Thanks to remote work, open office plans, and shared coworking spaces — cubicles are out, and hot desking is officially “in.”

And it’s more than just a trend, unlike the matcha latte you grab on your way to work. 

Embraced by startups and well-established companies, this flexible seating solution allows people to work where and when they want within the office.

But what exactly is hot desking, and why is it taking over office environments in 2023? 

In this article, we’ll explore what hot desking is and the benefits it can bring to your workplace.

Let’s dive in.

What Is Hot Desking?

Do you remember the days in elementary school when you had an assigned seat in the classroom? You’d waltz into class every morning and head to the same seat — likely the farthest away from your best friend. 

And every day, you’d beg your teacher to switch it up (crossing your fingers that you could finally sit near your friends to chit-chat about all the playground gossip). 

You likely didn’t know it then, but you secretly wished for the hot desking seating strategy. And now that you’re all grown up, your wish is coming true in the office environment. 

Hot desking is a flexible office arrangement that allows employees to use any available workspace rather than having a dedicated desk or workstation.

In other words, it’s a workspace management approach that eliminates the idea of fixed workstations in the office. Instead, employees can work at any available desk, table, or even a couch.

Hot desking gained popularity post-pandemic as businesses turned to a hybrid workplace to cater to changing work dynamics and employee preferences.

And with people rotating in and out of the office on different days of the week, companies decided to downsize their office space to save on costs. 

The result? Less large, bulky, expensive desks to buy and hold on your balance sheet. And smaller (read: cheaper) workspaces with flexible seating options.

6 Benefits of Switching to Hot Desking in Your Office

Goldman Sachs, one of the top investment banks in the world, uses hot desking across some of their major United States offices instead of cubicles.

But why?

Let’s dive into some of the main benefits of adding hot desking to your office environment.

1. Increase Collaboration

Although they were originally intended to make offices more open and efficient in the 1960s, the creator of cubicles, Robert Propst, came to regret the invention. 

Despite the initial promise of increased mobility and collaboration, cubicles have become synonymous with isolation and a lack of creativity in the modern workplace.

And it’s easy to see why. The high walls separate individuals from their colleagues.

While design can help limit distractions, it also creates a sense of isolation and hinders collaboration. The physical barriers make it difficult for employees to interact and collaborate with one another, which can lead to a lack of communication and a siloed working culture. 

Not to mention that employees may feel less inclined to interact with their colleagues due to the perceived sense of privacy and the need to focus on their work.

By contrast, hot desking and open-plan office designs encourage employee collaboration and interaction. 

Removing physical barriers and allowing employees to work close to one another creates a sense of community and encourages a more collaborative work culture. Think of it like an open-door policy. 

Hot desking also allows employees to work alongside different team members, promoting cross-team collaboration and idea-sharing. 

Sometimes all it takes is a new perspective to help spark creative thinking among colleagues. That’s why many tech leaders have leaned toward hot desking in their office environments. 

Steve Jobs once said, “If a building doesn’t encourage collaboration, you’ll lose a lot of innovation and the magic that’s sparked by serendipity.” 

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2. Foster Creativity

Have you ever noticed how workplaces often ask their employees to “think outside the box,” yet they’re stuck working in a literal box all day? 

It’s kind of ironic, don’t you think? If you’re trying to foster innovation and disrupt old patterns, you need an environment where new ideas can take root and flourish.

It doesn’t matter if your employees are designing business cards or brainstorming for your next big idea. The right office environment inspires creativity and encourages collaboration.

Employees can avoid falling into routines, think more creatively, and leave their comfort zones by changing their work environment. And that’s where hot desking shines.

It allows employees to move around the office to find the most conducive environment to work in. Sometimes all it takes is a scenery change to boost creativity and bring a fresh perspective to the table. 

3. Cost Savings

Inflation is at an all-time high. Companies are laying off workers left and right. And the United States economy is on the brink of an economic recession.

That means saving costs and sticking to a strict budget is crucial to surviving these challenging times.

With hot desking, you can optimize your office layout and reduce the cost of expensive cubicles and desks for every headcount. 

For example, a team of ten employees may only need eight desks on any given day because some might be working from home or on vacation. 

That means your HR team only needs to purchase eight instead of ten desks, saving money by omitting two that are likely to remain empty regardless.

Not only does this create a more flexible and efficient workspace, but it can also lead to significant cost savings for your company. Rather than prematurely expanding or moving to a larger office space, you can maximize your current space or downsize to avoid unnecessary expenses.

4. Health Benefits

It’s common for many of us to spend a significant amount of time sitting down every day, with some studies suggesting that over 50% of people sit for more than six hours each day. 

However, the effects of prolonged sitting can be far from benign and can have both short- and long-term impacts on our health and well-being. 

In fact, sitting for extended periods can increase the risk of certain health problems, making it important to be mindful and encourage your employees to move throughout the day.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, improving your health has become a top priority for people. So adapting a seating arrangement that promotes healthy initiatives is a wise choice to keep your employees’ mental and physical health at the forefront.

Hot desking allows employees to move around the office and avoid sitting in the same chair for extended periods. It can also encourage employees to be more active and social, as they move around the office to find an available desk.

Movement is medicine. Cubicles encourage stagnation, while hot desking encourages movement in the office.

5. Flexibility

Think of hot desking like a choose-your-own-adventure workspace. So whether you need peace and quiet or want to work collaboratively with others, hot desking lets you find the perfect spot for the work day.

So if your C-suite is in the middle of deciding on the perfect HRIS system to streamline hiring and onboarding, they might choose a conference room for the day. 

If your marketing team is working on content planning, they could go for a cluster of desks near each other for optimal collaboration. The opportunities are endless.

And get this — hot desking doesn’t just appeal to in-office employees. Even if you have a team of remote workers, they can come into the office when they’re in town and enjoy time at a hot desk for the day.

It’s a great way for them to mix things up and have a change of scenery. Plus, it’s a great opportunity to catch up with colleagues and make new connections.

6. Improve Company Culture

As demographics change, you need to adopt new strategies to attract and retain top talent. 

And your workspace plays a critical role in this effort, as it reflects your company culture and impacts the effectiveness of your collaborative processes. 

For prospective employees, your workspace can reveal whether your business values innovation, creativity and collaborative work culture. 

And for current employees, the office environment directly affects job satisfaction and their ability to interact with colleagues and innovate.

Investing in a flexible workspace that promotes collaboration and cross-functional teamwork can attract and retain employees from diverse demographics and foster a more dynamic and inclusive work environment.

Final Thoughts

Hot desking is becoming increasingly popular as businesses look for ways to optimize office space and foster employee collaboration. 

With hot desking, your employees can choose where they work, increasing creativity and reducing stress levels — resulting in higher collaboration, cost savings, and overall health benefits. It’s a win-win for your bottom line and employee morale. 

But if you’re considering switching to hot desking, it’s important to communicate with your employees about the change. You don’t want to leave anyone out of the loop.

Once you make the switch, you’ll never look back. 

About the author: Kelly Moser is the co-founder and editor at Home & Jet, a digital magazine for the modern era. She’s also an expert in freelance writing and content marketing for SaaS, Fintech, and e-commerce startups. 

The post How Hot Desking Elevates the Office Environment in 2023 appeared first on Zenkit.

It’s safe to say that project management is one of the most important things when it comes to successfully completing a project. However, according to the Project Management Institute (PMI), only 46% of companies consider project management a corporate culture priority.

Project management is particularly important in content marketing, as content marketers typically find themselves juggling a million different things, ranging from brainstorming to keyword analysis. Therefore, choosing productivity tools can make a difference not only in the life of the content marketer. It can also improve the quality of the final product.

Here are 8 tools that every content marketer should check out. 

Zenkit Projects

The Zenkit project management tool is a lifesaver for content marketers and content marketing companies that want to stay organized.

Through its powerful project management feature, teams can set up global Kanban boards where team members can aggregate all project tasks, create Gantt charts that visualize the team’s capabilities, collaborate in real-time, share documents and images, work offline and so much more. Undoubtedly, using a tool like Zenkit can help content marketers focus on the tasks ahead. It can also help them work with other members of their team to produce the best product possible.

