The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Toss off Your Marketing Shackles for Good – and More

Our research ninjas at Credit Suite smuggled out ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. You can take that to the bank – these are foolproof! Learn how to break free from marketing shackles and even how to get ready for the holiday crush!

Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business fulfills its promise.

And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!

#10. Kickass Hiring Strategies in Today’s Tough Labor Market

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about hiring in our current super-difficult labor market. Inc Southeast Asia put together some excellent tips from the people who have been there, done that, when it comes to trying to hire when candidates are rarer than hairs on a frog.

However, we do have to say that we found some of this advice to be a little contradictory, at least to start.

Hear us out.

Yes, No, Maybe?

For their first tip, they say to not hire someone if there are doubts as to whether they can do the work. And while that sounds like a good idea, it seems to be a push for just hiring candidates who will be excellent out of the box. And … let’s face it … those are harder and harder to find these days.

Hence a company may be forced to either hire someone imperfect (quelle horreur!) or hire no one. And in their third tip, they acknowledge that there are times when the best hire is no hire at all.

But then for their fifth tip, they say to hire a ‘diamond in the rough’. But wouldn’t that be a person with doubts swirling around them as to whether they can do a particular job?

Except it turns out, it’s not a contradiction at all. Rather, the ‘diamond’ advice refers to candidates who may not come from the best schools. And that makes a great deal of sense, that hiring managers should stop automatically giving an extra boost to, say, the Ivy League.

Furthermore, this tip, as well as the ninth tip, both talk about using testing and more objective measurements when it comes to hiring, as opposed to the ever-popular conversational interview which we’ve probably all been taught how to ace.

This also goes well with their fourth tip, to hire for diversity.

Or, in a nutshell, take off the blinders and use new methods to hire, ‘cause the old ones just might not work these days.

#9. Sometimes, You’ve Just Got to Think Outside the Continent

The next awesome tip is about outsourcing. Because try as you might, you still may not be able to hire people immediately. Hence, outsourcing can be an attractive alternative and, fortunately, a fast and easy solution to staffing problems.

The great folks at Time Doctor put together an exhaustive guide to outsourcing. It is the sort of article to savor for a long, long time, so we urge you to read it in depth when you can.

But …

There is one area where we are not so sure that outsourcing is such a good idea. And it’s in the area of content creation. It is merely a coincidence that this is the area where we work!

But in all seriousness, there are some things which at least should be outsourced with far more care and attention. Content creation is definitely one of them, as this is the first impression that many customers and prospects will ever get of your business. So, you want your artists to be truly artistic, and your writers to have excellent writing skills.

Otherwise, you’re just shooting your business in the foot.

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Break your marketing shackles for good!

#8. Everybody Needs a Little Support Now and Then

Our following life-changing tip concerns even more about employees and hiring. Relay has created a superb infographic, and it’s all about customer support.

The infographic brings together three major things you want in a support person – effectiveness, efficiency, and speed. How fast do they answer calls? How fast do they close tickets? And how much of a ticket backlog is there?

For the answers to these and other questions, check out their infographic.

#7. Power to the Business People

For our next sensational tip, we looked at Business Tips’ ways to empower employees.

Their ideas were about leadership in a lot of ways. And that makes sense to us, as the leader is where empowerment is going to have to come from. If the leader doesn’t buy into empowerment, but employees go ahead and empower themselves anyway, that’s not business. That’s just anarchy in a suit and tie.

Hence, we were pleased to see tips such as letting others chair a meeting. But one of our favorites was that, in order to encourage creativity, to accept that creatives will sometimes fail. This, we truly loved, as sometimes it seems as if creativity at work is just an excuse to do the same old thing but with a slight tweak.

Slight tweaks don’t disrupt whole industries.

So let your employees (a little) loose, and see what happens. They might just surprise you – in a good way, of course.

#6. Beat Competitors and Boost Revenues with Ecommerce Pricing

We take a turn away from employees and management, and into the world of marketing.

This tip is so old school, but it works! It’s Wise Pops’ look at how keeping an eye on your competition’s prices can help you make more money.

Er, how?

It’s story time.

A Tale of a Price War

Do you remember the gas shortages of the 1970s? Just us? Okay, so we’re a bit more mature – ahem.

One thing about gas shortages is that it wasn’t a buyer’s market for energy; it was a seller’s market. So, unless the government stepped in if there was price gouging, gas stations could – and did – charge pretty much whatever they pleased.

But then the gas crunches ended (at least for the time being). As a result, you started to see not only falling prices, but a true competition among gas stations for business.

This is especially noticeable when there are a few gas stations at an intersection. So try this the next time you pass an intersection with more than one gas station. Check out their prices.

Dollars to doughnuts (no pun intended, honest!), for all of the gas stations at one intersection, regular unleaded gas is going to be priced within less than a dime’s worth of difference per gallon.

