The following is a guest post by Jay Lieu who runs Great Big Minds. In his blog, he shares life-changing inspirational content with the world. He lives to empower, inspire and motivate others to live life great and go after their passion. You can connect and learn more about him here.

We live in a hyper-connected digital world that glorifies multitasking – it’s the only way to get everything done when there are so many things to tick off our seemingly endless to-do-list. Keeping ourselves busy means we are being productive, right?

In many cases, the answer is a big, fat no.

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but keeping a to-do-list and focusing your sole effort in knocking as many items off that list can actually hold yourself back from achieving your bigger, more meaningful goals.

How so?

Let’s dig a little bit deeper, and provide you with some to-do list tips that will get you on the right track.

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It’s no secret that attracting, satisfying, and retaining customers is becoming increasingly challenging.

The sheer amount of choice and demand for fast, flawless service demands businesses to formulate and execute effective ways to deliver excellent customer experiences.

Without acknowledging the importance of the customer experience at every touchpoint, companies miss out on great opportunities to develop a strong brand identity; opportunities that cannot afford to be missed in a business environment where first impressions are pivotal.

A slew of recent research studies provides us with the data to support this perceived demand to enhance customer experiences.

McKinsey research found that 70 percent of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated—and a large part of that has to do with showing the customer you (as the brand) care about them, and value their business.

It’s also been found that 58% of consumers are willing to spend more on companies that provide excellent customer service throughout the buying process.

To cap it off, the Digital Marketing Trends Report by Econsultancy and Adobe asked companies to indicate the single most exciting opportunity for their organization in the upcoming year – and, yes indeed, customer experience came out on top.

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The following is a guest post by Saibu Baba, a blogger, content writer, and digital marketer who writes about social media management and content creation, alongside fintech and blockchain.

Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years?

Directed at startup founders and teams, this question is interpreted very differently depending on who you are and what you want to achieve as a founder.

While you may be busy pursuing your goal to become the next Google or Facebook, somebody is building the next McDonalds or shaping the best brand for customers to shop online.

Different goals, different brands, with one objective: make it to the top of the industry.

Your ambitions to succeed are not wrong. You just have to recognize that, in reality, your fate depends on somebody else: the loyal customer.

It has become all too clear that today’s customers are different from the customers three decades ago. They are sophisticated, have a lot of options with the touch of a button, and make their decisions based on many variables. They are digital consumers.

So how can you build a loyal customer base for your startup considering that things have changed so much and technology has given a lot of power to customers these days?

This post takes you into the psychology of the digital consumer and explains a number of methods you can use to capture them as loyal customers for your brand.

In this short guide, you will learn about:

• Digital customers and the psychology behind their decisions
• Proven strategies on how to get these digital customers to stay loyal to your brand

Let’s get started.

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The following is a guest post by Deepti Jain, an engineering student who has a knack for writing and is currently working at AeroLeads as a content writer.

Social Selling is a buzzword these days.

I doubt it surprises people anymore given how huge social media is.

I don’t think people realize just how big it is.

According to Statista, 3.02 Billion of the world population will be using social media by 2021.

I know it gets a bad reputation sometimes and folks involved in B2B businesses are often a bit skeptical of leveraging social selling.

What they don’t realize is that they are missing out on a lot of leads, ROI, revenue, yadda yadda yadda.

In fact, Neil Patel, the marketing guru, recently discussed in his blog how he generated $332,640 in 3 months from Instagram alone.

Did this change your stance on social selling?

Hah! I knew it would.

However, if you are still not sold on the idea of social selling, then also don’t fret.

Today, I have rounded up some solid reasons why social selling is important for every salesperson.

Let’s begin!

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The following is a guest post by Billy Lucas. Billy is a passionate blogger sharing business tips on behalf of EngageBay. He writes primarily on SEO, email marketing, CRM, marketing automation and covers the entire gamut of marketing.

Every business wants to get the most out of its resources. Apart from making more profit, companies constantly strive towards reducing overall operational costs.

Technology has helped us in solving some of the most difficult problems where human power is just not enough, and for every big problem that is solved using technology, a number of other small problems are also solved.

