1. Taking Charge of Your Financial Destiny, But How…Many people today know that the only way out of this economic crisis for the individual is through taking financial charge of their life. You may be tired of being a pawn of everyone else but don’t kill your passion by adding an anchor to it like having your joy be your security or enslaving your passion to make the mortgage and the bills day in day out. Running a traditional business is a skill and passion all to itself and unless balancing accounts, inspiring your staff, planning your marketing and your monthly budgets and then making sure it all actually happens is your passion and your skill set, you are just not ready to go into a traditional business. Internet businesses could be another option for you.Owning or renting a building, paying rates and employees etc like in a traditional business is really unnecessary burden to your dreams and it involves a massive investment of time and money in a whole bunch of areas that aren’t necessarily your dreams or skills. Nearly anything can now be sold on the internet in written, video or audio form. You may be great a baking cakes, don’t open a bakery; post your recipes in any format and the entire world can become your customer and you only do the job once! This will leave the rest of your day free to bake rather than having to bake for every single customer. You could be an awesome artist or builder so ask yourself ” How could I transfer what I do into written, audio or video form that others may benefit from and package it for the internet money”.No rent, no wages, no insurance, no employees. Labor only once and what’s the risk? No one buys your product…a) This could happen after you’ve invested tens of thousands in machinery and plant and wages anyway and b) In a world market do you think you couldn’t find 100 or 1000 people who share your interest or could use your knowledge and c) there are many proven strategies for making massive internet affiliates and businesses work faster and easier with less cost and time than traditional business. More millionaires are made everyday on line while more than 80% fail just in their first year. So what I am suggesting is the skills and risks associated with traditional business versus online business is something to consider carefully. Either option is no magic bullet to your passions and skills into profit it does take some time commitment and money, no one will do it for you but if you are willing to go into traditional business then internet money is a breeze.2. Lifestyle of BusinessWe go into business with a view that it will free us from “working for the man” or from the “golden handcuff” but which style of business is most conducive to a free lifestyle? Owning your own traditional business can certainly be like running a day care centre, but for adults instead of kids and you have to pay them. Traditional business owners especially in the early stages generally work harder longer hours than anyone else on their team, not quite the Richard Branson cruising around in Learjet’s life just yet. There is no more, if not less security in running your own traditional business than in a job. 80% of new businesses don’t survive the first year and the statistics get harsher each year thereafter.When it comes to knock off time your brain quite often doesn’t know the meaning of the word relax. You’ll find this out at midnight when you’re still trying to work out your next move and how to pay the rent and the secretary. It is harder to get loans and credit in your own business than in it is for someone who works in a grocery store with regular far less hours than yours! Owning your own traditional business is no guarantee of a free lifestyle. Preparation, business experience and planning are the key, not just your passion and skill. There is a distinction to be made here, it’s all in the type of business you own or in the team that helps you and the proven plans you follow. The World Internet Summit could offer some great alternatives to follow. Owning your own business is certainly the only way to take control of your life and live your passions and enjoy real security, just be aware that turning your passion into a job isn’t your only solution. Owning and running and earning internet money is a very different picture! You already have a computer and can use a search engine and click a mouse.You are already spending time on the net, so you have the time and skill you need to do this. If you’ve ever convinced someone to go to a party with you or someone has watched a movie on your recommendation, you have all the sales skills/ business skills you need. Right now you have all you need to make a huge online business, do you have everything you need right now to run a traditional business? Internet can be built with spare time while still in a regular job for security, this doesn’t happen with traditional business. Right here is the biggest difference the huge gap in the time and money and skill sets and resources between opening a traditional business and that you could start an internet business today. And when your internet business is up and running it will take even less time than starting and it can be run and maintained anytime of the day for as little or long as you like and it can be run from anywhere in the world that you can take a laptop. Now that’s what I consider control and freedom of lifestyle. Some choice….3. Following Maps for SuccessFollowing existing plans is simply a must for business success. So which plans are easier to find and follow traditional or internet? Finding a shop, hiring an accountant, putting up some signs and getting your cousin to help with some flyers and then working your tail off or 40 years is certainly a Plan, but is it a proven plan that will give you your outcomes of freedom and security to follow your dreams as well? Is it the only choice? Spending your spare time of an evening on the internet instead of watching TV. to build up websites that will generate passive income worldwide for the rest of your life is another plan perhaps. There are many rags to riches stories of entrepreneurs but there are, percentage wise a lot more rags to rags stories. That’s why the rare few that have forged a unique path are idolized.The point is you don’t have to reinvent the wheel when staring to go into a business. In fact that is