17 of the Best Tools to Find and Interview Remote Candidates

You don’t know it yet, but you need Kelsey.

She’s an ideal fit, the right mix of smarts and experience, temperament and personality. She’s the missing link your department has been looking for, needing. Thankfully, the need is mutual. Kelsey is looking for a job.

Unfortunately, you don’t know Kelsey exists because she lives 1,691 miles away. And you probably never will because, right now, there’s a room full of candidates sitting outside your office, eager to impress in a face-to-face interview.

You’d hire one of them before spending the time and money to source long-distance talent, right? It's more convenient, after all. Not to mention less expensive, less risky. Kelsey can’t compete with that local, in-person pool ... right?

Wrong. There’s a trove of online tools designed to help you easily find and confidently hire Kelsey. You just need to start using them.

17 Tools to Find & Interview Remote Candidates

If you’re not sourcing talent outside of your zip code, then that’s too bad because your competitors are. They’re using a variety of tools that streamline how they find and connect with candidates, specifically knowledge workers.

Most of these tools fall under one of three categories:

• Basic video conferencing tools, which create authentic connections.

• Applicant tracking systems, which automate the recruitment process.

• Technical assessment platforms, which test critical knowledge and skills.

Let’s take a closer look ...

Basic Video Conferencing Tools

I live in Chicago. My three nephews live in Maryland. Physically, we’re hundreds of miles apart. But that reality, somehow, melts away as soon as my sister picks up my FaceTime call. That’s when the boys rush in from every direction, vying for their piece of on-screen real estate, giggling through their gap-toothed smiles.

It’s a wonderful experience, warm and personal. It feels real, like I’m there with them.

That’s what makes video calls so potent and powerful: They help us forget we’re not in-person. They cut through the distance. They put Kelsey on the same plane as all those in-person candidates.

Use these tools to achieve an authentic connection with anyone, regardless of how many miles separate you:

1) Google Hangouts

Google Hangouts is available to anyone with a Google account. Beautiful, simple, and intuitive, the Hangouts icon has become a standard fixture on desktops around the world. Your candidate will have it.

Price: Free.

2) Skype

Skype is proven. In addition to video chats, it can also be used to place high-quality global calls.

Price: Free. The “Business” plan, however, runs around $2 per user per month.

3) Spark Hire

Spark Hire is like Google Hangouts or Skype, except you don’t have to be present during the interview. The tool lets candidates record their video answers on their own time, while you’re off in another meeting, or eating lunch, or sleeping.

You can then watch and evaluate on your time, when you’re ready.

Price: $99 a month will get you started.

4) VidCruiter

VidCruiter can display your logo in the corner of the screen during a video interview, giving the process a professional, official veneer. The platform offers a variety of similar customizations that are simple to test and apply.

Price: Tailored to each customer, true to the platform itself.

Applicant Tracking Systems

Hiring only one person can be a long, involved process. Hiring many people, all at once, successfully, can be impossible. There are too many boxes to check, too many tasks to juggle. You’d need a team to make the process efficient and economical ... or would you?

An applicant tracking system, or ATS, is software that helps managers and recruiters streamline the hiring process by digitizing and automating essential hiring functions, like scheduling interviews or performing background checks.

An ATS can also be programed to crawl resumes and find great-fit candidates, like Kelsey. This will save you time and energy. There is no doubt it's a valuable tool, especially if you’re hiring several positions at once.

Curious? Here’s our list of standout platforms:

5) Jobvite

Jobvite, like any ATS, does a lot. It’s a CRM. It performs crisp video interviews. It also sports a highly customizable interface that’ll give candidates an honest representation of your brand as they carve through the interview process.

Price: $500 per month for less than 100 employees plus a $1500 ‘activation charge’ (which includes training).

6) Betterteam

Betterteam can automatically write your job ad for you. It can then post that ad to more than a hundred popular job boards and sites, like Glassdoor, Monster, CareerBuilder, and LinkedIn.

Want to add a job board to your website? Betterteam lets you do that, too. No coding skills necessary.

Price: Free to start.

7) HireVue

HireVue uses predictive analytics and machine learning to determine, for example, if an applicant will turnover quickly, among other invaluable tidbits. Also, if you’re having trouble configuring one of the platform’s many features, HireVue’s paramount customer service will help you get back on your feet.

Price: The “On-Site” package will run you $499 -- $899 for unlimited interviews per location. There are also “Recorded” and “Live” packages.

8) Homerun

Homerun lets you set up a dedicated career site that you can easily tailor to perfectly reflect your brand and culture: Control every image and word, every font and color and form.

Unlike other platforms, Homerun lets companies categorically be themselves, a quality candidates will always recognize, even if they’re 1,691 miles away.

Price: €19 per active job opening per month, which is the “Pay For What You Use” plan.