Ahrefs

If you’re a content marketer, you probably know the pain of spending precious time looking for an effective and easy-to-use SEO tool that’s value for money. You can avoid all of this by immediately choosing Ahrefs. 

Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO tool that helps content marketers improve their productivity by providing game-changing insights into how their clients’ websites are performing. These insights can be used to optimize content and improve website rankings. Additionally, Ahrefs enables content marketers to find high-volume keywords and analyze their competitors’ keyword strategies. 

Not only that, content marketers can use Ahrefs to identify technical SEO problems and get a comprehensive view of a website’s backlink profile. They can also identify web pages whose content needs to be improved. Such a comprehensive tool speeds up a project increases its quality and optimizes the budget, as content marketing teams can use Ahrefs to inform the content strategy from the outset. 

Slack

LinkedIn reported that the number of remote marketing jobs increased by 177 percent by the end of 2021, and this number continues to increase. Therefore, it’s more important than ever for distributed content marketing teams to communicate effectively.

Slack is one of the most popular instant messaging tools for professional teams. It enables team members to send messages to anyone inside or outside their team and communicate with them as if they were in the same office. In addition, its ‘channels’ feature allows each individual to work effectively independently. It also helps them keep up to date with what’s happening on different projects without losing track of the conversation. Best of all, Slack has a free tier that is a lifesaver for smaller companies.

Grammarly

As the name suggests, Grammarly is all about correct grammar. Although it’s not an obvious project management tool, it’s revolutionary in that it saves project managers and content marketing teams time. It automatically checks for grammatical errors and ensures consistency of tone, punctuation and messaging across the board.

It’s therefore an indispensable tool for any content writer who wants to improve the quality of their writing and save time. 

With features such as spelling and grammar checks, punctuation suggestions, sentence structure analysis and tone detection, Grammarly acts as an AI-powered editor that allows content writers to write error-free content confidently and efficiently.

Google Drive

Having a shared Google Drive may seem like a no-brainer. However, there are still many teams that end up wasting a lot of resources. This is simply because they don’t have a shared cloud storage system.

Google Drive is one of the most popular cloud-based storage systems out there, especially as it’s integrated with the rest of the G Suite products and third-party tools such as Slack. 

Its popularity stems from the fact that it provides a central location for files that can be easily accessed by all team members. This ensures that everyone’s on the same page, reducing the risk of errors and misunderstandings. 

In addition, team members can collaborate on documents in real-time without the need for much back and forth. Undoubtedly, this makes editing a more seamless process. And if the changes are not to the client’s liking, Google Drive offers the ability to 

access previous versions of the document. This greatly speeds up workflows and avoids unnecessary work.

Toggl

Toggl can make a world of a difference when it comes to getting down to the nitty-gritty of project management. Specifically, time. It provides valuable insights into how time is spent on tasks. This helps both content marketers and project managers optimize productivity.

Its simple interface makes it a straightforward but very effective tool. Content marketers can use it to identify the tasks they spend too much time on and optimize their workflows. In addition, Toggl makes it easier for teams to assign tasks to each member and track their progress. This ensures that deadlines are met and projects are delivered on time.

Finally, Toggl’s reporting function breaks down the time spent on various tasks. This can help teams identify areas that need to be improved or to review deadlines. 

Buffer

Buffer is a time saver for all social media content marketers out there. It’s a multipurpose social marketing tool that makes social media management much easier. Its core feature is the ability to plan and schedule content across nine social media platforms. These platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and TikTok. Therefore, instead of having to rely on less-than-ideal native

 schedulers or set your alarm clock every time you have to post, you can kick back and relax. Buffer does the posting for you.

In addition to planning and scheduling content, Buffer also has an analytics function that allows you to monitor social engagement, measure campaign performance, and create marketing reports. It also makes recommendations on how to boost your accounts. By having a dashboard to access all social media platforms, you spend less time navigating between different platforms. This allows you to spend more time on what matters: quality content and engagement.

Canva

Canva is another platform perfect for busy content marketers who want to amplify their messaging through high-quality graphics. The free-to-use online design tool has ready-made templates that are easy to edit. This is true even if you’re a rookie when it comes to graphic design tools.

With its drag-and-drop interface, you can finish a monthly calendar of social media visuals in just a few clicks. This saves you time and money. What’s more, the platform recently launched its video editing feature. This empowers you to edit your social media videos in mere minutes. Talk about saving time!

Final Thoughts

It’s no secret that successful project management can make a world of a difference when it comes to the overall quality and outcome of a project. Therefore, investing in these tools early on saves you a lot of time and resources later. This ensures that every project you engage in as a content marketer reaches its full potential. It also helps you build a solid reputation that cements a long-term career.

The post 8 Productivity Tools for Successful Content Marketing appeared first on Zenkit.

Despite symbolizing the first wave of digital communications, email continues to be extremely relevant even today. Possessing a thumping user base of over 4 billion users and an eye-popping ROI of 4000%, email is, to nobody’s surprise, the channel of choice for businesses to communicate with their audience.

Year after year, the medium witnesses a host of gradual reforms that reflect upon its functioning and more importantly, elevate its efficacy as a communication channel. Keeping with this tradition, as the pages of the calendar flipped from 2022 to 2023, they carry with them a host of trends which stand to update the definition of email marketing as we know it.

Curious to find out the email marketing trends for 2023? Read on!

1. Increased Focus on Personalization

With approximately 333 billion emails being exchanged every day, brands must take into account that most of their subscribers experience inbox fatigue to some degree. In this scenario, thus, marketers need to regard their personalization strategies more closely than ever to have a shot at capturing their audience’s attention. Only when you deliver relevant content to your subscribers can you expect them to engage with your campaigns.

Now, there are many ways to implement personalization, but the first, and most foundational thing, you need to do is to segment your email list. Divide your contacts into different sections based on a slew of different parameters like age, gender, occupation, browsing patterns, past purchases, interests and preferences, and the like. What this does is allow you to identify the diverse range of buyer personas interacting with your brand and formulate unique content for each. In 2023, one can expect to see machine learning being increasingly summoned to shoulder segmentation. Why? Because with it you can use interest-based tags to automatically gather data on recipient’s interests based on the links they interact with in your emails. 

2. Acceleration in the Adoption of Customer Data Platforms

The last couple of years has seen several measures being introduced to ensure greater data privacy for users. Most notable among them are Apple’s MPP announcement and Google’s insistence on third-party cookies. Subsequently, this has made it critical for businesses to rely on customer data platforms. CDPs are important because they help companies collate all their customer data in one central repository. This enables them to make use of their cross-channel customer data to inform crucial decisions in their email and digital marketing programs.

Additionally, CDPs facilitate improved access to the data, make data cleaning more convenient, and allow you to mobilize data for usage across channels. In a nutshell, by embracing CDPs, businesses stand to take their personalization and automation games a notch higher, which will ultimately usher in higher engagement and greater conversions for them.

3. Rise in Popularity of Modular Email Templates

Most businesses fail to capitalize on high-traffic periods due to increased email production demands. This problem can be combated by using modular templates. Using these templates can improve email efficiency during high-traffic periods. This is because they have different blocks for specific purposes. So first, you create a modular template, one that contains blocks that will be common to all your emails. Then, depending on the type of email you wish to send out, you simply have to slice and dice the remaining blocks and obtain the template of your choice in minimal time.

The immense scope for creativity and flexibility that modular templates accord have made them tremendously popular among businesses of late. After all, who wouldn’t like to put together a large volume of branded emails in a short span?

4. Greater Acknowledgment of AI-Based Email Copy

The growing ubiquitousness of ChatGPT in the collective consciousness over the last few months has pushed email marketers to take a closer look at something they have already been using for a while now- AI copy. With AI taking massive strides with every passing day, ChatGPT is not at the end of the line. More sophisticated models are bound to show up, with each iteration packing more possibilities than its predecessor. 

There are many pros to using AI copy:

• It lets you amp up quality control. You get the liberty of feeding the parameters of your choice into the model. This includes the length of the copy, its tone, style, and the like. Then you receive an output that is in complete alignment with them.
• With AI, churning out a large volume of quality variants (be it for header, preview text, or body copy) in a short interval becomes easier.
• Personalization, while critical, is an incredibly demanding task as well. An AI copywriting tool promises to make your job much more convenient. 

