Our goal at Ventura Web Design and Marketing is to be educated on and utilize new services and tools so that our clients get maximum results. The goal of this blog is to explain what the email creation software, Mailchimp is, its different features, and explain how you can use it to reach your customers with creative emails based on analytics within the software.
What Is Mailchimp?
Mailchimp allows you to create marketing emails, Google and social media ads, websites, landing pages, surveys, social posts, sign-up forms, and postcards. For the purposes of this blog, we will be focusing just on their email services.
Types Of Emails Mailchimp Provides
Mailchimp has an in-depth, but easy to use email generator section with premade templates to customize. There’s no coding required to make these emails, but if you’re tech-savvy and want to give coding a go Mailchimp still gives you that option.
One-time Emails
Great for:
Announcements
Product specials
Blogs.
Automated Emails
Used for:
sending welcoming emails new subscribers
Sending birthday messages
Delivering abandoned cart offers
Plain-Text Emails
Used for sending out emails that are:
Text only
Free of images
Not formatted using their software
Hyperlink-free
A/B Test Emails
Great for testing different styles of emails on your subscribers. Test:
How well images/GIF’s work
Most effective subject lines
What days of the week are your emails most effective
Effective Email Marketing Strategies
When sending out your marketing emails think about what content a friend would want to read. While big brands send out super detailed design heavy emails with large (somewhat aggressive) eyecatching font would you send an email like that to a friend? Probably not. Here are a few ideas to try when sending your marketing emails:
Storytelling
Rather than just focusing on a tip or promotion, tell a story. Maybe its something that happened while working with a client. Explain this story in as much detail and as creatively as possible.
Incorporate Videos
Video viewership and videos in marketing have exploded in popularity. There’s many guesses as to why this may be from an anthropological perspective, but the simple explanation is a well-made video is entertaining and easy to follow. When sending an email that includes a video subject indicate it in the subject line like this:
“Video: How To Make A Peanut Butter Sandwich”
While that’s a silly video example writing your subject line like that will increase open rates by 6% according to SuperOffice.
Automated Content Series
This is for businesses that have enough content to string together a few weeks of content pieces to create a series. This process will prompt potential customers or current customers to subscribe to this free content with their email. You will then create an automated email series with content that is released on a weekly basis. Content that lends itself well to this type of series is podcasts, videos, or blogs.
Segmentation Tracks
This is a unique way to market to customers. You provide freebies sent via email for customers based on a subject they chose that you have email series set up for. You can start by releasing free content about two or three subjects related to your business. Let’s refer to these subjects as X, Y, and Z. Someone signs up for the freebie information on subject X, they would then be sent emails in a series relating to that subject while people that may choose subject Y and Z receive different tailored emails related to their subjects.
Tips To Get More Opened Emails
Editing Your Mailing List
When your emails are consistently left unopened it signals to an email provider like Gmail or Hotmail that your content is spam. This can cause your emails to be automatically be filtered into the spam folder by email providers.
Along the same lines if you send out emails that are causing people to unsubscribe email providers can again interpret your content as spam.
To prevent this you should go through your email list and only keep the people most likely to engage with your content.
Creating Emails For Client’s Subscribers
When we are creating emails for our client we consider a few different factors like what color schemes, paragraph structure, and content that will appeal most to your subscribers.
Contact us online or by phone to find out how your business can take advantage of a service like Mailchimp to improve your marketing emails and convert subscribers to customers. The phone number for our Las Vegas office is (702) 515-2057 and the number for the Tampa office is (813) 556-7990.
How 2020 Holiday Marketing and Shopping Are Different
Moved Up Timelines
We see companies release holiday-related products in August. Expect to see holiday campaigns ramp up in September. Get your holiday campaign together now, so you’re prepared for the accelerated timeline.
Even More Emphasis on Online Sales
Shopify broke its 2018 Black Friday and Cyber Monday record with $2.9 billion in global sales. This was pre-pandemic and online shopping has only increased due to safety precautions. It’s not only essential to gear your 2020 holiday marketing to online sales, but make sure your website is optimized to handle an influx of visitors.
Highlight Safety Precautions
In your holiday marketing campaign, it’s important to make customers aware of precautions taking place in the business and if you are offering special services like contactless pick-up or delivery services.