dumb place to start. Most of us are not Branson’s and Trumps or Tom Hua’s but we can hang onto their coat-tails. Our heroes forged paths for a reason, for others to use them and make their path smoother than the heroes had it. Which path will you follow? People have been running businesses on this planet for thousands of years and getting it wrong and right! Their experiences are available to you in libraries and on the internet. You must have an experienced trust worthy mentor. Whether that mentor is in person or in a tape or a book is irrelevant. But it must be someone who has the results you are seeking, not someone who just talks the talk, like a neighbor or someone your Aunties best friend once heard of. Who’s business model will you follow? Do they have the lifestyle you desire?Biographies are a great resource to find the “how” of running businesses and the necessary attitudes. Franchises that are turnkey operations wonderful they eliminate many of the associated risks and lay down clear paths, but they require large up front money, still require time and labor, your still exposed to investment risks every week and it is still a shop that can only service so much business in your area. They still have ceilings and limitations. But the potential and costs to get involved in online affiliate programs wipes the board and is available to anyone like you today! Internet money can be a realistic and much safer choice. There are so many resources and summits at your finger tips with the internet just get to it and find them, as your doing right now it is easy to find effective online business models because so many people are doing it. More new millionaires are made online today and every year than in nearly every other business and investment strategy.The online world is your market which means there are no ceilings to potential to earn as opposed to a shop front space. If you’re already reading this then you’ve already bought plant and equipment and have a place to run your business from and are already covering overheads. You are over half way there already. If you have ideas, talents or knowledge to share then you are nearly there! You may need to buy extra software or purchase training tools to get hold of and be able to action proven plans. As I said there are no magic bullets or magic wands, in life you get what you pay for! There are plenty of internet get rich free opportunities, but beware, do your homework! Look for testimonials, and quick responses from the providers, do they sound desperate, how many things are the offering you to buy on one page.Does it look professional and are the products or backers ranked highly naturally? Are they truly global? Do they have professional graphics and sales letters? In short do they present themselves the way you’d like to present yourself? Do they have what you want? Have they made real internet money themselves? Once you look around you will find many inexpensive, low risk ways to model successful online business that can win your financial freedom where the same cannot be said of traditional businesses.4. Lifestyle is the Outcome.What is it you really want! Both for the business and for your life. Once you know your outcome choosing which business style will be easy. When most people think about getting into business they are thinking “I’ll do what I love, I’ll have no Boss, I’ll set my own hours I’ll have other people do all the boring stuff for me and in no time I’ll also be rich because I know I’ll be better at business than my current boss and he/she is loaded!” All of this can be had, and it can be had in either style of business, so in terms of outcome let me repeat make a distinction between doing what you love as your own boss and running a business. They are not necessarily the same outcome! If you love the idea of running a traditional business then great,, that’s your outcome.If you want to do what you love doing but working out budgets and rents and wages and being an employer is not your thing then that is a different outcome and you need a different plan. Be clear, crystal clear on what you really envisage your traditional business and your life to be like. Write down every detail you can conceive of. (One of my mentors even suggested that I know how many spare roles of toilet paper I keep on hand) Everything you can think of, from stock to furnishings to adverts to hours, licenses insurance and resources (including people, like accountants and lawyers) needed etc This is fun to daydream about and create, it helps to visualize, get a real picture of what’s needed and what’s ahead. Have a qualified accountant look at it with you.Go over it with your mentor or local council until the picture is complete. Don’t forget hobbies and family and friends time when creating your dream time plan and when your done look in the local telephone book find someone running a business like you envisage and see if they’ll spend some time with you so you can see if your plan is real. What you may find is that it can appear a lot more involved and intimidating than you thought or you may find it boring or exciting. If it’s not the last response (exciting) than traditional business is not for you. But maybe you still want to fire your boss and live your passions unburdened. Is it time to your self or with family, time to study or contribute to your church or charity and community? Write this down, write a picture of exactly what you want that lifestyle to look like. Maybe you are still after the lifestyle and security but don’t need the hassle of traditional business.There are plenty of phenomenal internet money opportunities available today where with very little skill or time you can set up great passive income like from affiliate programs, butterfly marketing etc that you get into cheap and enjoy a lifestyle where your passion remains your passion unencumbered by having to have it provide security as well. I found so many great mentors, books and online programs for education and business skills I wish I’d read before 16 years of knocking myself out in traditional business. Whatever your outcome, whatever your choice, I hope this article has helped shorten or smooth your road and clarify your journey to living your dreams. For more ideas about businesses, resources and financial freedom to pursue your passion check out my link for further info.