All that said, there’s one significant con that AI models are yet to overcome. They have a distinct lack of emotion in the copy. AI copies are often criticized for lacking essential attributes, such as compassion, empathy, and a general sentimental pull. These traits are crucial for establishing a connection with the reader. To maximize the benefits of AI copywriting, human intervention is necessary. In other words, a combination of the power of AI technology and the creativity of human beings can help achieve the best possible results in copywriting.

5. More Emphasis on Saying Goodbye with Grace

Customers these days do not shy away from pressing the unsubscribe button. And it may not always necessarily be a reflection of your strategies. It might simply be a byproduct of their inboxes getting drowned with emails from all directions. Whatever the case, brands these days are starting to realise the importance of putting in a good last word. After all, if you do have to part ways with a subscriber, why do so on hostile terms?

So, instead of writing a clinical, to-the-point unsubscribe message, try to craft something warm and witty. This will have the power to make them reconsider their action at least once.

Final Thoughts

The contour of email marketing is ever-evolving. As such, marketers and businesses need to keep up with the times to drive the results they desire. We hope the trends shared above come in handy while you are designing your campaigns!

About the Author: Kevin George is Head of Marketing at Email Uplers, one of the fastest growing custom email design and coding companies, and specializes in crafting professional email templates, PSD to HTML email conversion and free responsive HTML email templates in addition to providing email automation, campaign management, and data integration & migration services. He loves gadgets, bikes, and jazz and eats and breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on his blog.

The post 5 Email Marketing Trends to Watch Out for in 2023 appeared first on Zenkit.

Stress and associated issues are a huge problem for businesses and individuals, and many business leaders feel at a loss when trying to address it. 

While there’s no magic bullet to solve all kinds of workplace stress, modern technology has a wide range of tools and solutions that can be leveraged to improve mental health in the workplace.

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at how workplace stress can affect a business, and list 5 technologies that can lead to better stress management, and a happier, more cohesive, and more productive company culture.

How Stress Can Hurt your Business

Stress is one of the biggest challenges that companies, large and small, face in the modern business arena.

Aside from the human cost to individual employees, unmanaged stress can have a huge negative effect on how the larger organisation strategies and tackles projects, placing a cap on the business’s bottom line. Though workplace stress is often seen as a nebulous and vague issue, businesses must treat it the same way as any other threat to productivity, and tackle it with all the resources at their disposal.

Here are some of the ways stress can affect your business:

1. It Harms Productivity

The biggest way that unmanaged stress can hurt the larger business is by reducing productivity, often compounded by a pervasive sense that employees can’t speak up when they’re feeling too stressed to face work.

Presenteeism, where employees show up to work despite feeling too ill or stressed to perform, has been shown to cost the economies of nations untold billions in lost growth. Though it may be hard to quantify, a culture of presenteeism at your business could be having a similarly detrimental effect on its potential to expand and succeed.

When employees are made to perform at work under the burden of prolonged stress, it can quickly begin to harm productivity, impair judgement, and make it harder for employees to solve the problems they’ll need to tackle in a typical working week. When stress is widespread enough, this can easily hurt the overall productivity of the organisation at large.

2. It Causes Absenteeism

On the flip side, excessive workplace stress can also make absenteeism more frequent and pervasive. This limits the available resources of a company over a given period and causes a subtle, sometimes severe, decline in productivity. 

When employees are burdened with so much stress that it overrules the sense of responsibility they have for their job, it’s a common response to take unscheduled days off. They begin calling in sick or making excuses for sudden absences. 

Absenteeism will not only deplete the available manpower of a company over a given period, but it can also burden those who do show up to work. Depending on the tasks, they can be redistributed to those who are at work to make up for this loss in manpower. This, in turn, will compound the total stress at the workplace and exacerbate company-wide issues that can harm the organisation’s bottom line.

3. It Raises Turnover and Recruitment Costs

Unchecked stress and lower job satisfaction have long been associated with higher employee turnover, and with an increasingly educated global population, burnout is becoming a more acceptable reason to leave a company in search of a healthier and more manageable working environment.

In the same vein, employee turnover exacerbated by stress means that business leaders have to spend more time patching up the holes in their organisational structure, increasing the cost of recruitment and compounding stress as workers are forced to drop their other responsibilities and manage recruitment drives.

4. It Grinds Down Employee Health

Historically, stress has been viewed as an exclusively mental and emotional issue that mental and emotional solutions can only remedy. However, society is increasingly recognising that stress can grind down a person’s physical well-being as well.

In severe cases, stress can manifest itself in physical symptoms such as frequent headaches, chest pains, poor immune system performance, and gastrointestinal issues. These kinds of illnesses in and of themselves can quickly compound the severity of stress, leading to a generally unhappy, unhealthy workforce.

With around 77% of people reporting stress that negatively affects their physical health, this aspect of stress is something that no business can afford to ignore unless it’s able to operate on a perpetually sickly workforce.

5 Technologies Changing How We Deal with the Mental Health Crisis at Work

Here are 5 technologies that are changing how organisations tackle the mental health crisis at work.

1. Project Management Software

Project management software can make all the difference in a business that’s being overwhelmed by pervasive stress, helping to mitigate or remove common sources of stress by making scheduling, collaboration, file sharing, and countless other processes that much easier.

Though project management software is great for de-stressing the more junior, “frontline” teams at your company, software suites can also make the stresses of work easier to control for the management at your company, with purpose-built features for quick and effective task delegation, and customisable views to check on the progress of projects and tasks.

A good project management platform can be a major boon to an organisation’s productivity even if they’re not struggling with stress at all, so equipping your business with this kind of tech is a no-brainer!

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2. Prospecting Software

In the same vein, a good prospecting platform can also work wonders for the stress levels in your sales team by simplifying complex tasks and generally making it easier for them to do their jobs. Sales positions have always been associated with higher stress levels due to the pressures of ever-present targets and quotas and giving your team the right tools can make all the difference to their mental health at work.

Comprehensive prospecting platforms such as Outbase take a lot of the work out of qualifying leads, analysing leads after they enter the pipeline, and figuring out the optimisations that will make every stage of the sales funnel more successful.

Aside from the major uptick in productivity, prospecting software also makes it easier for sales professionals to work effectively in a work-from-home scenario. This will not only counteract stress with a greater degree of satisfaction in their work but with powerful collaboration capabilities, can also help counteract the feeling of isolation that worsens stress for remote workers.

3. Time Management Tools

Poor time management and stress often go hand in hand in a frustrating, self-sustaining loop. Poor time management leads to stress, which leads to worse time management, which leads to even more stress.

Though issues with time management can stem from a lot of different factors, making the simple change of equipping employees with solid time management tools can make this common stressor much easier to manage.

Tools like Harvest can help simplify the issue of time tracking by establishing a set amount of hours that each employee is due to work in a week, then breaking projects down into smaller, manageable tasks, each with a time value that will allow staff to effectively keep track of how their output is matching targets.

Aside from instantly combatting stress through simplified time management, these kinds of tools can also generate powerful insights for managers, showing the progress and profitability of projects, the productivity of teams, and bottlenecks that could be cause to hire more talent.

4. Stress Relief Apps

Though they’re not strictly a workplace tool, apps designed specifically for stress relief can be an effective, on-the-nose solution for helping employees combat workplace stress.

The market is now full of effective and affordable stress relief apps like Calm, full of features designed to help users reduce stress and combat other common mental health issues. 

Tailored to the needs of the individual, stress relief apps can be configured to assist users struggling with a wide range of mental and emotional issues, and help them work towards specific goals such as reducing general stress, getting more sleep, improving their focus, or working towards personal self-improvement goals more efficiently.

Many stress relief apps have free and paid versions with different libraries of guided meditations, self-reflection exercises, and other programs to help people deal with stress in a way that suits them. Many also feature bite-sized sessions perfect for reactive stress relief, empowering workers to take short breaks and come back to their desks happier and more energised.

5. Wearable Tech

Though it’s more associated with fitness goal tracking and performance, wearable tech can also be immensely helpful in managing workplace stress. Personal devices like Fitbit make it easy for wearers to keep track of their heart rate, sleep cycles, the intensity of physical activity, and more. 