Emphasis on Affordability
It’s no secret that people will be looking for deals this holiday season. You should be tailoring your sales to emphasize affordability.
Experiential Gifts are on the Rise
If you’re a business that can pivot to experiential gifts, it would be the ideal time to do so. Millennials have always loved experiences over tangible things, but it is becoming a more popular trend among other demographics.
Typical Holiday Marketing Timeline
April – July: This is the typical planning phase. This timeframe is where all potential blunders are thought through and mitigated so you can come up with a foolproof marketing plan.
August – September: This is where you start spreading brand awareness with campaigns.
October – December: After you’ve successfully created brand awareness and sales intent, you begin your full-blown holiday marketing campaign to generate revenue.
2020 Holiday Marketing Timeline
Due to quarantine, most companies saw a sizeable decrease in revenue. We’re seeing companies like Starbucks react by releasing their Pumpkin Spice Latte in August, nearly a month earlier than previous years. This is expected to be a trend in the marketing industry to make up for lost revenue.
With this new sense of urgency, it’s imperative to start pushing out a holiday campaign ASAP. Assume the traditional holiday marketing timeline has been accelerated by a month.
Planning Your Campaign
If you need help putting a plan together, we are here to help. We manage various clients’ marketing efforts throughout the year with fantastic results. Contact us online or by phone at (813) 556-7990 to let us know how we can help.
Marketing agencies and business owners have the same goal, and that’s increasing the client’s sales. Business owners may perceive services like blog writing as unnecessary, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. If it were superfluous or ineffective marketing agencies wouldn’t offer the service since agencies are results-driven.
Many factors go into helping a business succeed. Every client is unique and requires varying combinations of the services we offer, but saying no to blog writing services is a mistake. In this article, we will discuss three reasons why you should be blogging.
Increase Website Traffic
Blogs are extremely helpful from an SEO perspective. By providing relevant, useful, and keyword laden blogs, you are more likely to rank higher on search engines. Without getting too in-depth on SEO, your SEO rankings can be improved by a few factors like credible websites linking to your website, having an easily navigable website, and overall traffic. A blog is the best way to achieve two of those factors.
Having and maintaining a blog is a significant advantage, and many websites don’t have one, which allows your business to differentiate itself. A blog is another page on your website that can generate traffic and links. Statistics show companies who blog receive 97% more links to their website, which in return helps your SEO.
When you have a well-maintained blog with helpful information website, viewers are likely to enjoy your blogs enough to read more of your content. People love free tools that improve their lives, and blogging is a great way to do that. In return, they will see you as helpful and knowledgable and are more likely to become customers.
Leads
A blog is a great way to generate leads. Many blogs have the option to opt-in for an email list or have a pop-up contact request form. While people have the opportunity to deny giving their info, there will inevitably be interested readers who give you their contact information. Blogging is a low or no-cost option that brings people to your website and generates leads.
57% of marketers agreed that they had gained more customers through blogging.
Present Your Business as a Thought Leader
As a business owner, you are an expert in your field, but how would someone who doesn’t know you understand that? That’s where blogging comes in. Demonstrate your industry-specific knowledge and present yourself as a thought leader with a blog. This will not only be impressive to potential customers as you will look more credible, but other businesses in your industry will take note.
This may sound like a crazy statistic, but 99% of internet users are content consumers, while the remaining 1% are content creators. Put your business in the 1% for a lasting impression on your industry and potential customers.
Writing Services
Whether you’re too busy or simply don’t have a way with written words were here to help. We have a full-time content specialist on staff to write blogs, create social media content, and spruce up your web pages. Contact us online or by phone at 813-556-7990 to learn more.
Did you know your Facebook page could be one of your best tools for increasing your revenue? With the proper relevance and frequency of your posts you could tap a whole new market you didn’t even know existed!
At Ventura, we live by the mantra of test, analyze, adjust, and repeat, and we like to encourage clients to embrace that mantra too.
Resting on your laurels, being fearful of change, and resisting new ideas; as humans, we are guilty of doing one of these things in our lives at some point. We want to reinforce the value of embracing new strategies and ideas and pivoting IF they don’t work.