5 Essential Marketing Activities Every Insurance Agency, Broker and Wholesaler Needs
Insurance marketing is becoming the norm today, as agencies, brokers and wholesalers seek to gain a competitive edge and improve their economy of scale. It’s rare that an agency owner says they don’t care about their website, or that they are unaware of digital marketing opportunities such as insurance email marketing or insurance social media marketing. When it comes to Producers, there are five essential marketing activities that should be used to expand reach and build pipelines.Content Marketing – Content marketing can be an efficient and powerful way to grow an audience and agency. For content marketing to work, agents and brokers need to invest, prioritize and execute. In order to achieve impactful results, content marketing must be taken seriously, and executed consistently.Social Media Marketing – Fifty-five percent of insurance consumers say they would use one or more insurance services offered through social media. Internet reviews and social media play an integral part in credibility. Potential clients, especially millennials, trust advice they find on social media about the best insurance products, agencies and brokers. At a minimum, brokers and agencies should have a professional company page, and executive profiles on all major social media platforms.Insurance Email Marketing – For many agents, brokers and wholesalers, creating a successful email marketing initiative can seem like a formidable task. But insurance email marketing should be a fundamental component of their overall marketing plans. Use the “Five W’s” to think about insurance email marketing:
Who: Targeted Prospects – Email List Generation
What: Relevant, Educational Content
When: Campaign Time & Frequency
Where: Call to Action – Where The Prospect Should Go
Why: Lead Conversion – Close The Loop For ROI
Appointment Setting – Calling in profile prospects is a traditional approach to filling the pipeline, and in certain insurance niches, still has a place within an overall insurance lead generation initiative. That said, it’s recommended that Producers with aggressive sales goals should not be making these calls personally, the calls should be delegated to an internal or outsourced appointment setter. Producers should spend their time talking with prospects, not identifying them. Producers need to create an effective call script, determine the key differentiators, and train the appointment setters, or outsource this effort.Closed Loop Analysis – Closed loop marketing is a simple concept, yet few brokers, agents or wholesalers ever do this. Closed loop marketing analysis can be done on a campaign basis, or a comprehensive monthly or quarterly approach. This goal is simple, which campaign activities are yielding the best results, for both activity and new business results. Closing the loop helps determine the ROI of an agency marketing budget.Insurance brokers, agents and wholesalers can and should invest in these five essential insurance marketing initiatives to expand reach and increase sales activity. A healthy top of the sales funnel is likely to result in increased revenues, and more successful Producers. Producers should spend more time selling, and less time identifying prospects. Agencies, brokers and wholesalers which do not have sufficient staff or expertise to accomplish the five marketing activities reviewed above, can consider outscoring this initiative to a proficient insurance marketing agency.
Brainstorming The Ideas for Influencing Your Mobile App Audience
Once the app is downloaded, you have little time to take a sigh of relief, and then again start focusing on making things easier for the them till their goal is achieved.