9) Hyrell

Hyrell has all the bells and whistles you’d expect from an ATS: Easy interview scheduling, seamless communication features, job board posting, stellar account management, responsive technical support. Except Hyrell is optimized for franchise-based businesses.

Price: Ranges between $200 - $800 per month. There’s also an “Enterprise” package.

10) Lever

Lever helps companies source, interview, and hire “top-tier” talent, people who may not even be job hunting at the moment.

Price: You’ll have to contact Lever to get a custom quote, which, depending on the features, typically falls between $300 and $3,000.

11) LinkedIn Recruiter

LinkedIn Recruiter leverages the network’s more than 400 million users -- along with premium features, like InMail and analytics tools -- to help you find the ideal person. You can also source from anywhere with Recruiter Mobile, a convenient app.

Price: It's $899.99 per month for the “Corporate” plan. The “Lite” version comes in at $239.99 per month.

12) Newton

Newton uses smart, decision-assistance tools to help small- and medium-sized organizations manage every stage of the hiring process. The platform also has a baked-in compliance feature that helps protect employers against fines and lawsuits.

Price: The basic package will run you $399.99 per month.

13) Proven

Proven streamlines the hiring process for small businesses, letting you post a job ad to more than a hundred popular job board sites, then categorize your responses into buckets for quick, convenient reference.

Price: Your first job ad is free. After that, you can pay-as-you-go for about $10 a pop.

The Technical Assessment Platforms

Kelsey, by the way, is a coder. A very good one, in fact. Based on her experience, you have every reason to believe her. But you can’t know for sure until you test her ... live.

You could fly her in and go through the expensive motions: Airfare, lunch, hotel. Or you can send her a link and watch her work, in real time on your screen, as she takes your test remotely. The latter is easy thanks to these platforms:

14) CoderPad

CoderPad lets you watch engineers code in real-time. It supports over 20 languages, including C/C++, Swift, Java, Ruby, and Python. The platform also allows you to playback an interview, stroke-for-stroke, so you can show others involved in the selection process.

Price: You’ll pay $50 per month for a “Personal” account, which allows one user to conduct a maximum of 20 monthly interviews. The cost goes up from there.

15) HackerRank

HackerRank is rooted in crowdsourced coding competitions called CodeChallenges, which you can post directly on your career page to attract candidates. You can also use the platform to run a CodeSprint, which brings thousands of programmers together to compete in the same competitions.

This process lets the best talent organically rise to the surface.

Price: You’ll have to speak with sales after your 14-day free trial is up.

16) Interview Zen

Interview Zen lets you create open-ended coding interviews that are as unique and role-specific as necessary. Here’s an example from the site:

Write a program that prints the numbers from 1 to 100. But for multiples of three print "Fizz" instead of the number and for the multiples of five print "Buzz". For numbers which are multiples of both three and five print "FizzBuzz".

Price: Free.

17) Codility

Codility, like the other tools on this list, will help you source, screen, and interview technical talent. But the platform’s insightful and objective assessment scores help non-technical recruiters make more informed decisions.

Price: Single users pay $159 monthly. Equipping multiple users, however, will require a conversation.

“Hi, Kelsey,” you say, “how was your flight?”

“It was quick and easy, thank you for asking,” she says, smiling. “It’s so nice to finally meet you in person.”

You smile back, eager to make her an offer.

“I know,” you say, “it feels like I already know you.”

What are your favorite tools for finding and interviewing remote talent? Share them in the comments below.

from HubSpot Marketing Blog https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/tools-find-interview-remote-candidates

How to Calculate Your Lead Generation Goals [Free Calculator]

To hit revenue and growth goals, your company needs customers. To get customers in an inbound world, your marketing team is responsible for generating leads and funneling them over to your sales team. The question is ... how many leads?

When your boss asks you what your lead goal is, don't just pull an answer out of thin air. Your projections need to be based on math and rooted in your company's larger goals. That's where our new lead goal calculator comes in.

To make it easier for marketers like you to set your lead goals for the month, we created a calculator template in Google Sheets and Excel that will calculate exactly how many leads your inbound marketing efforts need to drive each month for your sales organization to hit their numbers and your company to meet its growth goals. With just a few quick inputs, like monthly revenue goal and average deal size, this template will do all the math for you.

You can download the Lead Goal Calculator here. It'll help you:

• Calculate the number of leads you need to hit your revenue goals.
• Measure current sales close rates.
• Assign dollar values to each of your major lead sources.
• Track monthly lead generation by channel.
• Commit to a monthly lead goal.

You can also use this template to experiment. For example, try changing the conversion rates and just see how your lead goals go down or up accordingly.

Ready to start calculating your lead goals for next month? Download our Lead Goal Calculator today.

from HubSpot Marketing Blog https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/lead-generation-goal-calculator

6 Phrases that Kill Your Credibility with Clients

Establishing credibility isn't just about asserting your intelligence or expertise.

