As we wrote in our post on How to Present a Compelling Argument When You’re Not Naturally Persuasive, “just because a fact technically lends support to your claim doesn’t mean it will sway your audience. The best evidence needs to not only support your claim but also have a connection to your audience.”
What are the target audience’s pain points that you can use to make a connection between their needs and your goals? Focus on those aspects, and cut any excess information. Fewer relevant facts are always more impactful than an abundance of unfocused pieces of evidence.
3. Build a narrative around your evidence.
If you want to persuade someone of something, it’s not enough to win their brain — you need their heart in it, too. Try to make an emotional connection with your audience throughout your presentation to better sell them on the facts you’re presenting. Your audience is human, after all, so some emotional tug will go a long way to shaking up how they view the issue you’re talking about. A little bit of emotion could be just what your audience needs to make your facts “click.”
The easiest way to incorporate an emotional pull into your presentation is through the use of narrative elements. As we wrote in our guide to crafting pitch decks, “When our brains are given a story instead of a list of information, things change — big time. Stories engage more parts of our brains, including our sensory cortex, which is responsible for processing visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli. If you want to keep people engaged during a presentation, tell them a story.”
4. Confidence matters.
Practice makes perfect (it’s a cliche because it’s true, sorry!), and this is especially true for presentation delivery. Rehearse your presentation several times before you give it to your audience so you can develop a natural flow and move from each section without stopping.
Remember, you’re not giving a speech here, so you don’t want your delivery to come across like you’re reading fully off of cue cards. Use tools like notes and cue cards as ways to keep you on track, not as scripts.
Finally, if you can, try to practice your presentation in front of another human. Getting a trusted co-worker to give you feedback in advance can help strengthen your delivery and identify areas you might need to change or bulk up.
5. Prepare for common objections.
The last thing you want to say when someone in your audience expresses a concern or an outright objection during your presentation’s question section is “umm, let me get back to you on that.”
Carefully research the subject of your presentation to make the best case possible for it — but also prepare in advance for common objections or questions you know your stakeholders are going to ask. The stronger your command of the facts — and the more prepared you are to proactively address concerns — the more convincing your presentation will be. When you appear confident fielding any rebuttals during a question and answer session after your presentation, it can go a long way towards making your case seem more convincing.
Persuasive Presentation Outline
Like any writing project, you’ll want to create an outline for your presentation, which can act as both a prompt and a framework. With an outline, you’ll have an easier time organizing your thoughts and creating the actual content you will present. While you can adjust the outline to your needs, your presentation will most likely follow this basic framework.
I. Introduction
Every persuasive presentation needs an introduction that gets the listener’s attention, identifies a problem, and relates it to them.

The Hook: Just like a catchy song, your presentation needs a good hook to draw the listener in. Think of an unusual fact, anecdote, or framing that can grab the listener’s attention. Choose something that also establishes your credibility on the issue.

The Tie: Tie your hook back to your audience to garner buy-in from your audience, as this issue impacts them personally.

The Thesis: This is where you state the position to which you are trying to persuade your audience and forms the focal point for your presentation.

II. The Body
The body forms the bulk of your presentation and can be roughly divided into two parts. In the first half, you will build your case, and in the second you will address potential rebuttals.

Your Case: This is where you will present supporting points for your argument and the evidence you’ve gathered through research. This will likely have several different subsections in which you present the relevant evidence for each supporting point.

Rebuttals: Consider potential rebuttals to your case and address them individually with supporting evidence for your counterarguments.

Benefits: Outline the benefits of the audience adopting your position. Use smooth, conversational transitions to get to these.

Drawbacks: Outline what drawbacks of the audience rejecting your position. Be sure to remain conversational and avoid alarmism.

III. Conclusion
In your conclusion, you will wrap up your argument, summarize your key points, and relate them back to the decisions your audience makes.

Transition: Write a transition that emphasizes the key point you are trying to make.

Summary: Summarize your arguments, their benefits, and the key pieces of evidence supporting your position.

Tie-back: Tie back your summary to the actions of your audience and how their decisions will impact the subject of your presentation.

Final word: Try to end on a last emotional thought that can inspire your audience to adopt your position and act in support of it.

