Most of our wireless device data usage happens at home or at the office. It is always important to make sure your networks are set up properly and that your mobile devices are all set up to use wireless service whenever possible. All the major telecommunications companies charge you extra money for data. That’s why it’s important to make sure your mobile devices are set up to prioritize using wireless networks whenever available.

As stores adjust to better serve consumers, they are also adding hotspots free of charge for the convenience of the shoppers. The goal is to turn shopping and going to a store into more of an experience. Taking advantage of those hotspots, be it at home, at work or out on the town, will save you hours of data usage. The goal is to save your data for when you really need it, usually when you’re between wireless areas. 

Sales and marketing — two words that work hand-in-hand in any business. No matter how great of a marketing department you have, if your sales department can’t close the deal or know how to process and take advantage of leads, you’re spending good money after bad. In the same token, a really good sales department that can’t get enough leads to keep your team busy is costing you money, time and a lot of aggravation.

Start by assessing all of your marketing and advertising efforts. Break it down by media market like online versus outdoor versus print. Try to track your lead generations to the marketing efforts you’ve done. Figure out how many leads you get from anyone of the media market sources and figure out how much money you’re spending in that market to get those leads. What you’re trying to assess is your lead cost to generate one lead.

Wishing you a year of gratitude – As the Holliday season approaches, it’s important to be grateful to our co-workers and employees – those special individuals who support us throughout the year, help our businesses grow and connect with our customers. Make a game out of it and engage your staff. Ask for ideas on how to improve your website, add features, enhance content and create more value for your customers. Create a fun “creative contributor” aspect to your work week and show your employees you value their opinion and the work they do.

Think about adding an “employee of the month” page to your website. Post staff photos in their work environment and include short bios about who they are and what they do. You could even feature customer success stories and testimonials to show your clients you care about their experiences and the relationships you are building together. And remember, take the time to send out an e-mail greeting to thank your customers for their support and to wish them Happy Holidays!

I would like to personally thank SRQ for giving me the opportunity to contribute here and to the readers for their continued support and encouragement. And to Ringling College, thank you for giving me the opportunity to teach this semester and for inviting me to come back next semester. To my students, a special thank you, you have taught me even more than I would have expected and I was grateful to help you showcase your talents.

Happy Holidays!

Get website ready now for 2016 – before you head out of the office for the holidays!

Here are our top 10 tech tips to get done this December:

  1. Check your domain name(s) renewal dates and set a calendar reminder in advance of the expiration date to ensure you retain those critical URLs.
  2. Review your website hosting package and backup strategy. Have your business needs changed? Do you need to update your plan? How frequently is a full backup of your web site being completed?
  3. Run a website statistics report and examine the results to evaluate where improvements can be made. Do your users only visit certain web pages and not others? Are any of your web pages displaying errors?
  4. Perform and review SEO reports. Are your organic or paid efforts giving you the results you desire?

Have you considered blogging on your website? Sharing your insights is a fantastic way to position yourself as an authority in your line of business with minimal investment. Consider developing a simple annual editorial plan and schedule time to write at least one blog post per month. If you plan out the subjects in advance, you can even write the blogs ahead of time and post them at a defined date each month.

Blogging about your expertise will help increase your website’s SEO organic ranking rate. Translation: the more content your website is able to offer; the better chance of the site being indexed within all major search engines. Remember to keep the subject related to your business, offering tips, techniques or expertise directly related to your company and background. Encourage your readers to give you feedback, posting comments and allow them an option to share the post on social media.