Real credibility comes from a careful balance of trust, empathy, and good judgment. And it needs to be attentively nurtured throughout your client relationships.

To help you avoid unintentionally damaging your credibility, we've compiled a list of six seemingly harmless phrases that can undermine your credibility and communicate to the client that you aren't fully on their team. Are you guilty of using any of these?

6 Phrases that Kill Your Credibility with Clients

1) "This tactic is guaranteed to boost your conversion rate by 60%."

Avoid exaggerating or overselling the successes of your services -- your clients can smell insincerity a mile away, and it's sure to turn them off. Presenting them with inflated numbers or unrealistic claims won't boost your credibility, it will make them question whether you can provide any honest value to their business.

Remember: there's confidence, and then there's just plain bragging. Your clients only care about your past successes in the context of how they can directly provide value now, so avoid reading off a laundry list of accomplishments or stats. It can come across as self-serving and out of touch with the client's specific needs.

Even if you're not overtly exaggerating, be sure to cut out lofty words like "guaranteed," or "absolutely." These can come across as deceptive and pushy, and fail to communicate what your agency can actually do.

Focus on explaining the genuine value of your agency's services. If you highlight a few proven strengths, rather than a showy list of claims, your client will be more likely trust your expertise.

2) "Sorry I couldn't get that to you by Wednesday -- something came up."

When your actions don't align with your words, you end up falling into what Prasad Kaipa calls a "Credibility Gap."

Avoiding the Credibility Gap starts with setting realistic expectations and time lines on projects, and keeping an open line of communication to alert your clients if anything goes wrong or takes an unexpected turn.

Kaipa explains to Harvard Business Review that the best way to set realistic expectations is to be more aware of what you're promising. He recommends checking in with yourself regularly and asking, "Am I saying something that implies a promise? What are the odds I can or will actually follow through? How can I articulate my ideas and concerns in such a way as to not raise false expectations?"

If you realize too late that a deadline isn't feasible, don't freak out. It's not unusual for unanticipated issues to arise during the course of a project, but as long as you remain transparent and clearly communicate the issues to your clients, your credibility isn't likely to suffer.

3) "We call this marketing approach 'Infrared Magical Marketing Synthesis,' or IMMS."

Credibility requires clear and accessible communication, and nothing undermines this more than an overuse of jargon or acronyms. Overcomplicated words and insider phrases don't help you connect with your client -- they create barriers.

People often unknowingly fall back on jargon when they want to sound clever or informed, but in reality, it can end up hurting your credibility much more than it helps.

When you rely too heavily on jargon to convey information, it can diminish the meaning of your message and cause unnecessary confusion. Even worse, it has the potential to isolate your client and make them feel like an outsider in your discussions. Using too much jargon can also come across as evasive -- like you're unwilling or incapable of giving clients a simple, straightforward answer.

Before meeting with a client, comb through your presentation and eliminate any jargon-heavy words or acronyms that don't actively contribute to your message. Your clients will appreciate the directness of your communication style, and will likely be more receptive to what you have to say.

4) "Although the numbers look bad now, this tactic has actually worked for many of our other clients."

Ignoring or glossing over factual evidence in favor of selective, anecdotal evidence isn't just a rhetorical fallacy, it's also a major credibility killer.

The client hired you because you have expertise they think can benefit their business, and that means admitting when an approach isn't performing as well as planned and pivoting towards something with more potential. When you scrounge around for evidence that supports a not-so-great approach as a way to salvage it, you end up falling victim to confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias occurs when you interpret all evidence -- even ambiguous or anecdotal evidence -- as confirmation of your preexisting beliefs. This can cause you to problematically overlook alternative possibilities that could benefit the client more than the current approach. In other words, you get so focused on pushing a particular strategy that you fail to see any real evidence against it.

The best way to avoid confirmation bias and keep your credibility intact is to focus on new evidence as objectively as possible, and prove the value of your work through clear reporting. If you're scrambling to justify a particular tactic, it's might be time to let it go, rather than damage your credibility attempting to defend it.

5) "I just don't think that approach is going to work."

Anyone who's ever worked in a people-facing role knows how challenging it can be to always see eye-to-eye with clients -- especially when you feel like you're caught in a cycle of endless revisions that never seem to make them happy. You want to make sure your professional opinion is properly asserted, but it's important to know when to step back defer to your client's judgment.

If you get in the habit of shooting down your client's input or ideas, they'll start to think you haven't taken the time to fully consider their point of view. Pushing back without proper justification can make you seem reactive and unthoughtful -- and that undermines your credibility.

One of the best ways to establish your expertise and make your client feel comfortable and respected is to know when you don't have the best answer, and let your client make the final call.

6) "Does that make sense?"

This seemingly innocuous phrase has the potential to be so damaging to your credibility that Jerry Weissman, a leading corporate presentations coach, has written a whole article on it in Harvard Business Review.