When these are charted over time, users will find it easier to understand the things in their life that are causing them the most stress, and the healthy habits they can adopt in order to combat their sources of stress.

Aside from giving you a better idea of your general well-being, some pieces of wearable tech also have programs for monitoring electrodermal activity (EDA) and using this as a prompt to remind users to take a break and relax.

Final Thoughts

Combatting the ongoing mental health crisis at work can feel overwhelming at the best of times, but by understanding the causes and solutions to stress, people at all echelons of a business can work effectively to mitigate mental health challenges in the workplace.

As you navigate your own mental health challenges, we hope this post has helped you make better sense of your workplace stressors, and the steps you can take to combat them.

This article was written by mental health specialist Chris Harley. 

The post 5 Technologies Changing the Mental Health Crisis at Work appeared first on Zenkit.

New processes and new technology offer organizations the opportunity to improve performance and efficiency, yet they still struggle to put it together in terms of a ‘whole business’ approach. Understanding the hurdles you must overcome, and the solutions to those hurdles are the first steps to progress. So, what are the main barriers you face in achieving digital transformation as we move into 2023? 

Barriers to Digital Transformation You Must Overcome in 2023

You’ll be well aware that digital transformation is now an integral part of the business landscape. Adjusting your processes and systems to embrace advances in technology – such as AI and automation – is essential if you want to compete in a crowded market. While there have been rapid advances across many areas such as tech in recent years, many businesses have struggled to keep up with changes.

Identifying the barriers to digital transformation that affect your business is crucial if you want to move forward. There have been many changes and knowing the best solutions that fit your business is essential. Of course, those barriers may vary between businesses but these are some of the most common you may encounter. 

1. Poor Data/Information

One of the ongoing barriers to digital transformation that remains is access to accurate data and information. Only one-third of companies said that they had access to accurate data that could help with digital transformation. Without such accurate data – delivered in a timely manner – it makes it difficult for businesses to make informed decisions and to facilitate any changes needed. 

Review how you collect data and analyze its quality. Look at whether you have to implement new methods of data collection and also if new data collection points are needed. If you are facing this issue, it is not something that will be solved overnight but constant monitoring can ensure you are moving in the right direction. 

2. Linking Your Strategy to Execution 

It’s all very well having a strategy that addresses digital transformation, but how are you linking that to actual execution in the workplace? Many businesses are facing difficulties when it comes to translating their strategies to daily work patterns across their organization. Managers need to formulate a central strategy that covers their entire organization and track progress on how well that strategy is executed. 

When you face this issue, it is also essential that the voices of all stakeholders are heard. It’s not enough just to have that central strategy, you should also have regular meetings that include representatives from every department. Having strong links from your C-suite decision makers all the way down to frontline workers can help ensure that formulated strategy connects to actual work patterns.

 3. Lack of Experimental Capability

One thing that underpins change is experimenting with new ideas, systems, and processes. Being unable to experiment with these new things remains one of the primary barriers to digital transformation. Not every change will work, but being unable to go through efficient trial and error processes can severely impede progress on your digital transformation. 

Don’t be afraid to try new things out; they may be the solutions you have been looking for. Of course, in some circumstances, it may take time to find what fits your business model. However, you should be thinking long-term and looking to achieve peak operational efficiency. 

4. Collaboration Across Silos

If people don’t work together, progress will be slow. When your organization has different silos and there is a lack of collaboration and communication, then you will inevitably encounter barriers to digital transformation. When you want to integrate new digital processes across your workflows, you need your IT team to work alongside the other parts of your business. 

To overcome barriers, you need to ensure that every silo collaborates efficiently. Ensuring your central strategy is working well, means you need to hear the relevant voices. If collaboration has been an issue you face, consider putting together a committee that has people from each department or utilizing surveys to get your workforce’s feedback.

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5. Outdated Tech and Systems 

A square peg will not fit into a round hole, and trying to adapt to new digital ideas when you are still using legacy systems will always cause issues. That can cover everything from still using spreadsheets to presentation slides. You need to do a full audit across your organization to identify what systems and tech you use that do not fit with digital transformation then update to more modern solutions such as electronically submitting a commercial proposal. 

You should also consider where you can consolidate and integrate. For example, look at a modern communications platform that allows for automation where needed but also integration with apps that can carry out and streamline some of your primary tasks. Moving away from all sorts of legacy systems can help you better adapt to existing changes and prepare for any future changes too. 

6. Company Culture

Barriers to digital transformation do not only include how we work, it can include who we are as well. Your workforce – from management downwards – is used to working in a certain way and with certain tools or systems. That means they will often be resistant to change. You need to look at your internal bureaucracy and also how empowered all your workers feel. 

With improvements in tech and increased use of connected platforms and hybrid working, it’s essential that you shift your company culture forwards. That starts at the top and involves clear and concise communication about any changes being implemented as well as guidance on the new tech, tools, and processes you want your organization to use. 

Final Thoughts 

Change is never easy and there will always be some reluctance and resistance to adapting to new ideas. But the hard fact is that digital transformation is here to stay and, if anything, will continue to improve (in terms of the efficiency it can deliver) and evolve. In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, it is now crucial that businesses fully embrace that change to keep up with their competitors. 

By identifying any barriers to digital transformation that are particular to your organization, you are then better placed to formulate action plans that address and overcome those barriers. The essential thing to remember is to closely monitor any plans you put into action so that you can be sure that the results are moving you forward. 

About the Author: Yauhen Zaremba is the Director of Demand Generation at PandaDoc. He’s been a marketer for 10+ years, and for the last five years, he’s been entirely focused on the electronic signature, proposal, and document management markets. In his spare time, he is an avid fisherman and takes nearly 20 fishing trips every year.

The post Barriers to Digital Transformation to Overcome in 2023 appeared first on Zenkit.

We’ve been attempting to create artificial intelligence (AI) that can compete with humans since the 1970s. With ChatGPT, the company OpenAI shocked the world at the end of November 2022. This is due to the language model’s frighteningly close proximity to the desire for a working AI for texts. 

In this article, you’ll learn what ChatGPT is, how it can help you, and how you can start using the new tool for your notes right away. 

Could ChatGPT truly be a viable Google replacement? 

What Is ChatGPT?  

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot created by OpenAI that can generate human-like text. It was developed using a large dataset of human conversations. As such, it can understand and respond to natural language inputs in the same way that a human would.

One of ChatGPT’s distinguishing features (other than sending Google into a “Code Red” state of alert) is the ability to carry on a conversation or generate text in response to a specific prompt. For instance, if you ask ChatGPT “I want to take a trip to Italy. What should I do first?”, it may respond with “First, you should learn about your travel options”. Find out about flights and hotels, and think about the type of trip you want to take: do you want to visit historical sites, try new foods, or relax on the beach? “.

ChatGPT, in addition to its conversational capabilities, can generate texts on a wide range of topics and styles, making it an effective tool for tasks such as translation, summary, and content generation. As this technology advances, we can anticipate more and more innovative applications for ChatGPT in the future. 

ChatGPT: Benefits  

To make the benefits of ChatGPT clearer to you, we asked ChatGPT to write us this section:

Me: “What are the benefits of using ChatGPT?” 

ChatGPT: “ChatGPT is a chatbot model developed by OpenAI that uses the GPT-3 language model to generate responses to user input. Some benefits of using ChatGPT include: 

• Natural language understanding: ChatGPT is able to understand and respond to user input in a way that is similar to how a human would. This makes it easier for users to communicate with the chatbot and reduces the need for precise formatting or commands. 
• Customization: ChatGPT can be customized to fit the specific needs and goals of an application. For example, it could be trained to answer specific questions about a product or service or to provide personalized recommendations based on user input. 
• Versatility: ChatGPT is able to handle a wide range of conversation topics and can engage in extended conversations with users. This makes it well-suited for use in customer service or other applications where users may have a variety of questions or issues to discuss. 
• Efficiency: ChatGPT can handle multiple conversations simultaneously, which can help to improve the efficiency of customer service or other applications where multiple users may be interacting with the chatbot at the same time. 