Every business has a different path and business strategy. Therefore you have to find the ideas and tactics that work best for you. The only way to find out what works is to get creative and test new ideas. If something doesn’t pan out, remember, you’re in no worse of a position than you were before you tried and you could unexpectedly find something that connects to your customer and brings in more revenue.
Brainstorm:
Be open to our ideas or come up with new ones yourself. A productive way to brainstorm ideas is to place zero limitations on yourself and imagine what you would try if you anything were possible. This will allow creative juices to flow and can lead you to great ideas…and maybe some silly ones too.
Test:
Once an idea is chosen, it’s time to test it. At Ventura, we give the most considerable effort possible to implement new ideas.
Analyze:
We will analyze the new idea’s effectiveness on an ongoing basis to see how it’s performing.
Adjust:
After analyzing the steps, we will make adjustments where necessary.
Repeat:
We will implement any adjustments necessary to reach the desired outcome.
Success Stories
There are many companies today that are incredibly successful because they continually test, analyze, and innovate their processes and products.
Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy in the 1990s due to poor leadership and a lack of innovative products. It wasn’t until Steve Jobs returned to the company and introduced the cutting edge iMac that the company began to recover. They went on to build products that many of us carry around daily because Jobs wasn’t afraid to fail because of inventing new products.
Walmart is a brand we all know worldwide. For a long time, Walmart was considered a place to buy cheap things. This is mainly due to its branding. The tagline “Always Low Prices” was sending the message that Walmart sells cheap goods. They weren’t hurting for business while advertising that message by any means, but it was a reputation killer. So despite their tagline working, Walmart was not afraid to change their image and thus their tagline to “Save Money. Live Better.”. You’re buying goods at a lower price, but the connotation is different. Instead of buying cheap goods, you’re now enhancing your life by saving money.
These are just two examples of well-known brands that innovated when business was going well and when it wasn’t. There are many more, but the point is to remain at the top of your game. You should always keep the creative wheel churning and be testing and analyzing new ideas.
Whether you want to test new branding, processes, or creative ideas, we are here to help your business succeed. Rest assured, we will have our creative and analytical minds at work for you.
While most businesses crown Google or Instagram as King of Advertising, Snapchat is often overlooked as a powerful, effective, and relatively inexpensive way to reach the highly coveted millennial demographic. This guide is designed to show you the benefits of advertising on Snapchat and how it compares to its competitors. It will show you how to create successful Snapchat ads, and what metrics to look for after your ad is implemented.
Benefits Of Advertising On Snapchat
Here are some benefits to Snapchat advertising:
The spending power of users
Ability to target younger demographics
Ease of ad creation
Specific location targeting
Full-screen ads
Unique Snapchat features
Targeting your core demographic is a vital part of picking what platform to place ads. Snapchat users are primarily within the Millennial and Gen Z demographic. If your target audience aligns with these age groups Snapchat would be a favorable platform to place ads.
According to a Hootsuite article written in 2018, Snapchat captures 41% of those ages 18-34 every day. It also has the sixth-highest concentration of Millennials among all mobile apps.
Millennials and Gen Z have a $1 trillion spending ability. By neglecting Snapchat as an advertising platform you are leaving money and potential consumers behind.
In a Murphy research study, they found Snapchat users were 60% more likely to impulse buy.
Snapchat’s Ad Manager interface is extremely user friendly. It intuitively guides you through the whole process with their ‘Instant Create’ option. Comparatively, Facebook and Google have much more complex processes for creating an ad.
If you’re a seasoned ad creator, Snapchat has a more advanced ad creation option called ‘Advanced Create’. Anyone with a business Snapchat account has access to this feature. You can find the ‘Advanced Create’ portal from your desktop by logging into your Snapchat account and hovering over the ‘Create Ads’ button in the top left corner and selecting ‘Advanced Create’. Within the advanced create feature you can access a lot more customizable campaign options like:
Split Testing
Campaign creation instead of a single ad creation
Access to more specific controls for who views your ad
Access to a lifetime budget instead of just a daily budget
Advanced bidding options (Auto-bid or Max bid)
Tags that allow you to be able to target users that may consume products related to it
Topsnap testing
In addition to its younger user demographic, and workable interface, Snapchat is the only platform that allows super-specific location targeting. It allows advertisers to target universities, parks, or even specific buildings. This allows you to target areas that largely contain your demographic instead of targeting a whole city, region, or country where your ad dollars would be wasted.
