by Lauren Amos, Operational Facilitator | Accelerators, Coaching
In any business, there are tasks which must be performed on a regular basis. Generally, these tasks are assigned to a member of the team who has been trained to perform them. But what happens when that team member is unavailable, or it is necessary to train additional employees on how to perform the task? Creating and maintaining standard operating procedures or SOPs are a great way to ensure that tasks can be performed and understood by any of your team members.
At TurnKey, we follow a simple six-step process when creating SOPs:
- Record a video of you completing the process (a screen share) explaining it as you go.
- Once you’ve recorded the video, write step-by-step directions based on the video.
- When the SOP has been created, have a separate team member proofread the SOP. It is helpful to have them walk through the SOP step-by-step to ensure you’ve captured all of the necessary points.
- Send the SOP to a designer to polish it up and make it look professional.
- After the designer has formatted it, have your team double-check the SOP to ensure the designer didn’t make any mistakes.
- Create a task checklist in a project management system for your
team to follow based on the SOP that was created.
Creating SOPs may seem like an unnecessary step in your business process, but having clear step-by-step instructions for all of the processes and tasks within your company will save time in the long run. It is the first step in ensuring that your business becomes as streamlined and automated as possible!
Want more in-depth instructions on creating SOPs and other topics that will help your business to function well and your sales to skyrocket? Apply now and find out what services you qualify for that can help you systematize your business!
by Lauren Amos, Operational Facilitator | Social Media
In this day and age, having a strong social media presence can have a huge impact on a business’s ability to identify and cultivate new customers while simultaneously staying in touch with repeat ones. Unlike other social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest) who have clearly defined uses and best practices, Twitter tends to be something of an enigma to business owners. With only 140 characters to get your point across, does it even make sense for you to jump on the Twitter bandwagon, and if so, what is the best way to go about it?
When making the decision to start a Twitter account for your business, there are several things you must consider including:
- Target Audience: One of the keys to properly promoting your business is to be where your target demographic likes to hang out. According to a Pew Research Center (www.pewresearch.org) report, Twitter’s audience skews heavily towards the younger end of the spectrum with 40% of users being between the ages of 18 and 29. These percentages drop steadily as age increases with a mere 8% of 65+ year old utilizing the platform.
- Time Commitment: Twitter is considered a “micro-blogging” platform. This means that in lieu of a traditional blogging structure where one might share longer pieces of content several times a week, Twitter users share very short and concise pieces of content (tweets) several times a day. In order to properly utilize Twitter, you will have to commit to consistently making or sharing enough content to support multiple posts per day. While you can use a social media scheduling software to streamline and automate this process, you will still need to consider the additional time needed to create the content and schedule it out.
Additionally, Twitter is a very social form of “social media”. Unlike other platforms, Twitter is very much about the interaction between yourself and your audience. You should think of each tweet as an invitation to your followers to discuss the topic you’ve shared. Along with scheduling regular posts, you will also need to spend time responding and networking with your followers daily. The general rule of thumb is for every post plan to engage with users for at least fifteen minutes after posting.
- Content Creation: Creating content is not simply a matter of time, but topics. Are you passionate about your niche? Do you enjoy sharing about your day? Is connecting with your customers on a daily basis important to you? If so, then Twitter is a great way to do all of these things. Making sure that you have enough to say about your company specifically, and your niche at large is crucial to becoming a successful Tweeter.
Assuming that Twitter is the proper platform for you and your business, the next step is to put a strategy into place that will maximize your effectiveness:
- Develop Your Voice: Before getting started with account setup, image creation, or your first tweet. Decide what sort of voice you’d like to project. Do you want to be seen as an innovative thought leader, a place that customers go for serious information, or maybe taking a fun and playful approach is more your style? Consider your product and the demographics you’re trying to reach. There is no right answer for this, but as with any aspect of your business, consistency is key. Once you’ve decided on a voice stick with it.
- Setting Up Your Account: Now that you’ve established a tone, remember you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Make sure that your username, header image, profile image, and 140 character bio reflect your brand properly.
- Have a Good Content Mix: While having original content to share on Twitter is essential, the great thing about social media is there is also a plethora of information already out there. This means that you do not have to continually recreate the wheel. Sharing pertinent information from other sources is completely fine, and helps you to save time by not having to create the content. However, be sure that you are using a good mix of content. Most experts recommend your tweets consist of 30% original content (images you’ve created, links to articles you’ve written, simple text-only tweets), 60% shared content (retweets, other people’s images, links to outside articles), and 10% promotional information (sales, giveaways, product launch info). This helps you to balance your need to promote your business, with your followers’ desire for new or relevant information from you.
- Be Consistently Active: As mentioned previously, Twitter is very much about the immediate exchange of ideas and stream of consciousness. This means that to get the most of the platform you must be involved. Follow other brands, experts, and influencers who are tapped into your demographic, interact with your followers, research and use hashtags that are relevant to your business and niche, and respond to mentions and messages in a timely manner.
According to Twitter’s own research into its users, on a whole, the tweeting universe tends to be full of trendsetters and early adopters from across the globe. This makes it the perfect place for Amazon sellers to connect with potential customers and get the word out about their products. While it might be more involved than other forms of social media, one thing is certain, the more you put into Twitter, the more you will get out of it!
by Lauren Amos, Operational Facilitator | Coaching, Full-Service
No matter how amazing the product, how phenomenal the price, or how finely composed the listing, one of the challenges that any Amazon seller faces is listing visibility. Your ideal customer cannot purchase your product if they do not know that it exists. Utilizing Amazon’s coupon clipping feature can help you to increase both your visibility and your sales.
What Are Coupon Clippings
Coupon clippings are essentially the same as their real-world counterparts. Customers on Amazon can virtually “clip” the coupons you set up and the savings are applied to their purchase at check out. In addition to the incentive of a discount that is given to customers, coupon clippings help boost your visibility.
Not only do these clippings appear on your listing, but they also are compiled in a virtual “circular” on Amazon’s website. All of the clippings that are currently active amongst Amazon sellers are sorted here by category. This gives you an opportunity to put your product in front of customers who are looking for your product but who might not have otherwise known that it existed.
How Do They Work
When setting up coupon clippings in Seller Central, it is important to understand exactly how they work. To begin, you will need to set a budget for the clipping. The budget you set for your coupon will be used for both the USD equivalent of the discount you are offering and the fee Amazon charges you each time a coupon is redeemed (currently this fee is set at $0.60 per redemption). Once the budget you’ve set for the clipping is depleted, your coupon deactivates.
For example, let’s say you are offering a $4.00 off coupon on a $25.00 item and the first day your coupon becomes active 50 customers redeem it by purchasing your product for $21.00 after clipping the coupon. This is how you would calculate the cost regarding these transactions:
(USD equivalent of the discount you are offering times the number of redemptions) + (redemption fees times the number of redemptions) = ($4.00 * 50) + ($0.60 * 50) = $200 + $30 = $230
The next day, your budget will be decreased by $230 as a result of customer interest.
When setting a budget, please keep in mind that you can always increase your budget, but you may not decrease it. It’s also important to note that if you do not use your entire budget, you won’t be charged that money. For example, if you set a $2,000 budget and $1,500 is used, you will only be charged the $1,500.
Real Life Results
Our clients have had great results when using coupon clippings. Here is an example of one of our clients’ actual numbers:
As you can see, the return on investment for coupon clippings is well worth it! Factor in the increase in exposure, the possibility of repeat or subscribe and save customers, and a larger pool of customers for reviews and there should only be one question remaining: How quickly can you set up your first coupon clipping?