When you follow up a presentation or assertion with, "Does that make sense?" it has two negative implications, according to Weissman:

1. Uncertainty on the part of the speaker about the accuracy or credibility of the content.
2. Doubt about the ability of the audience to comprehend or appreciate the content.

Not only does this phrase make it seem like you're unsure what you're talking about, it also calls into question the competence of your client -- which isn't a great way to build a positive relationship.

Weissman recommends a switch to "Do you have any questions?" to avoid the negative connotations of this phrase. It's a simple switch that can save your credibility from taking a hit at your next client meeting.

What phrases do you avoid using with clients? Let us know in the comments.

from HubSpot Marketing Blog https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/phrases-hurt-credibility-clients

42 Visual Content Marketing Statistics You Should Know in 2017

At the end of every year, we like to read through some of the major reports on inbound marketing, content marketing, social media, and online behavior.

It’s amazing how fast things can change in 12 short months -- and 2016 was certainly no exception.

This year, we've seen the importance of visual content emphasized by the changes that occurred across almost every major social network, including Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter. At the same time, videos have become powerful tools for brands looking to communicate more easily with their readers.

To help you keep pace with these trends, let's take a look at some marketing statistics that demonstrate the impact visual content has on reach, engagement, and sales. The stats are categorized by General Visual Content, Video, Emerging Visual Marketing, Infographics, and Social Media.

(Want to learn more about content creation, strategy, and promotion? Take our free Content Marketing Certification course.)

42 Stats You Should Know About Visual Content Marketing in 2017

General Visual Content Statistics

1) 37% of marketers said visual marketing was the most important form of content for their business, second only to blogging (38%). Tweet (Source)

2) 74% of social media marketers use visual assets in their social media marketing, ahead of blogs (68%) and videos (60%). Tweet (Source)

3) When people hear information, they're likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later. Tweet (Source)

4) B2C marketers place greater importance on visual content than B2B marketers. Tweet (Source)

5) 51% of B2B marketers prioritized creating visual content assets in 2016. Tweet (Source)

Source: Content Marketing Institute

Video Marketing Statistics

6) By 2017, video content will represent 74% of all internet traffic. Tweet  (Source)

7) Cisco projects that global internet traffic from videos will make up 80% of all internet traffic by 2019. Tweet  (Source)

8) 76.5% of marketers and small business owners in an Animoto survey who have used video marketing say it had a direct impact on their business. Tweet  (Source)

9) 34% of B2C marketers say pre-produced video will be critical to content marketing success in 2017. Tweet  (Source)

10) 4X as many consumers would prefer to watch a video about a product than to read about it. Tweet  (Source)

11) More than 60% of marketers and small business owners said they planned to increase investment in video marketing in 2017. Tweet  (Source)

12) 62% of B2B marketers rated videos as an effective content marketing tactic in 2016. Tweet  (Source)

13) Using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19% and clickthrough rates by 65%. Tweet  (Source)

14) In a 2016 HubSpot survey, 43% of consumers wanted to see more video content in 2016. Tweet  (Source)

Source: HubSpot Research

Emerging Visual Marketing Trends

15) In 2016, 14% of marketers used live video. Tweet  (Source)

16) Facebook users spend 3X more time watching live videos than traditional videos. Tweet  (Source)

17) 51% of all video plays are on mobile devices -- this growth represents a 15% increase from 2015 and a 203% increase from 2014. Tweet  (Source)

Source: Ooyala

18) Videos under five minutes in length account for 55% of total video consumption time on smartphones. Tweet  (Source)

19) Magnifyre found that 29% more people viewed a 360-degree video than the same video in traditional format. Tweet  (Source)

20) 85% of adults consume content on multiple devices at the same time. Tweet  (Source)

Infographic Stats

21) Eye-tracking studies show internet readers pay close attention to information-carrying images. In fact, when the images are relevant, readers spend more time looking at the images than they do reading text on the page. Tweet  (Source)

22) Infographics are "liked" and shared on social media 3X more than other any other type of content. Tweet  (Source)

Source: MassPlanner

23) Infographics were the B2B content marketing tactic with the biggest increase in use, from 2015 to 2016, up from 50% to 58%. Tweet  (Source)

24) People following directions with text and illustrations do 323% better than people following directions without illustrations. Tweet  (Source)

Source: NeoMam

Social Media Stats

25) Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images. Tweet  (Source)

Source: Buffer

26) In an analysis of over 1 million articles, BuzzSumo found that articles with an image once every 75-100 words received double the social media shares as articles with fewer images. Tweet (Source)

27) Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images. Tweet  (Source)

Source: BuzzSumo

28) The equivalent of 110 years of live video is watched on Periscope every day. Tweet  (Source)

Source: Periscope

29) There were more than 500 million Instagram users in June 2016. Tweet (Source)