How Is Snapchat Different From Its Competitors?
Snapchat gives you the creative license when deciding what you want your ad to look like. You can use a GIF, video, or static image.
A ‘Snap Ad’ will run in a full-screen video format with the sound on. This differentiates itself from other platforms where the sound is turned off until the user decides to turn it on. This is a huge opportunity to make an initial impression with sound. The 100% full-screen ad is advantageous, Instagram is the only other platform to use this method of advertising. It’s only within their story feature and it doesn’t include sound.
There are three different types of Snap Ad formats displayed below:
App Installs look like this on the app:
Long-form videos are presented like this:
Last but not least, web view ads are presented like this on the app:
The full-screen ads differ from other platforms. For example, Facebook and Instagram feed ads take up about 25%-33% of the screen when scrolling through a timeline or browser this allows for the user to be distracted by other information, while on Snapchat the ad has their full attention when the advertiser uses the full-screen presentation option.
Another Snapchat exclusive feature is branded tiles on the ‘Discover’ page. These are companies like Seventeen magazine that make content consistently to be featured within the ‘Discover’ page but companies can also pay to be a sponsored tile on the page.
Other Snapchat advertising options include sponsored lenses and sponsored filters.
Here’s an example of a Snapchat lens:
This is one of Snapchat’s success stories.
The last example is a Snapchat filter that was launched in Germany. It was a huge success for the brand. View their KPI’s here.
Marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk praises Snapchat for its ability to capture the attention of its users. He said he hasn’t seen such an active user base since Twitter in 2007 and 2008. Let’s compare Snapchat stories to emails. According to Gary, on the best day, only 25% of his emails are opened this would be a very low percentage of stories viewed on Snapchat.
Industries Advertising On Snapchat
Naming all the businesses that advertise on Snapchat would be almost impossible, so instead here’s a list of industries that Snapchat has hosted ads for:
E-commerce
App services
Technology
Entertainment
Consumer packaged goods
Auto
Retail
Restaurants
Travel
Financial services
Health
Telecommunications
Insurance
Government/Politics
How To Engage An Ad Viewer
The average Snapchat user is very engaged with the app, opening it 18-25 times a day. While the users are loyal to the app it is important when creating an ad to catch their attention as soon as possible with a clear message, USP, and call to action. Here is an example of a brand that had clear messaging, engaging visuals, and a clear call to action.
Elf had eye-catching visuals to open the ad with, then by the third second of their ad they had their USP displayed on the screen, and finished with a ‘Shop Now’ call to action. They followed the formula for a successful Snapchat ad.
Engage in 1-2 seconds + Present USP in 3-4 seconds + Finish strong with a call to action
Questions To Ask Before Creating A Snapchat Ad
Who is the target audience?
What do you want your viewers to do?
Gain awareness of the brand, buy a product, download an app, visit a website
What type of ad will you run?
How do you want the ad to look?
Video, GIF, image
Will there be ad copy?
Is there music or a voice-over?
What is the daily and lifetime budget for the ad/campaign?
How long should the ad run?
Most Effective Snapchat Ads
Lead Generation Ads
Best for audiences you don’t have a relationship with
Offer something that solves a problem or provides value
The benefit:
You receive the customer’s email that can be used to occasionally promote your business
You can retarget those that visited your site in the future (this requires the Snap Pixel plug-in)
Doorbuster Ads
This ad gives something away for free that gets customers into a brick and mortar location
The benefit:
People came in for the freebie but bought additional items
Counterpart Ads
This is an ad served to customers that are theoretically interested in the same things your current customers are.
How to do it:
Load up your email customer contact list into Snapchat. (located under the assets tab in the ‘Audience’ section)
The app then builds a list of potential new customers that will theoretically like the same things as your current customers.
Create an ad for this specific customer base.
The ad you’ve created will then be served to the people that the Snapchat algorithm deemed of value to you.
Note: You should have more than 1,000 emails to make sure the Snapchat has enough people to use in their algorithm.
How To Create Snapchat Ads
The first step to creating Snapchat ads is to download the app.