Overall, ChatGPT offers a number of benefits for applications that require natural language understanding and the ability to engage in extended conversations with users.” 

ChatGPT for Note-Taking Apps  

ChatGPT’s technology has the potential to transform the use of note-taking apps by making information collection and organisation easier and more efficient. 

Understanding and responding to natural voice input is one of ChatGPT’s main advantages for note-taking apps. This means that users can simply speak or type their thoughts and ideas in a conversational manner, and ChatGPT will generate a structured and organised note based on that input. This is especially useful for people who prefer to take notes in a loose, unstructured manner, as they can capture their thoughts as they come without having to worry about formatting or organisation. 

ChatGPT also has the capability of learning from previous input. ChatGPT can understand the user’s writing style and preferences by analysing previous notes and conversations, and then suggests appropriate tags or categories for new notes. This allows users to stay organised while working in note-taking apps and easily find information later. 

ChatGPT not only improves the process of note-taking, but it can also assist the user in more efficiently reviewing and summarising them. ChatGPT can create a summary or highlight the key points of a note by analysing its contents, saving users time and effort when reviewing their notes or presenting them to others. 

Overall, ChatGPT has the potential to significantly improve how we take notes by making it easier to capture and organise information as well as streamlining the review and summary process. We can expect even more innovative and useful applications in the future as this technology advances. 

OpenAI Integration with Zenkit

Zenkit now integrates with OpenAI!

If you use Zenkit Base to build your database and are looking for a way to use the power of UI to convert data into valuable insights, the Zapier integration between Zenkit Base and OpenAI could be the solution.
The integration with OpenAI opens up a world of possibilities for improving the functionality of any Zenkit-created database. OpenAI can assist in generating AI-generated content that is relevant to the specific context of the data in Zenkit, whether it’s for storing ideas for blog articles, recipes, or tourist destinations.

Final Thoughts 

As you can see from this article, the Zenkit team are very impressed with ChatGPT. That’s why we’re already working at full speed to find a solution to integrate artificial intelligence into Zenkit products.  

Nonetheless, we are still learning how to use this new tool. It’s nice that it’s currently available for free to everyone after completing registration. This definitely allows for a thorough understanding of ChatGPT. 

However, it’s worth pointing out that, while this tool has great potential, ChatGPT warns that the provided answers are not always correct. As a result, before using or disseminating this information, you should always double-check the answers. Even if we wish AI would take care of the mundane tasks of life, they are still tools that should not take away our ability to think for ourselves.

The post How ChatGPT Revolutionises Your Notes appeared first on Zenkit.

It’s important to set yourself professional goals every year, whether it’s required by your company or you do it on your own accord.

Fail to plan. Plan to fail.

Setting goals can often seem like a trivial task on top of your everyday work. However, taking the time to sit down with yourself and think about what you’d like to achieve in the coming year is crucial not only for professional growth but personal growth too.

But where do you start? What do professional goals look like, and why should you take them seriously?

Not to worry. We’ll cover everything on professional goals and provide 9 examples that you can adopt immediately to advance your career.

Why Set Your Professional Goals?

Setting professional goals is critical to keep growing in your career. It gives you something to aim for in your work and prevents your job from becoming boring.

If you focus on continuous improvement in your work and yourself, you start to gain a strong sense of purpose. You give yourself the platform to achieve your life’s dream.

What Are Professional Goals and Why Are They Important?

A list of professional goals can act as your guide throughout your career. Short-term goals that you can achieve weekly/monthly and long-term goals all combine to create a personal roadmap for your professional life.

At times when you may feel lost, you can consult your goals to keep you on track to success. Goals are powerful tools that keep you pointing in the right direction and keep you accountable.

9 Professional Goals for 2023

Let’s take a look at some of the top professional goals you can set yourself for 2023.

1.   Assess Your Current Situation

Take the time to review where you currently are with your work. You can do this by asking yourself the following questions and answering them honestly:

• Am I happy in my current role or company?
• Am I getting the most out of myself in this job?
• Can I improve my work?
• Do I earn what I am worth?
• Do I see the potential for growth in this position?

Asking yourself these types of questions will shed some light on your current work life. It’s important to know where you stand when setting professional goals because you want to see the progress you made from where you are now to where you’ll be in a year.

Setting professional goals is a strategic move that could also include making career shifts. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more professionals have started valuing the importance of their life’s purpose over their jobs. This led to many individuals making huge shifts to jobs or companies that aligned with their personal values for ultimate job and life satisfaction.

What to do: Sit down with a pen and piece of paper and answer the questions above (and any others that may arise) to get a clear image of your professional life right now. Remember that this practice will only be helpful if you answer truthfully.

2.   Upskill Yourself with an Online Course

To stay current, you need to continuously seek new skills to learn that relate to your profession or industry. Only 32% of American workers say their employers have provided them with opportunities for training or education assistance. That’s why it’s important for you to take charge of your own professional development.

Online courses are the best way to make yourself a standout professional. There are numerous career advancement courses that you can add to your CV, which could make the difference when being considered for a promotion in your company or hired for another job.

What to do: Choosing an online course isn’t so straightforward, though. That’s why we’ve set up a little step-by-step plan that you can follow:

Step 1: Explore different online learning websites.

Examples of websites that provide online courses:

• Coursera
• Envato Tuts+
• Udemy
• EdX
• LinkedIn Learning
• HubSpot Academy

There are so many courses and so many things to learn. How do you choose one, and how do you know what will boost your career?

Step 2: Research skills and certifications that are related to your position or industry.

Make a list of the skills you want to acquire and link them with courses that you find interesting.

For example, if you want to be considered for a promotion to management one day, it may help your chances to take a course on leadership and management.

Make sure that you choose a course that awards you a certificate at the end.

Step 3: Take your list of online courses to your manager for feedback.

Ask your manager which courses would be most beneficial for you to advance in your position. If the course isn’t free, you can take the opportunity to ask them if they’d be willing to pay for the course since it would also benefit the company.

Step 4: Enroll in the short course and complete it.

This may seem like an obvious step, but many people don’t finish their online courses.

According to a recent study from Columbia University, only 15% of online learners complete their courses.

Working full-time and completing an online course with nobody to hold you accountable but yourself takes serious mental strength.

Tip: Remember why you started the course in the first place. It’ll be worth it when you’re done.

3.   Generate Passive Income

If you feel that you aren’t earning what you’re worth, it’s time to make a change. Working for anything less decreases your motivation and drive to produce high-quality work.

This means you should either change your job or find a side hustle to make more money.

If you are looking for ways to earn more money, a current trend is finding ways to earn passive income. This comes in many forms, most popularly investing in shares, although this requires large amounts of money to be viable.

There are also plenty of gig-economy apps that make it easy for people to get started with a side hustle. There are UGC platforms like Collabstr, online shopping marketplaces like Etsy, and endless other options for you to choose from. Gig-economy apps can be great because they bring you a constant flow of customers, making it quite a passive stream of income.

It essentially means making your money work for you. Passive income requires initial capital investment to get started but will begin generating income by itself once it’s up and running.

What to do: Evaluate your skills and think of a way you can sell them. Create and sell your own handmade goods, find a niche not overcrowded with sellers in your area, or become an affiliate marketer. A great way to generate passive income is to create your own products without any initial investment and sell them online.

4.   Expand Your Network

As the cliché goes, networking is everything.

And yes, that’s true for any industry. We’re all social creatures by nature and can only work together by communicating effectively with each other.

The introduction of hybrid work models has made networking slightly more difficult. That means you should try to bridge that communication gap and expand your network.

You can do this by:

• Joining online communities
• Attend conferences
• Attend work events
• Reach out to professionals in your field on LinkedIn

But what is the benefit of expanding your network?

People talk. If you can build yourself a trustworthy professional identity, there’ll be many opportunities coming your way to work with high-level companies.

Bruno Marota, who founded the online puzzle platform im-a-puzzle.com, explains, “As I’ve actively networked, I’ve also expanded my LinkedIn network. Now when I post about potential partnerships for custom puzzles or games, I get a handful of interesting responses.”

What to do: Research others in your field on LinkedIn and send them a request. You can start engaging more with other professionals and eventually create a community.