According to the AppsFlyer, an app marketing company, the global uninstall rate for apps after 30 days is 28%. Entertainment apps are most frequently deleted, whereas apps based on Finance is least frequently deleted. No matter which app category you belong to, your strategy should be to remain in the mobile phones of users for a long time, and not just sit around but to fulfill your purpose as well.
If we analyze the encounters of users with an app step by step, it can help us unveil the critical factors that influence mobile app audiences, so that we can work upon those and achieve our purpose. Here are the details:
Step1. Finding Your App in Appstore
For this, we have to first find out what exactly users type to search an app. Based on a research, it has been found that 47% app users on iOS confirmed that they found the app through the App Store’s search engine and 53% app users on Android confirmed the same.
What have been their search queries? Interestingly, as the per the data provided by the TUNE research, 86% of the top 100 keywords were brands.With little scope for non-branded categories, most of the keywords were either of games of utility apps. Common keywords in the non branded category are: games, free games, VPN, calculator, music, photo editor, and weather.
Leaving brands aside, if we analyze the user-type of a Non-branded category, we will get two types of users:
1. Users are informed, and they know what they are search
2. Users are exploring possibilities, have no precise information in mind.
If you are a mobile app development company, targeting non-branded users, then your efforts must be directed to creating apps that compel these two types of users. To do so, we have to analyze once they are on an app store, what keywords they use to search. Regina Leuwer, with expertise in marketing & communications, bring some light to the subject. She reached out Sebastian Knopp, creator of app store search intelligence tool appkeywords, who shared with her the data of unique trending search phrases. And according to that data, in 2017, there were around 2,455 unique search phrases trending in the US.
Now, if we study these data to get information, we will find that name of the app is critical to attract the attention of the users.
If your app belongs to non-branded category, then make sure your app name is similar to the common search queries but also unique in comparison with your competitors. So that when your app name is flashed, they click it on to it, finding it purposeful and compelling both.
Step 2. Installation
Remember your users are on mobile devices has limited resources, from battery to storage and RAM to Internet. Everything is limited. So better create an application that is easy to download or say get downloaded with 5 minutes. One critical advice here:
1. Keep the application file size small.
If you are a developer, use APK Analyser to find out which part of the application is consuming maximum space. You can also reduce classes.dex file and res folder that contains images, raw files, and XML.
Step 3. Onboarding
After the user has successfully downloaded your mobile application, don’t leave anything on assumptions. Guide them properly. This you can do through an onboarding process, where users can learn the key functionality and where to begin with the mobile app. Below are the 3 things you need to keep in your mind when creating an onboarding process for your users.
Short and Crisp: The entire guidance of features and functions should be completed within few seconds, with easy options loud and clear option to skip.
Precise Information: Don’t introduce them to the app. They already know what they have downloaded. The objective to inform about the key functions and features.
Allow Users to Skip: Let the tech-savvy users skip the intro. Your app is to meet their requirement and not to have a friendly session.
Step 4. Purpose and UI
Here, the stage is set for your app and it is the golden chance for you to impress your users. What is needed here is the collaboration between purpose and UI of the app. It totally depends on the problem-solving capability and ease of use of the mobile app. Interface design plays the critical role, allowing the users to access features of the apps easily and quickly to perform the task for what they have downloaded the app. When it comes to interface design, make sure that the design is interactive and task-oriented. Here are some factors that you must take care off while creating mobile app interface:
1. Usability: The Mobile phone is an epitome of convenience and if your users find it difficult to use your app, then there is no way there are going to make the space for it in their mobile phones. From screen size to the color of the app, there are many factors that are equally critical and need attention.
2. Intuitive: To create an intuitive User Interface, you have to read the mind of the users, and develop a model based on that. The next should be precise, clear and ‘obvious’ in an interface.
3. Availability: Key features should be hidden in the drop down menu or even if so, it should be obvious for the user to look into the drop-down. An intricate work of design and research is required to make essential features available for the customers and they don’t need to navigate here and there.
If you need more help with the user-interface and innovative ideas for a mobile app, write to me [email protected] and I promise to get back to you with interesting mobile app designs.