Creating your business’s Snapchat account:
Download Snapchat from the App Store
Open Snapchat
Tap ‘Sign Up’
Enter your name and tap ‘Sign Up & Accept’
Enter your date of birth
Create a username
Create a password
Enter your phone number and verify it *optional
Use your username and password to access Ads Manager within the app
Once you’ve accessed the Ads Manager follow these steps to create your ad with Instant Create:
Select ‘Instant Create’ option
Select an ad goal
Input website
Select the image, video, or GIF you want to use
Crop image or video if necessary
Enter ad copy and choose a layout template
Edit template as desired
Continue and fill ad demographic information, the location where you want the ad to appear, the duration for the campaign, and business and payment information
Follow these instructions to create an ad with ‘Advanced Create’:
Build Your Campaign
Choose what you want your viewers to do and convert to.
Choose a detailed name for your ad.
The best option is to name it by the objective of the ad and the time frame in which it will run. Then choose the time frame you want the ad to run through
Choose daily and lifetime budgets
Ad Sets
It’s suggested you name your ad set by the audience, budget, goal, and schedule.
The more detail the better considering you can run multiple ad campaigns and ad sets.
Select the ad format and ad type, then attach the file that you wish to advertise.
Commercial ads cannot be skipped and are recommended.
Select your placement preferences, audience location, demographics, and language.
This will vary from business to business and should all be decided in the research phase before creating an ad.
Select audiences predefined category, operating system, and connection type
Choose the status of the ad, budget, start and end date of the ad, the goal of the ad, and your bid type.
As a newcomer, it is recommended to choose the auto-bid option. This takes the guesswork out of how much you’ll need to spend on daily ad budgets in the future. It will also allow you to figure out your cost per action or in layman’s terms how much you spend for someone to complete your desired ad goal.
Build Your Ad
Fill in your ad name, brand name, and headline then choose whether you want the ad to be sharable. Test your ad in Topsnap to make sure it meets the minimum requirements.
Select whether you want the ad to be active and fill in the tags that correspond to your ad.
Review and Publish
Review your previous ad choices, fill in your business information, and payment details.
Publish your campaign
How To Install Snap Pixel
Snap Pixel is an important program you will want for the purposes of retargeting and analytics. You can add it to your website by following this video tutorial.
How To Measure Success On Snapchat
KPI’s (key performance indicators) are what you will use to measure the success of your campaign. If you already have a website, your current KPIs might be conversion rate, total revenue, or time spent on your web page. Outlining metrics to measure your success in advance is helpful because it keeps you (and your team) focused on the end goal throughout the entire project and helps avoid distractions.
There are two apps needed to measure your KPI’s on Snapchat. Snaplytics and Delmondo.
Neither app measures every KPI.
Snaplytics measures open rates, story views, average screenshots per story, and completion rate.
Delmondo tracks more helpful metrics and provides a more detailed view of your audience, basic metrics, and channel comparisons to your other social media channels.
Here are some of the specific KPI’s tracked by Delmondo
Audience Insights
Location
Age
Interests
Basic KPI’s
Impressions
Views
Completion rates
Screenshot rates
Channel Comparisons
Measures how well your Snapchat is doing against your Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube
Other important KPI’s to measure that aren’t on Snaplytics or Delmondo
Fall-off rate – The fall-off rate takes a little bit of grade school math to calculate. Here’s how you do it:
Compare the views of your first two photos on your story
The first has 500 views and the second has 400
500 – 400 = 100
100 / 500 = .2
.2 x 100 = 20%
Therefore your fall-off rate is 20%.
Number of followers – Below are the steps to locate your follower count
Open Snapchat
Click on your Bitmoji in the top left corner
Look under your yellow snap code and beside your username
The number located there is your follower count
Geofilter analytics – Here’s how to locate your geofilter analytics
Log into the desktop version of your Snapchat account
If you would like to take full advantage of your advertising budget, outsource your Snapchat marketing or other digital marketing needs to experts please contact Ventura Web Design at (813) 556-7990 or fill out the online contact form.
Businesses are transitioning to an online environment
The coronavirus is severely impacting businesses of all sizes from bankruptcies to layoffs, to gaps in revenue. One of the most important pivots to make is committing to the online transition where you can and where it makes sense.
Evaluate your services and products. Are there ways you can translate these virtually or digitally? How can you provide a similar experience to your customers? Is there a way you can provide an even better experience?