Alternatively, sign up for a newsletter related to your industry and look out for any upcoming conferences you can attend.

5.   Explore New Ways to Perform Better

Are you doing the best possible job that you can right now?

It’s a tough question to answer because we innately feel like we’re trying our best. But, if you can identify areas in your work that could be improved, it would make a massive impact.

Even the smallest improvements could make large waves in your professional life. If you want to increase your productivity, it’s all about the system you use to complete work. Reevaluating how you work hugely impacts your productivity.

What to do: Identify areas for improvement in your work and research how to better them. This may even mean using new software to automate some processes for you.

Discover the ultimate project management tool.
Sign up for free today!

6.   Ask for Honest Feedback

If you want to find out some ways you can improve your work, the best way is to ask your manager for honest feedback.

Note, this should only be done if you and your manager have a solid and honest relationship. This is the only way you’ll get real, constructive feedback that you can incorporate into your work.

If you don’t have a solid relationship with your manager, try asking one of your colleagues.

The feedback you receive may not always be what you want to hear, but it’s a great way to work on your weaknesses.

What to do: Ask your manager or colleagues for feedback on your performance at work. Use this as the base for you to set goals on how to improve.

7.   Develop Your Soft Skills

This may be one of the most important, if not the most important.

Professional goals aren’t all about the technical skills you gain through formal education. To be successful in the working world, you need to develop an all-around professional identity.

Examples of soft skills:

• Communication
• Teamwork
• Problem-solving
• Time management
• Critical thinking
• Decision-making

This means that you need to be able to communicate with your colleagues effectively and have high-level social skills to collaborate with others. Make sure to be proactive, come up with your own initiatives, and be respectful towards others with your time management.

We all know a person who is the smartest in the room, but their emotional intelligence is so low that nobody can work with them.

Cultivating emotional intelligence in your work life is vital because it allows you to regulate your emotions, read others’ emotions and communicate based on that information.

Soft skills can be learned, but they’re often personality-based and thus requires effort to adopt them.

What to do: This is another opportunity to ask your manager or colleagues for feedback. It’s the best way to learn about your proficiency in soft skills.

8.   Identify New Challenges in Your Job

If you feel like your job is becoming slightly tedious, it may be time to take the step to identify new challenges in your position.

If you’re a software developer, you could experiment with new ways of writing code to develop something previously unheard of. This could make you stand out if you were to succeed.

Ideally, it should be something that falls in line with your company’s goals. This way, you can show your employers how much of an asset you are to the company since you’re willing to take your job a step further.

What to do: Discuss career development with your boss/manager. Communicate your ideas to them and show them how they could benefit the company.

9.   Optimize Your Time Management

Good time management tools are essential to high-quality work. Many professionals are caught up with trivial daily activities and end up working overtime or producing mediocre work because they’re stressed over time.

Being busy doesn’t mean you’re working effectively. If you truly want to be better, you need to reassess the way you work.

This means:

• Prioritizing the most important tasks
• Saying no to unimportant work
• Focused, deep work
• Planning your work day (including time to rest)
• Side-stepping distractions like social media

What to do: Observe your work patterns throughout the day. Do you get easily distracted? Do you spend half the time scrolling through social media or websites?

Then, it’s time to make a change.

Develop healthy work patterns by mapping out your day for high productivity and time for rest in between.

Final Thoughts

As human beings, we are always on the lookout to be better. Setting professional goals is so important to realize your full potential. Although it’s not an easy process to improve yourself, it’s always worth it. Taking intentional steps and keeping yourself accountable is the key to achieving greatness.

The post 9 Professional Goals for Work in 2023 (with Examples) appeared first on Zenkit.

People who interact with your brand and show interest in your offer are called leads. Unfortunately, most of them aren’t ready to make a purchase yet.

So, you need to do two things: first, you need to prevent them from falling out of your marketing funnel, and second, you need to turn them into paying customers.

To achieve these goals, you need to nurture the leads. Lead nurturing is the process of providing engaging content to prospective clients at each stage of the sales funnel. It develops and reinforces relationships with buyers at different sales pipeline stages. 

A successful lead nurturing program should focus on listening to prospects’ needs and providing them with the right information at the right time. This process is essential because it allows the brand to build trust and, most importantly – maintain a connection until prospects are ready to purchase.

In this article, you’ll learn how to create a successful lead-nurturing strategy to boost sales right away. Let’s dive in.

Collect Useful Data About Target Buyers

To create an efficient lead nurturing strategy, you first need to know your audience. Analyzing customer data is an effective way to identify leads and customize marketing messaging. 

The data helps businesses understand their customer’s shopping habits and online behavior. Some of this behavior includes how they interact with your business and what content they respond to best.

You can use various tools to collect this data, but Google Analytics is probably the most popular option. You can also create forms and encourage people to fill them out, for example, when they’re signing up for your newsletter.

The most valuable data to collect is the information that enables you to segment leads into the right groups. For example, when you observe there is a group of people that converts better, you can focus your lead nurturing efforts on this group.

You should consider whether these people have something in common, for example, location or number of visits to your home page. This way, you can group these leads and label them to benefit your future marketing actions.

It also helps to prioritize the leads you grouped. To do that, you can use the method called lead scoring. It’s a way of ranking prospects on a scale representing the value they can bring to the business. You assign numeric values to certain website browsing behaviors, conversion events, or social media interactions. The resulting score can help you determine which leads are ready to go into the sales process and which leads need to be nurtured more.

Collecting data and organizing it properly can significantly help manage marketing actions. It can be used to make more personalized messaging and automate marketing processes. 

In the long run, collecting data can help you better track marketing parameters, such as SEO results and social media reach. With this knowledge, you can better plan your lead nurturing campaigns in the future.

Align Your Sales and Marketing Teams

There are two types of leads you need to know – marketing-qualified leads and sales-qualified leads. These two groups of people need different communication methods from different sources.

A marketing-qualified lead is someone who just got to know your product and needs a little more communication to be persuaded. They are the ones that are sent into the lead nurturing process. A sales-qualified lead is a prospective customer interested in the product and ready to talk to a sales team.

Evaluating your leads and passing them through to the sales team at the right time is crucial for keeping them in the sales cycle. To do that, both teams must understand your brand’s definition of a lead. 

Unfortunately, only 49% of sales and marketing teams have a standard definition of a lead, as examined by a Gartner study. 

This poses a threat of missing out on promising leads or wasting time on unqualified leads. Both teams should agree on what makes a marketing-qualified lead and a sales-qualified lead and prioritize the accounts to pursue. When all these aspects are clarified, there will be no room for misinterpretation.

If you want to keep the leads in the sales cycle, you also need impeccable communication between the sales and marketing teams and a clear division of responsibilities. To support that, it would be helpful to use software such as a project management tool or unified communications as a service platform. 

Simplify your project communication and task management with our user-friendly project management software.
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Great workplace communication and mutual understanding of the business objectives can go a long way in enhancing a lead-nurturing strategy.

Create a Content Strategy

Content marketing is a great tactic not only for lead nurturing but also for lead generation. However, different types of content work better for different audiences.

Therefore, you need a content marketing strategy that reflects people’s needs and caters to various groups. To do that, you need to understand what types of content work best at different points of the buyer’s journey. 

• Awareness: This stage starts when a person comes into contact with the brand and wants to learn more about your business and its products and services. At this stage, the best types of content are blog posts, social media posts, podcasts, e-books, videos, and infographics.
• Consideration: In this stage, potential customers begin to understand what your products or services can do for them and start considering purchasing them. At this point, you should reinforce the prospect’s trust. You can engage potential customers with events, webinars, emails, whitepapers, and case studies.
• Purchase: At the final stage of the funnel, you make the purchasing process as easy and satisfying as possible. This is your best chance at creating loyal customers. Content that works best for this stage includes coupons, product features, use cases, product comparison pages, testimonials, and pricing pages.

  

If you match the right content with prospects at the right decision-making stage, you can convince more people to purchase your product. 

In addition, with a clear division of content types, it will be easier to track which content converts best. It will support creating a transparent content creation and distribution process that can help, especially if you outsource to freelancers or want to hire new managers for your marketing team.