30) 55% of marketers chose Facebook as their most important social media platform. Tweet (Source)

31) 85% of videos on Facebook are watched without sound. Tweet  (Source)

32) Facebook users watch 8 billion videos per day. Tweet  (Source)

33) Snapchat users watch 10 billion videos per day. Tweet  (Source)

34) Snapchat users share 9,000 photos per second. Tweet  (Source)

35) Organic engagement on Facebook more than doubled in 2015, while organic engagement on Instagram almost halved. Tweet  (Source)

Source: Forrester Research

36) Organic Facebook engagement is highest on posts with videos (13.9%) and photos (13.7%). Tweet  (Source)

37) Snapchat had 150 million daily active users in June 2016 -- up from 110 million in December 2016. Tweet  (Source)

38) 44% of online women use Pinterest, compared to 16% of online men. Tweet  (Source)

Source: Pew Research Center

39) Shopify users referred by Pinterest spend an average of $80 compared to the Facebook referral average of $40. Tweet  (Source)

Source: Jeff Bullas

40) Over 80% of pins are re-pins compared to 1.4% of tweets retweeted. Tweet (Source)

41) YouTube reaches more 18+-year-olds during prime-time viewing hours than any cable TV network. Tweet  (Source)

42) Half of YouTube subscribers between the ages of 18 and 34 would drop whatever they were doing to watch a new video from their favorite channel. Tweet  (Source)

How do you plan to incorporate more visual and interactive content into your 2017 marketing strategy? Share with us in the comments.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in January 2015 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

 

from HubSpot Marketing Blog https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/visual-content-marketing-strategy

57 Experts on How to Handle Negative Feedback [Infographic]

Most people don't relish the thought of receiving negative feedback about their work, but that doesn't mean it can't be highly beneficial.

In fact, in a survey of nearly 1,000 employees, Zenger/Folkman found that more than half preferred corrective feedback over praise, and 72% believed that their performance would improve with the help of constructive criticism.

Feedback can be beneficial to improving your work, but there are definitely right and wrong ways to deliver and receive that feedback.

To get to the root of it, the folks at Venngage conducted a survey of 57 INBOUND 2016 speakers from a variety of organizations and industries. They asked these experts how they handled negative feedback from their particular stakeholders, such as customers, readers, managers, and peers. 

Check out the infographic to see which strategies you can apply to your career.

from HubSpot Marketing Blog https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-handle-negative-feedback

13 Gmail Plugins That Make Client Communication Easier

How much time do you spend on email each week?

According to a recent survey from Adobe, the average American professional spends about six hours a day checking email -- that's 30 hours during the work week.

That's a lot of time spent on unbillable tasks that could be spent focusing on work that meets the goals of your paying clients.

Getting bogged down by your inbox is especially problematic in agencies where account managers and other client-facing employees must deal with managing requests from a number of different clients who are all considered priorities.

When you communicate with your clients primarily over email, it's easy for important messages and tasks to get lost in the seemingly constant shuffle. Your inbox can quickly become an unmanageable time sink.

You could use a project management tool to reduce the amount of email clutter created from projects. But you could also better optimize how you use email, prioritize requests, manage communication from your inbox.

Check out these 13 Gmail plugins and apps to start improving how you use email to communicate and collaborate with clients.

13 Tools to Improve Client Communication & Collaboration Through Email

1) SaneBox

SaneBox weeds out unimportant emails after examining your inbox content and history, surfacing only the communications you want to priortize. You can train the tool by moving miscategorized emails to your inbox to make it even smarter.

The tool also provides features for setting notifications for when people don't reply to a message, unsubscribing from unwanted newsletters, and snoozing emails you want to deal with later. 

Price: Snack plan for $7/month for annual contract, Lunch plan for $12/month for annual contract, Dinner plan for $36/month for annual contract

2) Just Not Sorry

Communicating with clients in a direct, assertive manner is easier said than done. This plugin helps you write more confident emails by scanning your messages for extraneous words that undermine your tone, e.g., "Sorry," "Just," or "I think."

When you use a word or phrase in an email that could potentially weaken your positioning, the app highlights it and explains specifically how it could make you seem less confident and proficient.

Price: Free

3) Mailburn

This iPhone app upgrades the user interface of your email client by displaying emails as chat dialogues. It also separates newsletters from emails from people in your inbox, and provides an option for you to unsubscribe to irrelevant communications with one swipe -- perfect for decluttering your inbox. The app works with both Gmail and Outlook.

Price: Free

4) HubSpot Sales

HubSpot Sales is a free email tracking tool that allows you to see when a client or prospect has opened an email -- basically, you'll be able to tell if your email got lost in the client's inbox or if she's actually ignoring it.

The plugin also highlights key contact information about the person you are emailing, such as links to their social profiles, so you can gather intel on what the person is interested in or recent events in their professional life and personalize your messages. With HubSpot Sales pro, you can create up to 1,000 templates and track the performance of your sent emails and content. 