IV. Citations
Include a section at the end of your presentation with citations for your sources. This will make independent fact-checking easier for your audience and will make your overall presentation more persuasive.
Persuasive Presentation Examples
Check out some of these examples of persuasive presentations to get inspiration for your own. Seeing how someone else made their presentation could help you create one that strikes home with your audience. While the structure of your presentation is entirely up to you, here are some outlines that are typically used for different subjects.
Introducing a Concept
One common type of persuasive presentation is one that introduces a new concept to an audience and tries to get them to accept it. This presentation introduces audience members to the dangers of secondhand smoke and encourages them to take steps to avoid it. Persuasive presentations can also be a good format to introduce marco issues, such as this presentation on the benefits of renewable energy.
Changing Personal Habits
Want to change the personal habits of your audience? Check out this presentation on how to adopt healthy eating habits. Or this presentation which encourages the audience to get more exercise in their daily lives.
Making a Commitment to an Action
Is your goal to get your audience to commit to a specific action? This presentation encouraging audience memes to become organ donors could provide inspiration. Trying to make a big sale? Check out this presentation outline that can encourage someone to buy a home.
Remember: You Can Do This

Anyone can craft a persuasive presentation once they know the basic framework for creating one. Once you get the process down, you’ll be in a better position to bring in sales, attract donors or funding, and even advance your career. The skills you learn can also benefit you in other areas of your personal and professional life as you know how to make a case and influence people toward it.

Generating newsletter campaign ideas can be challenging if you want to do it regularly—especially when marketers already have their hands full with numerous other tasks.
With visual communication being a key component of content marketing strategies, creating impactful newsletters has to be a priority for brands—running out of ideas isn’t an option.
So, where do you go when you can’t think of what to include in your next email newsletter?
Why not try going back to the content you have already created? They’re a goldmine for generating ideas and creating more marketing material.
In this article, we share ten ways you can repurpose existing content for your company’s newsletters.
Generate newsletter campaign ideas from social media
Social media has a wealth of material from which you can generate newsletter ideas.
We share four methods for reusing social media posts and visuals to increase email clicks and engagement.
Use social visuals as newsletter content headers
Visuals created for social media can serve multiple purposes—they can be used as headers for newsletters, or to section off segments of an email.
While emailers can be text-based, images are a great way to increase clicks. They also give recipients an idea of what to expect within the email. 
Which is why headers are so important.
But marketers don’t want to design a new header for every email—so, why not make life easier and repurpose a visual that has already been designed?
An image like the one below can be used on social media to thank donors. It can also be repurposed as a header for your newsletter templates.

Source: Venngage
There’s another advantage to using the same image across multiple platforms. 
You create synchronicity in your marketing by using visuals, which makes your brand instantly recognizable.
Generate newsletter content ideas from top social media posts
When you post on social media, your content doesn’t have to live solely on that platform. What works on social media could translate to clicks to emails.
Analyze your best posts on visual platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and TikTok to mine content for your emails. These will make for engaging stories in your newsletter.
However, don’t ignore the traditional, more text-focused channels like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
The posts on these channels could make for compelling content in newsletters—and you can link back to the original post to drive views and engagement across platforms.
Another method for repurposing social posts is to curate the top posts of the week and send them as a newsletter of top brand stories.
Social media is a busy arena—there are so many posts populating users’ timelines that it is easy to miss out on updates. 
By compiling the best posts of the week, you ensure that your users don’t miss out on important brand stories while generating newsletter content with ease.
Use social poll results for newsletter content ideas
Most social platforms give users the option to create polls—this is a type of content that has become increasingly more popular among users.
For example, take a look at this poll from Evernote that got 380 votes—it can be repurposed for email campaigns.

Source: Twitter
Marketers can run the same poll via email—micro surveys help you understand your audience better and find ways to generate more relevant newsletter content for them.
Comparing the results from social media vs email would make for good supplementary content—and it will give companies insight into their users.
Brands also have the option of sharing the poll results in an email—for Evernote, this would be a great opportunity to plug their app since it is designed for taking down notes on the go.
Additionally, sharing poll results in emails informs recipients that the brand creates such content. 
This gives users added incentive to engage with polls on social media in the future.
Improve newsletter copy with user-generated content 
User-generated content is one of the most authentic kinds of content from brands.