Use Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the best lead-nurturing tactics because it’s universal, easily scalable, and supports marketing automation. This channel can be used to communicate with people at every stage of the sales pipeline.

With email marketing, you can segment these people into groups based on several variables and craft personalized messages for each group. That makes nurturing leads even more effective as you can target every lead with content types they’ll resonate with.

Most email autoresponders allow you to create an entire journey for a prospect depending on their interactions with your website. You can prepare a few pieces of email copy and automatically send them when a prospect makes a specific action. This makes your lead nurturing process more efficient. 

Email marketing can serve two needs at the same time – it can help you promote your services or product and collect more customer data. You can track people’s behavior and create personalized marketing communication to nurture leads even more efficiently.

Final Thoughts

To create a successful workflow for lead nurturing, it is crucial to have a content strategy that reflects people’s needs and caters to various groups. In addition, you need to collect data about your prospects to create effective lead-nurturing strategies. 

Email marketing also enables effective communication to reach leads at every sales funnel stage. Plus, it enhances automated lead nurturing.

Implementing these methods will help you keep track of your leads and optimize your sales pipeline to ensure most of the leads convert into customers.

About the Author: Tomasz Niezgoda is the Head Of Marketing at Surfer, a platform that merges content strategy, creation, and optimization into one smooth process.  With almost a decade of experience in the industry, he is responsible for incorporating and executing marketing strategies. Currently, he manages a team of 4 wonderful experts.

The post Lead Nurturing Your Business with a Successful Workflow appeared first on Zenkit.

Most business today takes place online, and almost all modern companies have a website. However, it’s one thing to have a website and another for the website to support your lead generation and overall business goals.

Along with your social media, your website is one of the main digital platforms where leads interact with your business. Consumers often check out the websites of different companies, so they can make informed decisions.

Therefore, your website and its content must be optimized to give prospects a good impression. So, here are five ways to optimize your website and make it work for you.

1. Improve Page Loading Speed

Page loading speed shows how quickly your content loads when someone visits a page on your site. Page loading speed is hugely important for website optimization. Google research has shown that the chance of a bounce increase by 32% when page load time increases from one to three seconds. 

So, how do you improve your page loading speed?

Although using images in your content is good for search engine optimization, having too many images with large file sizes can increase your load time. The web page below is a good example. The page is crowded with images, and the images have several different colors, increasing the file sizes.

You can manage this by compressing image files before adding them to your site. There are many tools available online to help with this. It is also good practice to screen your pages or blog posts and take note of unnecessary images that may hamper your page speed. 

You should also monitor your plugins. Having too many website plugins can reduce page loading speed. Remove any that are no longer being used and opt for multi-purpose plugins where possible. 

Reducing the number of redirects on your website also helps. Avoid unnecessary internal links. Use tools like Screaming Frog to eliminate redirects that are no longer useful.

You can also use caching software or Content Delivery Networks (CDN). These tools reduce the workload of your server by storing copies of your files and delivering them when visitors come to your site.

2. Optimize Your Content

We cannot discuss website optimization without talking about optimizing your content. Content optimization involves optimizing your website content for both search engines and users. The goal is to optimize your content to give it the best chance of appearing among the top search results. 

You’re also optimizing the content to give your users a great experience. 

Remember, people have short attention spans and want instant gratification. So, you only have a short window of time to grab users’ attention. Therefore, use short phrases in your content to keep it concise and engaging. 

Relevant content with videos and images performs better than plain text content. So, use images and videos where appropriate. Also, if the search engine determines that your image is relevant to a search term, it can appear in search results. Therefore,  use relevant keywords in your alt, title, and image tags to optimize them for search engines.

Spelling and grammar mistakes on your website can give the wrong impression to potential customers. Use a proofreading tool like Grammarly to identify and fix any errors.

Finally, include calls to action in your content to encourage consumers to learn more about your business and move through the sales funnels. CTA’s act as links between the different phases of the customer journey. With strong CTAs, you can convert leads to customers more efficiently.

3. Make it Mobile Responsive

In 2020, mobile devices were used for 61% of website visits in the U.S. Search engines have also begun to incorporate this change into their systems in recent years. In 2019, Google rolled out mobile-first indexing, meaning the search engine looks primarily at the mobile version of a website for indexing and ranking.

Whether you have an e-commerce or industrial website design, optimizing the site for mobile devices is critical. Luckily, the best website builders allow you to preview how your pages will look on different devices. Check the mobile preview of your web pages as you create them to ensure they’re mobile-friendly.

You can also use Google’s free mobile-friendly test tool to check the mobile-friendliness of your website. Through analytics, the tool tells you how optimized your site is on mobile and highlights areas for improvement.

4. Implement Schema Markup

Schema markup is a type of microdata used by web developers that helps Google understand and extract content from your pages. This tool allows you to optimize your website so search engines can read your site more efficiently and provide more informative results for searchers.

The information you provide for schema markup appears as structured snippets in search results. Additional information, such as your location, prices, customer ratings, and reviews, are displayed in search results, as shown below. 

The additional details make your organic search result look more informative and appealing. That can trigger more click-throughs.

Since it makes your content easier to understand for search engines, schema markup gives you a better chance of appearing in search results.

Schema code can also enhance the quality of your traffic. Your industry and website’s purpose are easier to identify for search engines. As a result, you will appear in more relevant searches, allowing you to attract high-quality leads. 

However, it is vital to stick to schema markup that is relevant to your business. For example, an online business with no physical store doesn’t need to use location markup. 

Also, you would be best served using Javascript (JSON-LD) to input your schema markup, especially if you are inexperienced. Unlike microdata, with Javascript, you don’t need to embed the code in the website’s HTML, making it much handier.

5. Optimize for User Experience

Consumers want a website that is aesthetically pleasing and easy to use. Pages that are difficult to navigate could put prospects off moving any further along the customer journey with your business.

Most of the tips already mentioned in this article will help you optimize your site’s user experience. For example, slow-loading pages or a non-mobile responsive website make for a poor user experience. So, make sure your website is mobile-friendly and optimize page loading speeds.

Your website must also have a clean design and be easy to navigate. All website sections should be easy to find, so you’ll need to implement a proper website architecture. 

Calls to action like “Book your Demo” or “Sign up for free” can also be used to help visitors find their way around your website.

You also want these CTAs to stand out as they directly impact your lead generation efforts. Follow Zenkit’s cue and use a contrasting color for the critical CTAs.

Regarding design and layout, you don’t need to completely fill your pages with menus and content. Too much information on a page can make it challenging to navigate. Leave some white spaces and keep things simple and clear. That should help the most important buttons and information stand out. 

Display security measures on your site to give potential customers peace of mind. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of cyber security. So, let them know immediately that you’ve got everything covered in that respect with a security badge displaying the security measures on your site. 

You also want to include HTTPS certification to protect user data.

Also, make sure customer service on your website is prompt and easy to access. You can use chatbots to automate customer support or build a vast knowledge base by answering frequently asked questions. 

You also want to train your customer support team and enhance their collaboration with the necessary tools to ensure they can serve your leads better. Another option is to use business phone systems to ensure easy communication between departments when assistance is required.

Final Thoughts

Your website is one of the leading platforms where your target audience interacts with your business before becoming customers. This is why website optimization plays a vital role in effective lead generation.

Consumers have no patience for slow websites, so improving your page speed is critical. You must also consistently provide high-quality, SEO-optimized content to draw leads in.

Moreover, your website and content need to be easy to navigate and read across all devices; optimize for mobile friendliness and user experience. Finally, add schema markup to give yourself a better chance of appearing in search results.

Follow these optimization strategies, and you will soon see an improvement in your lead generation efforts.

About the Author: Ian Loew is a web entrepreneur and inbound marketing expert, and the Owner & Head of Business Development of Lform Design. After four years of helping Fortune 500 companies with MGT Design, Ian embarked on his freelance career before establishing Lform Design in 2005. He leads a team of creative professionals to deliver inspired online experiences via modern, responsive websites that reflect his clients’ core values. When not at the helm, Ian can be found mountain biking with friends or spending time with his family.

The post 5 Ways to Optimize Your Website for Lead Generation appeared first on Zenkit.