Price: Free, Sales Pro is $50/user/month

5) Yanado

You don't want to be controlled by your inbox, but it's also the place where many of your important task items and communication about these items are located.

This plugin brings your to-do list to your inbox to make prioritizing and organization more streamlined. There's no need to hop from your email to your to-do list to your project management tool and back. It's all there in one straightforward interface. 

Price: Free plan for one user, Startup plan $6/user/month for up to 100 users, Premium plan $15/user/month up to 1000 users, Enterprise plan pricing available upon request

6) Snapmail

Snapmail is perfect for when you need to send a vendor or a client password details and other sensitive information, but you don't want it to sit in their inbox and potentially cause a security risk. You simply select the Snapmail button, and any text emails will be encrypted. Once your recipient opens the email, she will have 60 seconds to record the content before it's gone for good.

Price: Free

7) Unroll.me

To focus only on the really important emails -- like those from your clients -- it's a good practice to unsubscribe from the email newsletters that are no longer relevant or those that you've been mysteriously added to.

With Unroll.me, you can easily view your subscription lists and unsubscribe from them with one-click. You can also choose to "roll up" your subscriptions into a digest email to reduce email clutter and distractions throughout the day. 

Price: Free

8) Todoist

This app allows you to instantly convert messages in your Gmail or Outlook inbox into tasks for your to-do list, and automatically syncs across all of your devices. You can also assign tasks to other members of your team, collaborate on tasks, and set deadlines and reminders to stay on track.

When you install the plugin for Gmail, it creates a tab to access your to-do list within your inbox, so you don't have to download another program to view your list.

Price: Basic is Free, Premium (for individuals) is $28.99/year, Business (for teams) is $28.99/year/per user

9) Batched

It takes 16 minutes to refocus after handling an email, and on average, employees check their email 36 times per hour. How can you get anything productive done with a tool that constantly distracts you? 

Batched lets you control when emails reach your inbox, which is especially useful when you need to focus and get a project out before a deadline. Basically, the tool filters emails under a specific label in your Gmail account. At times that you have selected (such as every hour or at 9 a.m., 2 p.m., and 4:30 p.m.), those emails are moved to your inbox. You always have access to any important incoming emails, but you can stem the habit of checking email out of curiousity that something important has arrived. 

Price: Free

10) Grammarly

You need your clients to trust you, and building trust is all about proving to your client that you're an expert in your field. And experts don't forget about grammar. They know the that only amateurs (not amatures) dash off an email without clicking spellcheck. 

Grammarly works wherever you're writing online -- email, in a project management system, or a blogging platform -- and makes sure that your credibility remains in tact by double-checking your work. 

Price: Free basic plan, Premium plan available on monthly basis for $29.95/month, quarterly basis for $19.98/month, and annual basis for $11.66/month

11) Checker Plus

If you want to know when you've received an important email from a client or manager without constantly opening up Gmail, this app allows you to set up Chrome notifications for important conversations, ensuring you never miss an important message.

The app also allows you to go on "Do Not Disturb" mode when you're trying to get work done, and lets you mark unimportant messages as "Read" without even opening up Gmail.

Price: Free

12) KeyRocket

This plugin teaches you how to use all of Gmail's built-in hotkeys so you can more efficiently manage your inbox with fewer clicks.

When you take an action in Gmail that could have been accomplished via a hotkey action (e.g., composing a new message), KeyRocket triggers a simple notification that lets you know the hotkey option you could have used.

Price: Free

13) Google Dictionary

We all stumble across a word, phrase, or reference we don't quite understand every once in a while. This plugin lets you double click on any word in an email and instantly look up the meaning or Wikipedia explanation -- without having to leave the compose window.

Price: Free

What plugins, extensions, and apps make communicating with your clients easier? Let us know in the comments below.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in April 2016 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

 

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Why All 4 of Google's Micro-Moments Are Actually Local

Posted by MiriamEllis

When America’s first star TV chef, Julia Child, demonstrated the use of a wire whisk on her 1960’s cooking show, the city of Pittsburgh sold out of them. Pennsylvanians may well have owned a few of these implements prior to the show’s air date, but probably didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about them. After the show, however, wire whisks were on everyone’s mind and they simply had to have one. Call it a retro micro-moment, and imagine consumers jamming the lines of rotary phones or hoofing it around town in quest of this gleaming gadget … then zoom up to the present and see us all on our mobile devices.

I like this anecdote from the pages of culinary history because it encapsulates all four of Google’s stated core micro-moments:

I want to know - Consumers were watching a local broadcast of this show in Pittsburgh because they wanted to know how to make an omelet.

I want to go - Consumers then scoured the city in search of the proper whisk.

I want to buy - Consumers then purchased the implement at a chosen retailer.