Source
User-generated content acts similarly to word-of-mouth marketing but is more visual.
Showcasing real people adds value to brand platforms. It also gives a sense of authenticity and realism to their online presence. 
And that is why user-generated content should be incorporated into email marketing campaigns.
Marketers often associate user-generated content with social media, but it can be used to boost email engagement as well.
User images and videos can be sourced directly from users’ accounts. You should always ask them for permission to use their posts in your emails, of course.
Contests are another source of user-generated content. They can be used to promote email signups on social media or to boost social followings via email campaigns.
When created UGC-powered newsletters, adopt a theme to make the campaign more cohesive—that will help create more interest and engagement for recipients.
Use infographics as newsletter content
Gated content includes anything that requires users to fill out forms, sign up for access, or make a payment.
The reason why gated content works to increase engagement is because of the value it offers users.
This type of lead-generating content is usually longer and very thorough—it offers readers more in-depth knowledge of a subject matter.
While gated content can garner attention on its own, using this material in email marketing can improve views and clicks.
Infographics are a visual resource that cannot be discounted for email marketing. 
Combining imagery, icons, text, and charts, infographics pack a lot of punch for a single piece of content.
While infographics are largely used for brand websites and blogs, they also make for great email content.
Take a look at the below infographic on stocks and shares, for example. 

It distills information into an easy-to-absorb and simple graphic that looks great on a blog. 
And the vertical nature of the graphic also makes it perfect to send out as an email.
When you design infographics for blogs, or to share with partners for link-building purposes, consider how the graphic can be repurposed for emails.
You can also look at existing blog posts to mine content to be converted into infographics. These can be shared with audiences via newsletters.
Use video content to generate newsletter campaign ideas
Video content has steadily been becoming more popular—and marketers are aiming for this market more than ever before.
If your company is creating videos in any form, then they should be a great resource for your newsletter content ideas.
Following are three ways to use videos in your newsletters to boost email clicks.
Use Instagram Stories for newsletters
Let’s start with an unusual option—Instagram Stories. This kind of ephemeral content has become a mainstay of social media—but it can be used in newsletters, as well.
Instagram Stories are available for only 24 hours—while that makes for great short-term engagement, not all your followers can check their social media every day.
For those followers, seeing the highlights from your Stories in their inbox can motivate them to continue associating with your brand.
Followers are invested in a brand’s Instagram Stories—they put a face to the brand name and give people an inside look at a corporation. 
Instagram Stories are also great for covering events, conducting Q&As, influencer marketing, and creating social polls. 
Marketers can take screenshots of the Stories—including the text captions, emojis, and stickers—or create a video of the raw files to incorporate in a newsletter.
Incorporate YouTube videos in newsletters
YouTube content is a great way to mine newsletter content ideas—you can embed videos in the email, like in this example.

Source: Campaign Monitor
Native videos that play directly in inboxes make content more engaging—it keeps users focused on the email content, increasing the chances of them clicking through to your website.
But video embeds can be tricky if HTML coding isn’t something your team is familiar with.
However, there are other ways to add videos to your newsletters:

Screenshot a frame from your video to add to the email and link it to the video
Add a GIF of the video and link it to give the user a sense of motion
Create an animated play button to encourage people to click through to the video
Use CSS and HTML to create a short video effect on a series of static frames

Videos increase interactivity and engagement but they can be challenging to embed in a newsletter.
But if you have the wherewithal to do include videos, they will make for excellent newsletter content.
Create how-to guides from video tutorials
Explainer videos have become quite popular among the denizens of the internet, primarily because of how many people use YouTube as a search engine.
But while video tutorials are engaging, people don’t always have the time to watch an entire video—they want the highlights in a neat package that they can refer to whenever necessary.
That is where you can tie your YouTube marketing with your newsletter content. Add YouTube tutorials in your newsletter using the aforementioned methods.
But if it’s a long piece of content, you could risk subscribers leaving the video part way, or worse, unsubscribing.
Instead, put together highlights from the video and build content stories for your newsletter. 
You can create a campaign where you regularly share video highlights on specific topics for your audience to keep them engaged with your brand.
Wrap up
Marketing teams design a lot of content—but so much of it is used once or for a short campaign.
Reuse the content you already have to generate newsletter content ideas and increase email views and clicks.
These 10 ideas for creating newsletters from existing content will make marketers’ lives easier and increase subscriber engagement.
 