And it’s this formulation in particular, as it’s the big, big seller. When it comes to other goods and services, even competitive gas stations have some wiggle room, whether that’s in selling diesel fuel or beef jerky.

Are they watching each other’s prices?

You better believe it.

Back to the Article

Not only does the article tell you to do this, it even shows you how. And, just as importantly, it tells you when not to. Because not everything needs to be quite so fine-tuned. Some goods are unleaded regular, the thing that gets the people in the door, as it were. But others are beef jerky.

And entrepreneurs can have a lot more flexibility when it comes to pricing those kinds of goods.

#5. Free Yourself from Marketing Shackles with Mobile Apps

Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot! The fine folks at Oberlo put together an amazing list of fifty (yes, 50!) mobile marketing apps, so you can conduct business pretty much anywhere.

Toss off your marketing shackles with ease and find apps to do all sorts of things we do every day for business. Like what, you ask?

We are so glad you asked.

Because there are apps to cover just about any eventuality.

Manage Social Media

From Facebook to reddit, use mobile apps to keep your content flowing. And manage it all sanely with apps that allow you to track and schedule posts, and more.

Create Content

And make it pretty, too! Oh, and make sure your written content is error-free. We particularly love that.

Find Content to Share

Discover awesome content with terrific feed and news apps.

Manage Projects

We love so many of the apps under this category. Follow a schedule, keep your employees on track, and even store versions of documents. We only wish these apps could find our car keys.

Seriously, have you seen them? No? Dang.

Communicate with Team Members and Collaborators

Remote work is lovely until it’s time to talk. And these apps make it simple. Did you know you can conduct meetings with your phone and not break a sweat? Fabulous!

Grow Followings

You can build your following – and even gather together contact information – with these apps. Hello, mailing list!

And hello, retargeting list, too!

Deepen Customer Relationships

Don’t just make contact – understand your prospects, potential employees, suppliers and more by seamlessly integrating everywhere they are online.

It’s the only way you’ll know if your prospective client follows a particular sports team. And it may even be the only way you’ll know if they are looking to change jobs or even move out of state.

Develop Brands

Monitor and understand when and how and why your brand is being mentioned virtually anywhere online. Gauge sentiment because you know about it. And that can help you not only develop new products. It can also help you to head off crises at the pass.

And who wouldn’t want that?

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Your marketing shackles are toast!

#4. Pinch Your Marketing Budget Pennies Until They’re Squashed

Check out this spectacular tip, all about how to market on a tight budget. Thrive Hive jotted down some excellent tips to help you stretch your pennies but still market effectively.

We especially loved the idea to create educational content.

Hey, we do that!

We also loved the idea to create a referral program, something that Amazon has done to great effect for years. And we think they just might be successful. At least a little bit.

#3. Freebie Facebook Marketing for the Win!

It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can save you even more! Blogger Kim Garst covered how to market when your Facebook marketing budget is whittled down, effectively, to nothing.

Her ideas are simple. Promote the popular stuff – there’s no sense in spending time on content that isn’t working. Use two proven types of content that get more engagement – video and images. Use contests and free offers to get people talking and engaging with your brand.

And our favorite – test the hell out of everything! After all, how are you going to know what works if you don’t check?

#2. S-S-S-Small Business Saturday!

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on Small Business Saturday. Score shared five awesome ways to make your Small Business Saturday the best it can be.

We loved the idea to partner with local businesses – and we also loved the concept of sharing the Shop Small movement on digital marketing channels. In essence, this article works well for both local businesses, and the remote and online sellers of goods and services. All can benefit from this easy to follow article, chock full of great ideas.

#1. Return, Turn, Turn

We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on many happy returns from Core DNA. What we mean is, how to turn returned merchandise into a golden sales opportunity.

We may not like to think about it, but all of this marketing and sales might sometimes turn into the occasional returned item. What to do?

Core DNA frames returns as a learning experience first and foremost. If your plus-sized women’s clothing wouldn’t fit a doll, you need to know this. So, it helps to have a crystal clear returns policy. Make it simple, so that you can get your goods back easily, without having to hunt all over the place for where they were sent.

Amazon (we do so love mentioning them – and it’s because they do so many things so well) has this down to a science. You just print off your return label and stick it on your return package. Easy-peasy.

And, it should go without saying, treat your customers returning merch as well as you did when they first purchased it. They will remember if you were mean or short or impatient with them – and they will tell their friends.

You don’t want that.

As in all other things – courtesy goes a long, long way.

We Broke Our Marketing Shackles – How About You?

So which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now?

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity!

Throw off your marketing shackles for good. And be sure to let us know how it went when you tried one of our tips. After all, you’ve got nothing to lose but your chains.