I want to do - And finally, consumers either referred to the notes they had taken during the show (no DVRs back then) or might have turned to Julia Child’s cookbook to actually beat up their first-ever omelet.

Not only does the wire whisk story foreshadow the modern micro-moment, it also provides a roadmap for tying each of the 4 stages to local SEO via current technology. I’ve seen other bloggers pointing to the ‘I want to go’ phase as inherently local, but in this post, I want to demonstrate how your local business can decisively claim all four of these micro-moments as your own, and claim the desirable transactions resulting thereby!

Understanding Google’s definition of micro-moments

Google whisked up some excitement of their own with the publication of Micro-Moments: Your Guide to Winning the Shift to Mobile. Some of the statistics in the piece are stunning:

• 65% of smartphone users look for the most relevant information on their devices regardless of what company provides that information,
• 90% of them aren’t certain what brand they want to purchase when they begin their Internet search,
• 82% consult their smartphones even after they are inside a chosen store,
• and ‘how-to’ searches on YouTube are growing 70% year-over-year.

Google defines micro-moments as “critical touch points within today’s consumer journey, and when added together, they ultimately determine how that journey ends,” and goes on to identify mobile as the great facilitator of all this activity. It’s simple to think of micro-moments as a series of points in time that culminate in a consumer arriving at a transactional decision. For local business owners and their marketers, the goal is to ‘be there’ for the consumer at each of these critical points with the resources you have developed on the web.

Let’s reverse-engineer the famous tale of the wire whisk and put it into a modern technological context, demonstrating how a hypothetical cooking supply store in Pittsburgh, PA could become a major micro-moments winner in 2017.

A variable recipe for local micro-moments success

I want to be sure to preface this with one very important proviso about the order in which micro-moments happen: it varies.

For example, a consumer might decide she wants to patch cracks in her ceiling so she watches a video on YouTube demoing this >>> looks up the name of the putty the YouTube personality was using >>> looks up where to buy that putty locally >>> buys it. Or, the consumer could already be inside a home improvement store, see putty, realize she’d like to patch cracks, then look up reviews of various putty brands, look at a video to see how difficult the task is, and finally, purchase.

There is no set order in which micro-moments occur, and though there may be patterns specific to auto body shops or insurance firms, the idea is to be present at every possible moment in time so that the consumer is assisted, regardless of the order in which they discover and act. What I’m presenting here is just one possible path.

In quest of the fluffier omelet

Our consumer is a 30-year-old man named Walter who loves the fluffy omelets served at a fancy bistro in Pittsburgh. One morning while at the restaurant, Walter asks himself,

“I wonder why I can’t make omelets as fluffy as these at home. I’m not a bad cook. There must be some secret to it. Hey — I challenge myself to find out what that secret is!”

I want to know

While walking back to his car, Walter pulls out his smartphone and begins his micro-moment journey with his I-want-to-know query: how to make a fluffier omelet.

Across town, Patricia, the owner of a franchise location of Soup’s On Cooking Supply has anticipated Walter’s defining moment because she has been studying her website analytics, studying question research tools like Answer The Public, watching Google Trends, and looking at Q&A sites like this one where people are already searching for answers to the secret of fluffy omelets. She also has her staff actively cataloging common in-store questions. The data gathered has convinced her to make these efforts:

1. Film a non-salesy 1.16-minute video in the store’s test kitchen demonstrating the use of a quality wire whisk and a quality pan (both of which her store carries) for ideal omelet results.
2. Write an article/blog post on the website with great photos, a recipe, and instructions revealing the secrets of fluffy omelets.
3. Include the video in the article. Share both the article and video socially, including publishing the video on the company’s YouTube channel (*interesting fact, it might one day show up inside the company’s Google Knowledge Panel).
4. Answer some questions (electric vs. balloon whisk, cast iron vs. non-stick pan for omelet success) that are coming up for this query on popular Q&A-style sites.
5. Try to capture a Google Answer Box or two.

Walking down the street, Walter discovers and watches the video on YouTube. He notices the Soup’s On Cooking Supply branding on the video, even though there was no hard-sell in its content — just really good tips for omelet fluffiness.

I want to go

“Soup’s On near me,” Walter asks his mobile phone, not 100% sure this chain has an outlet in Pittsburgh. He’s having his I-Want-To-Go moment.

Again, Patricia has anticipated this need and prevented customer loss by:

1. Ensuring the company website clearly lists out the name, address, and phone number of her franchise location.
2. Providing excellent driving directions for getting there from all points of origin.
3. Either using a free tool like Moz Check Listing to get a health check on the accuracy of her citations on the most important local business listing platforms, or complying with the top-down directive for all 550 of the brand’s locations to be actively managed via a paid service like Moz Local.

Walter keys the ignition.