Ronita Mohan is a content marketer at Venngage, the online infographic maker and design platform. Ronita regularly writes about marketing, sales, and small businesses.
Twitter: @Venngag
The post 10 Ideas to Repurpose Content for Email Marketing Campaigns appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

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Last Updated on December 28, 2020 by Rakesh Gupta With each new release, Salesforce is adding tons of new functionalities to Lightning Experience. Which make you more productive and help you to provide a better customer experience.  Currently, the Spring’21 release is under the pre-release program. On the and 08th & 09th of January, … Continue reading →

Want to build a strong personal brand and be recognized in your industry? Learn from these 9 incredible personal brand examples and see what works for them.

Remote work is incredible. Goodbye soul-draining commute, uncomfortable “business professional” outfits, and expensive takeout salads.
Hello leisurely mornings, hoodies and slippers, and delicious home-cooked meals.
But remote work is also tough. You’re hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away from your colleagues; your home workspace probably lacks some of the bells and whistles of a traditional office; and your work-life boundaries can quickly become nonexistent.
To learn how to conquer these challenges — plus many you haven’t discovered yet — take a look at these books on remote work.

1. Working Remotely: Secrets to Success for Employees on Distributed Teams

By Teresa Douglas, Holly Gordon, and Mike Webber
Unlike many remote work books aimed at leaders and solopreneurs, Douglas, Gordon, and Webber focus on the front-line remote worker. This book is divided into seven chapters, each dedicated to a pillar of WFH success.
You’ll learn how to battle isolation and loneliness, work well with your peers, and manage your inbox. Along with concrete tips, the authors include examples and anecdotes to bring their points home (no pun intended).

2. Work-From-Home Hacks: 500+ Easy Ways to Get Organized, Stay Productive, and Maintain a Work-Life Balance While Working from Home!

By Aja Frost
On March 20th, I left HubSpot’s Boston office with my monitor and keyboard. I thought I’d use them for a few weeks, a month at the most — then we’d all be back in the office.
Of course, eight months later most of our team is still working from home … and that will be the case for years to come. Maybe forever!
This book is packed with all the advice I wish I’d had when I transitioned to permanent remote work. It covers common scenarios like maintaining boundaries between work and the rest of your life (when your office is also your bedroom or kitchen), combating loneliness and isolation, and overcoming the “out of sight, out of mind” effect. Plus, if you’re a parent, freelancer, or manager, there’s special advice just for you.
By the time you finish, you’ll know everything you need to be successful and happy as a remote worker.

3. The Holloway Guide to Remote Work

By Juan Pablo Buriticá and Katie Womersley, along with contributing authors
This manual will help leaders through common remote work challenges and choices, including hiring, onboarding, and compensating remote employees; creating communication channels and setting expectations; implementing a healthy company culture across time zones; and more.
Buriticá and Womersley draw on their experience as leaders of distributed engineering teams at Splice and Buffer, respectively. Employees from Angel List, Doist, Remote.com, and other remote organizations contributed, as well. As a result, every recommendation is practical, realistic, and often backed by case studies, examples, and/or data.

4. REMOTE: Office Not Required

By Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the founders of Basecamp
If you’re looking for a manifesto on the benefits of remote work, this one’s for you. Fried and Hansson spend most of REMOTE: Office Not Required refuting the arguments against allowing folks to work from wherever they’d like, such as:

You don’t need an office for collaboration
Your company size and industry doesn’t matter
Your pool of potential employees won’t shrink — it’ll grow

Already believe in remote work? Looking for practical tips on how to do it well? I’d suggest other books, like Work-From-Home Hacks or the Holloway Guide.