Regardless of the changes you’re currently making, you have to effectively communicate these changes and updates to your customers. Without proper messaging, your customers aren’t informed. If they aren’t informed, they aren’t going to know that your business is open, and they aren’t going to know about how your business is actively adapting to their needs.
Ventura Web Design & Marketing has proven, agile experience in translating and creating messaging appropriate for different businesses in this current climate. COVID-19 is changing the way businesses interact with their customers, and we’re the experts who can help you keep up.
We have a wealth of experience with SEO, PPC, social media campaigns, website updates, and more that can help flip the revenue switch. Online traffic is more important than ever. Making sure your customers are aware of your new services is imperative. For a consultation on how you can improve your marketing strategy, online traffic, and engagement, contact us today.
Ventura Web Design & Marketing remains open during normal business hours. However, our team is working remotely to keep our clients and staff safe. We are here for immediate assistance and emergency strategy sessions. Be sure to contact us today and keep your customer base informed.
COVID-19 is impacting businesses in many different ways, and Yelp is one of them. Yelp is now displaying generic alerts on business account pages concerning the coronavirus. You can (and should) customize these alerts. It’s important that you take advantage of this opportunity to keep your customers informed.
It’s likely that your business has changed and is offering virtual and digital alternatives to your traditional services. For example, if you feature online courses or virtual appointments to accommodate social distancing, be sure to update your Yelp account. This helps you pivot and transition alongside your customers.
It’s important that while you’re creating your custom COVID-19 alert, you’re also updating your business hours, location, photos, and more. Keeping your Yelp account up to date is imperative for maintaining trustworthy communication with your customers.
Ventura Web Design & Marketing Is Open During Regular Operating Hours
We Are Here For You And Working Remotely Until Further Notice
We are all aware of the impact and gravity of current events concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to slow the transmission and spread of the coronavirus nationwide, most of the U.S. economy has come to a jarring halt. We understand how seriously this affects you, your family, your team, and your business. Our dedication to you is why Ventura Web Design & Marketing will remain open during our regular operating hours. To protect our clients and our team, and adhere to national health recommendations, we have implemented a remote work policy which is in effect until the U.S. Government provides us with additional guidance. We are not currently scheduling any in-person meetings.
If your business is being severely impacted, please do not hesitate to contact us immediately and set up an emergency strategy session. If you have a brick and mortar business that is suffering, we can discuss options to pivot towards an online or virtual experience for your customers. We can organize messaging so your customers are kept in the loop, know that you are open, and know you support them. Reach out to us so we can help you correct or alleviate your current revenue trajectory and lessen the possible impact.
We do everything we possibly can to help our clients make it through this difficult, uncertain, and hopefully temporary disruption of normal business. While we do not yet know what the near future holds, it is our sincere hope that once the national lockdown period is lifted, businesses and families will flourish again and do so better than ever before.
As always, we continue to strive to operate at peak efficiency – even while our team is working remotely. Although working together in close physical proximity is the ideal, technological improvements have made remote work more possible and efficient than it has ever been. If your business is operating remotely and new to web conferencing, please read our comprehensive guide to web conference etiquette and get the most out of your virtual meetings.
We wish you, your teammates, your families, and your customers peace during this very difficult time for our nation and global community. Stay strong and trust that we will come through this together.
Sincerely,
Kevin Richards
Founder / CEO, Ventura Web Design & Marketing
Many of us are transitioning towards a remote work environment. This means our meetings are no longer in person and we’re using digital platforms to discuss ideas. We’ve put together a list of things you should (and shouldn’t) do during your virtual conference calls to help you stay focused, productive, and professional.
DO: Give Notice
Try to let all participants know when to expect a meeting, or that they will be receiving an invitation soon. This is not only polite, but it gives everyone a chance to check their schedules and make adjustments. You can avoid repetitious meetings or constant rescheduling by making sure everyone has the availability first. Send out virtual invitations if possible to let everyone know the designated time and date. Depending on which platform you’re using, you may even be able to share a link to the meeting beforehand.
DO: Set The “Place”
Let everyone know “where” to meet. This means you should be designating the platform you all are going to use. Some popular platforms include Google Hangouts, Zoom, Skype, or Slack. Most everyone on your team should be using the same platform already. However, specifically naming the platform can give everyone a chance to update their applications or install the software in case they’re using a different computer to work remotely. This can also give your team the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the technology ahead of time if they’ve never used it before.