A project manager is responsible for many processes in the team, ensuring the project’s aim is reached in the most efficient way possible. However, emails, meetings, communication between the client and the team, and troubleshooting issues may sometimes be overwhelming.

To pull off all the tasks and deliver the best results, each project manager should keep a few hacks to increase productivity and ensure the results are delivered on time and with desired quality.

Types of Project Managers

Different people approach the same tasks differently. And as in any field, there are various types of project managers using different project management methodologies. You can differentiate them by many aspects depending on what is in your focus.

Harvard Business Review outlines four main types of project managers: prophet, executor, expert, and gambler. Each of them has its pros and cons.

• The prophet is a project manager who may consider projects outside the company’s strategies. They see outside the box and give a long shot for the future. They are looking for people who could follow and continue the project’s legacy and contribute to the project and the organization. Profits go for the long-term vision and opportunities. Such project managers help challenge the existing strategies and seek opportunities that may be overlooked.
• The executor goes for ample opportunities supported by evidence and analytical data. Their projects are sure and aimed at success. There is no uncertainty. Executors know what they are doing, and people follow them. They provide excellent results, and everything is documented correctly and aligned. However, there is no challenge, and executors will likely not give insights on opportunities in fewer studies and tried areas.
• The expert goes for solid cases with reliable data basis outside of the current strategy scope. They rely on the company’s members taking their advice and promoting the change of the current strategy based on soundproofing the change. Although these opportunities are feasible as they are supported with enough data, the key for the experts is to make other organization members aware of the need to implement changes and move forward.
• Gamblers are up for projects that comply with the existing strategy but have no reliable analytical data supporting it. They are willing to take risks and play big. Gamblers take bets and thus are ready to pursue growth opportunities that are otherwise not based on some success probability estimations. It brings a great benefit to implementing unseen growth opportunities. Such an approach also helps update the strategy by following unforeseen opportunities. However, the success likelihood is not calculated.

Top Project Management Industries

Developing a business is no easy thing. One cannot take it to heights without the help of a professional team. A project manager is an integral part of this team. They can introduce your business to more new people and contribute significantly to growing and expanding it.

The leading areas in the modern world require project managers to show high productivity and success in fulfilling projects in a fast-developing environment. According to PMI, the need for project managers will increase by 33% through 2027. The top four industries hiring skilful project managers are banking, engineering, medicine, and IT.

Banking

The banking and finance sphere needs project managers who will be in charge of the budget. They ensure the project is fulfilled within the budget stipulated and analyze transactions and financial statements of the company.

In addition, economic projects are usually connected to high risks, so the project manager’s productivity and accuracy play an essential role.

Medicine

Healthcare needs skilled project managers as well. Their responsibility is to enhance the healthcare service provision by implementing traditional project management focusing on health and medical issues. There are non-clinical project managers and medical project managers.

The high demand for complex projects has caused a subsequent need for non-clinical project managers. They do not fulfil medical tasks per se but rather focus their attention on planning and delivering projects and communicating with stakeholders.

They may also be in charge of facilitating a new department or wing of the hospital and overseeing various smaller projects within the hospital or outpatient clinics.

Engineering

Engineering and construction, in particular, have been booming in recent years. Engineering Project Managers are responsible for directing and assessing daily operations and increasing the engineering team’s productivity.

They oversee the collaboration of such departments as design, manufacturing, and engineering to provide the final result on time and of the quality stipulated by law. High personal productivity and the ability to encourage the team to work productively are essential to orchestrating the teams’ work from various departments.

Informational Technologies

It is ambitiously developing at a fast pace. Thus, IT companies rely on innovative technologies and solutions to increase productivity and results. The IT project manager’s tasks are to create the sprints for their team, ensure the priority of the tasks and communicate progress to the client.

Among other tasks, the IT project manager serves as the bridge between the team and the customer. Thus, their personal productivity and ability to set priorities ensure steady progress.

Why Is Productivity So Important for Project Managers?

Project managers pull off a lot of work. They are responsible for organizing their working day and ensuring other people’s workflow. Moreover, 59% of project managers run between 2 and 5 projects. 11% run 6 to 10 projects, and 15% run more than ten simultaneously. Thus, it puts a lot of pressure on project managers.

That is when prioritizing and establishing operational processes can help increase productivity and cover as many tasks as needed. Having tools and implementing various techniques may help unload the project manager’s workflow and provide space to concentrate on what is essential.

Let’s outline some of the most popular ways to spike a project manager’s productivity. This can include optimizing workflows and unloading tasks that help reach the desired results in the set timeframe.

1.   Automate the processes

1 out of 4 companies report using management software, and others use only Excel and other separate tools to track their processes. As a result, companies can’t track the project in real time and quickly react to project changes.

Management software can help save time and avoid confusion significantly when a team is expanded. Fine-tuning these processes may help save lots of precious time to be able to focus on other essential tasks. This tip will benefit all types of managers as it helps them see the bigger picture by not getting swallowed up by routine tasks.

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2.   Take a break

The founder of “The Energy Project” discovered in his research that people move from focus to physiological fatigue every 90 minutes. Many people suppress this feeling by drinking coffee or energy drinks until they are completely done. It can’t be beneficial either for health or for work.

Taking short breaks often is not a waste of time. It is instead a saving boat for your focus and productivity. Setting a timer or using apps such as Pomodoro, Forest, etc. help you track your focus vs. rest time. You can ensure you take breaks by using these apps until breaks become usual. Nobody can work 8 hours straight with the same efficacy.

Ensuring the team has short breaks, having tools to track their KPI, and providing an opportunity to automate tasks can significantly improve productivity. Executors should pay attention to this tip, as making breaks helps our brain wander and relax. Fresh and challenging ideas appear when we actually rest.

3.   Track the numbers

Tracking numbers are always a good idea, especially when discussing project data. It is essential to keep records of the project’s overall progress. This information helps project managers adjust timelines, deadlines, and budgets and correctly communicate that to the client. Here are a couple of points worth tracking:

• Money spent
• Tasks left to finish
• Non-working time (days off, holidays, etc.)
• Time spreadsheets

Time and money are the two key elements that must be clearly communicated to the client. At the same time, the team’s progress can show how fast or slow tasks are performed and whether additional human resources are needed for certain parts of the project.

Prophets and Gamblers will benefit most from taking up this advice, as they are more likely to take a leap of faith with their projects. Trying to find some data to back it up will only help.

4.   Have an exact agenda for your meetings

Business meetings are one of the greatest time killers at work. As much as they give benefits, they also may steal lots of time if conducted unprofessionally or once too often. 72% of professionals believe that setting clear objectives makes a meeting successful. So, when planning a meeting, clear bullet points or questions that must be discussed should be prepared and followed. It is also a good idea to distribute them in advance, so participants know exactly what will be discussed and what they should be ready with or adopt a culture of daily stand-ups.

This doesn’t mean avoiding meetings and discussions at all, but rather structuring them wisely and using them as tools to track progress, discuss bottlenecks and troubleshoot issues without abusing the time. It will help prophets plan their working time better and assure transparent communication and trust within the team.

5.   Analyze your projects afterward

Project reviews, in retrospect, maybe a valuable source for dos and don’ts. They can show you what works very well and what needs improvement. This step helps improve your managing skills and competencies and ensures your next project does not face the same problems.

Here are a few questions to think about after completing a project:

• What worked well in the project?
• What didn’t work at all?
• What could be done better?
• What can I do now?

When having a project review session, try to brainstorm ideas with the team in order to identify your growth points, remembering that this session is for improvement, not pointing fingers. Applying this technique will help all types of managers and their teams learn from their previous experiences.

Final Thoughts

Project managing is a complex and versatile task involving many processes that need supervision. By applying some of these tips, project managers can significantly unload themselves and concentrate on the tasks that matter most and need the most attention.

The key takeaways are that project managers should be thoughtful in prioritizing and automating as many processes and tasks as they can. Professional management software can help focus on the priorities and help the team develop and move efficiently throughout the project. Time is a valuable resource and, if managed wisely, can greatly assist the project’s success.

About the Author: Tania Doshko is a motivated and avid content creator who believes in the power of quality writing for business success. She finds her inspiration in careful observations and amazement with the fastly developing world.

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