Surviving in today’s competitive world requires businesses to efficiently utilize available resources and take appropriate strategic decisions. In order to prevent wastage of resources, many organizations are turning towards process automation solutions.

Business process automation has emerged as a way to carry out a number of tasks without the need for any manual input. IT departments in companies extensively use automation to efficiently provision technology resources, cut operational costs and optimize overall utilization.

The benefits of IT process automation are limitless. If you run a business or are thinking of setting one up, you should definitely consider incorporating process automation.

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The following is a guest post by Monique Danao, a writer for CandyBar and ReferralCandy.

How do you stand out in a crowded industry?

Do you create lots of sponsored content and team up with big influencers? Or, would you spend $100,000 on ad placement?

While these techniques can help your business gain exposure, will it lead to conversions?

There’s tons of marketing advice and posts on the Internet, but have you tried word-of-mouth marketing? It’s currently one of the most effective marketing tactics.

Why is word of mouth marketing powerful?

How often do you ask for recommendations in everyday conversations? How often do you discuss brands with friends and family? I bet you do a lot.

Before we make a purchase from a new brand, we ask about the experiences of people we know. We want to get their feedback because they’re the ones we trust the most.

This makes referrals super effective. Consumers are up to 50x more likely to buy a product if it’s recommended by close friends or family. In addition, 90 percent of customers trust word-of-mouth.

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This is our third template pack composed of checklists that are designed to be worked through in conjunction with a specific property management tool.

We did a pack for Appfolio, Propertyware, and now here are 5 checklist templates for property managers out there who use Buildium to help them run their business.

Buildium is a powerful tool that addresses all aspects of property management.

The platform has built a stellar reputation largely due to its ability to facilitate the tenant-rental owner relationship by offering customizable rental applications, tenant screening, lease tracking, automated rent collection, and other handy features including a full general ledger for accounting.

It’s truly an end-to-end solution for property management firms of all sizes.

The software is entirely cloud-based, so requires no additional hardware or software installations and can be accessed from anywhere.

The platform is currently used by over 12,000 property managers and 175,000 property owners; numbers that will surely continue to rise as they gain popularity and look to bring in more enterprise-level customers.

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This is a guest post from Jessica Thiefels. Jessica specializes in link building, social media strategy and content strategy. You can find her at Jessica Thiefels Consulting or @JThiefels.

While the term “business agility” can sound like just another buzzword, the idea behind this phrase can be key to the success and growth of your small business.

“[Business agility] refers to distinct qualities that allow organizations to respond rapidly to changes in the internal and external environment without losing momentum or vision” – HR Zone, What is Business Agility?

In other words, business agility is the effectiveness with which you make improvements and adaptations in your current methods or processes. This allows you to grow and stay ahead of your competition.

However, it also requires efficiency in nearly every area of your business, from talent acquisition, retention and operations, to infrastructure, leadership and customer relations.

To help overcome these trials, I’ve gathered four highly actionable steps to let you increase business agility and scale your small business.

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It is by no means easy for any organization to establish a strong identity.

It takes excellent leadership from the get-go to clearly define values, goals, and objectives that stakeholders can stand by and employees feel motivated to forward with consistent high-quality performance.

This is proving increasingly challenging for businesses as there is no clear solution, no clear method to getting it right.

But it’s time serious measures were taken to do something about it.

According to research by Deloitte, culture and engagement is the most important issue companies face around the world, with 87% of organizations citing culture and engagement as one of their top challenges, and 50% call the problem “very important.”

The importance of company culture has become increasingly important over the last couple of decades, as younger generations demand a work environment that feels nurturing, encourages collaboration, and offers challenges that keep them engaged and present opportunities to make a notable impact in some way.

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The following is a guest post from Etee Dubey, a full-time content marketer at Outgrow and part-time dreamer. In her free time, she catches up with her reading and often finds herself explaining the meaning of her eccentric name to people around her.

Every ‘emerging marketing trends’ list has one thing in common- the dilemma of choice for marketers. And frankly, we understand if you get a bit confused with so many options flying around.

Which content marketing trend will give you the best ROI? Which one suits your company the best? What is a ‘trend’, anyway?

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