DO: Provide a Topic
Try your best to let your team know why there’s going to be a virtual meeting and what is going to be discussed. This will give everyone more time to mentally prepare and gather necessary materials that may be needed during the meeting. Impromptu meetings certainly aren’t ineffective, but the more time you can give your employees or coworkers time to prepare, the more meaningful your discussion will be. Providing a topic ahead of time also gives structure to the meeting which helps keep everyone on track and focused.
DO: Look Professional (At Least From The Waist Up)
Just because you’re aren’t at the office, doesn’t mean you aren’t at work! Working remotely has its benefits: no commute, more sleep, closer to last night’s leftovers in the fridge. However, it’s still business and it’s important to appear as professional as you would in the office or traditional work environment. You’re also more likely to look less presentable on camera than you would in person. You may need to adjust accordingly by paying attention to how your outfits, hair, makeup, etc. appear through the lens.
DO: Control What You Can
Traditional conference rooms are set up with little distractions and designed for focused discussion. When working remotely, you need to create a space like that in your home so you’re prepared for virtual meetings. This means you need to control everything that you reasonably can when it comes to your remote set-up. Do you have pets or children who can be picked up on your microphone? What is in the line of sight of your computer’s camera?
Minimize background noises and tidy up what other people will be able to see. Remember that your work computer and phone can be a source of distraction as well. Remember to mute your notifications sounds and silence your cell phone during a meeting. If you’re working from home and you have roommates, family members, etc. you can always have a sign or signal that you’re in a meeting so others don’t barge in.
DON’T: Eat Or Drink On Camera
Unless it’s absolutely necessary (i.e. your boss deemed this meeting as a working lunch), avoid eating and drinking on camera. Not only is it unprofessional, it’s something most people would avoid anyway during traditional meetings. Remember to save snack time for after the meeting.
DON’T: Bite Your Fingernails, Groom Yourself, Etc.
Just like a physical office, employees, employers, coworkers, etc. are expected to show up to work ready for work. This means that you still need to get all of your personal grooming and hygiene habits out of the way before the beginning of the day. At the very least, you should be avoiding these on camera during a virtual discussion.
DON’T: Forget You Can Be Seen And Heard
If you don’t mute your mic or turn off your camera, you’re still visible. Some of us tend to forget that we can be seen and heard through our computers when on a call. Try to be aware of yourself and your surroundings when communicating virtually because you can be a distraction to others, or do something you may regret later.
DON’T: Forget To End Or Leave The Call
In the same vein as pocket dialing, forgetting to end or leave a virtual conference call can make for some embarrassing moments. Most of us are unlikely to do or say anything wild. But there’s a chance your coworkers may be on the other side of the screen seeing you chew with your mouth open or talking to your grandmother. Be especially aware of this if you were screensharing during the meeting. By ending a call, you’re also signaling to all other participants that it’s time to act on whatever was just discussed.
DON’T: Interrupt Or Have An Unorganized Meeting
A good rule of thumb is to mimic your traditional meetings and come up with ground rules so people aren’t talking over one another. Because of the way that virtual calls are set up, it’s difficult to tell who the speaker is talking to because we’ve lost that spacial perspective. If you’re the speaker, try to say someone’s name before asking a question or sharing information. This gives them an auditory clue that they are being engaged and you can skip over the “are you talking to me?” questions.
DON’T: Avoid Eye Contact
Remember to pay attention to your screen and try to mimic traditional eye contact. For example, you can lower or raise your computer’s camera to it’s closer to your natural eye level. This method makes you appear as though you’re giving eye contact which signals to other participants that you’re engaged and actively paying attention.
DON’T: Be The Only Person Without Your Mic or Camera On
Another general rule of thumb is to make sure all participants are on the same page when it comes to mic and camera use. Everyone should be on camera (the ideal choice), or they should all be off camera. Test out the meeting platform ahead of time to adjust settings. Figure out how to mute your mic and turn your camera on and off ahead of time as well, as you’ll likely need to do both of these at some point.
Now you’re ready for the world of virtual meetings in the digital world. By following these guidelines, you should be more prepared for remote productivity.