5. Subtle Acts of Exclusion: How to Understand, Identify, and Stop Microaggressions

By Tiffany Jana and Michael Baran
Microaggressions — or Subtle Acts of Exclusion (SAEs) as Jana and Baran call them — happen whether you’re remote or co-located.
But SAEs are harder to handle when you’re not all in the same room: You can’t drop by someone’s desk to let them know what they said was hurtful, or stop a conversation in its tracks by asking the offender to leave.
And if you’re the one who committed the SAE? The relationship damage is harder to undo without the rapport-building effects of sharing an office.
That makes Jana and Baran’s book an essential read for distributed teams. Learn how to spot, deal with, and most importantly, prevent SAEs so that everyone feels safe and included.

6. Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader

By Herminia Ibarra
If you’re like me — or any of the other managers I talked to — your professional self-confidence might suffer after going remote.
Why? Because you lose a ton of positive feedback. You’re no longer bumping into your coworkers in the hall, seeing their smiles and nods when you present, hearing their cheers when you win a big account, or getting celebratory drinks after a great quarter.

All the subtle signs that said, You’re doing a great job! are gone.

This book will help restore your confidence. According to Ibarra, the best way to feel like a leader is to act like one. In other words: Your thoughts follow your actions, not the other way around.
She provides you with actionable recommendations to do just that. Whether you’re an individual contributor, executive, or anyone in between, you’ll discover how to step up at work — and boost your self-esteem in the process.

7. The Remote Facilitator’s Pocket Guide

By Kirsten Clacey and Jay-Allen Morris
Running remote meetings is both science and art. As Clacey and Morris point out in their introduction, virtual meetings are:

More intimidating than in-person ones, as attendees feel isolated from each other and can’t read everyone’s faces
Harder to focus in; eight in ten people multitask
More dependent on the facilitator’s mood and style

To combat these issues, the authors condensed research, personal anecdotes, and strategies into a short but powerful book. In just 153 pages, you’ll get a veritable PhD in remote meeting facilitation. One GoodReads reviewer said, “Everyone who does online meetings should read this book.”

8. The ultimate guide to remote work

By Wade Foster, with content from Danny Schreiber, Matthew Guay, Melanie Pinola, Bethany Hills, Alison Groves, Jeremey DuVall, and Belle Cooper
Zapier has been a remote-first company since its 2011 founding. Safe to say, the team has spent a lot of time thinking about common remote work issues and coming up with scalable solutions.
This guide (which is available online for free) is broken into fifteen chapters. First, you’ll learn how to hire and manage remote employees. Next, you’ll delve into building and maintaining a strong virtual culture, followed by tips on productivity, multi-time-zone collaboration, and avoiding burnout.
And, finally, you’ll discover how to get a remote job (likely easier now than when the e-book was first written) and work smarter, not harder with the remote work tool-kit.
Hopefully, this remote work reading list helps you avoid many of the pitfalls of working from home … while maximizing its benefits.

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Hi, I would like to automatize the process between lead generation and contract signing. It can involve coding but it must be a platform that is handling most of the operations (my opinion is that there must be 10s of products/products that will be always better than custom code) The platform must connect and manage:
Ads Platform (Facebook, Google, Bing…) and its targeting audiences/lists, change bidding… Mailing platforms (Mailchimp or the platform itself must be able to send hundreds of e-mails per days which will not end in Spam) bases on conditions send emails and update databases SMS, Send SMS based on inputs for CRM / Call Center CRM (PipeDrive, Your suggestion or platform itself must be able to manage the leads/clients. I would like to avoid to use WordPress which can slow web page or Salesforce which can be too complicated/necessary to be used by our Call Center
Tracking “Marketing data” (Data from web forms; Ads campaigns data as Search term, Campaigns name, Source, ….) Tracking “Sales data” (number of inbound/outbound calls, number of emails, SMS, the status of the lead, IP of the lead…)
Call Center (Call Rail or Your Suggestion) Web page / Landing page Reporting tool (graph, alerts, weekly emails)
I have experience with custom coded which is hard to update (add new features), AutopilotHQ which seems too expensive if you have a lot of leads/big database and I got a recommendation for Hubspot. It would be really good if most of the settings are possible via diagrams (as in AutoPilotHQ). What platform would you use to solve the automatization
submitted by /u/Luxqs [link] [comments]