I want to buy

Walter arrives safely at the retail location. You’d think he might put his phone away, but being like 87% of millennials, he keeps it at his side day and night and, like 91% of his compadres, he turns it on mid-task. The store clerk has shown him where the wire whisks and pans are stocked, but Walter is not convinced that he can trust what the video claimed about their quality. He’d like to see a comparison.

Fortunately, Patricia is a Moz Whiteboard Friday fan and took Rand’s advice about comprehensive content and 10x content to heart. Her website’s product comparison charts go to great lengths, weighing USA-made kitchen products against German ones, Lodgeware vs. Le Creuset, in terms of price, performance for specific cooking tasks, and quality. They’re ranking very well.

Walter is feeling more informed now, while being kept inside of the company’s own website, but the I-Want-To-Buy micro-moment is cemented when he sees:

1. A unique page on the site for each product sold
2. Consumer reviews on each of these pages, providing unbiased opinion
3. Clearly delineated purchasing and payment options, including support of digital wallets, Bitcoin, and any available alternatives like home delivery or curbside pickup. Walter may be in the store right now, but he’s glad to learn that, should he branch out into soup kettles in future, he has a variety of ways to purchase and receive merchandise.

I want to do

The next day, Walter is ready to make his first fluffier omelet. Because he’s already been exposed to Patricia’s article on the Soup’s On Cooking Supply website, he can easily return to it now to re-watch the video and follow the recipe provided. Even in the I-want-to-do phase, Walter is being assisted by the brand, and this multi-part experience he’s now had with the company should go far towards cementing it in his memory as a go-to resource for all of his future culinary needs.

It would be excellent if the website’s page on fluffy omelets also challenged Walter to use his new whisk for creating other dishes — perhaps soufflés (for which he’ll need a ceramic ramekin) or chantilly cream (a nice glass bowl set over ice water helps). Walter may find himself wanting to do all kinds of new things, and he now knows exactly where he can find helpful tutorials and purchase the necessary equipment.

More micro-moment variables

As we’ve seen, it’s completely possible for a local business to own all four of Google’s attested micro-moments. What I can’t cover with a single scenario is all of the variables that might apply to a given geography or industry, but I do want to at least make mention of these three points that should be applicable to most local businesses:

1. Understanding how Micro-Moments Begin

The origins of both I-want-to-do and I-want-to-know moments are incredibly varied. A consumer need can arise from something really practical, as in, it’s winter again and I need to buy snow tires. Or, there can be public/cultural happenings (like Julia Child’s cooking program) to which consumers’ ultimate transactions can be directly traced. To discover the sparks that ignite your specific customers’ micro-moments fires, I recommend delving further into the topic of barnacle local SEO — the process of latching onto existing influences in your community in order to speak to existing wishes and needs.

2. Investing in mobile UX

Google states that 29% of smartphone users will immediately navigate away from any website or app that doesn’t satisfy them. 70% of these cite slow loading and 67% cite too many steps to reach information or purchase as reasons for dissatisfaction. On November 4, 2016, Google announced its major shift toward mobile-first indexing, signaling to all website publishers that Google sees mobile, rather than desktop, as the primary platform now.

Google’s statistics and policies make it irrefutable that every competitive local business which hasn’t yet done so must now devote appropriate funds to creating the best possible mobile user experience. Failure to do so risks reputation, rankings, and revenue.

3. Investing in in-store UX

Though my story of Walter touches briefly on the resources Patricia had built for his in-store experience, I didn’t delve into the skyrocketing technology constantly being pioneered around this micro-moment phase. This would include beacons, though they have so far failed to live up to earlier hype in some ways. It could involve the development of in-store apps. And, at the highest echelons of commerce, it could include kiosks, augmented, and virtual reality.

From shoestring to big-time, micro-moments aren’t so new

KFC may strive to master I-want-to-buy moments with chicken-serving robots, Amazon Go may see micro-moments in checkout-free shopping, and Google Home’s giant, listening ear may be turning whole lives into a series of documented micro-moments, but what makes sense for your local business?

The answer to this is going to be dictated by the competitiveness of your industry and the needs of your consumer base. Does a rural, independently owned hardware store really need a 6-foot-high in-store touch screen enabling customers to virtually paint their houses? Probably not, but a well-written comparison of non-toxic paint brands the shop carries and why they’re desirable for health reasons could transform a small town’s decorating habits. Meanwhile, in more competitive markets, each local brand would be wise to invest in new technology only where it really makes proven sense, and not just because it’s the next big thing.

Our industry loves new technology to a degree that can verge on the overwhelming for striving local business owners, and while it can genuinely be a bit daunting to sink your teeth into all of the variables of winning the micro-moment journey, take heart. Julia Child sold Pittsburgh out of wire whisks with a shoestring, black-and-white PBS program on which she frequently dropped implements on the floor and sent egg beaters flying across rooms.

With our modern capabilities of surveying and mining consumers needs and presenting useful solutions via the instant medium of the web, what can’t you do? The steps in the micro-moments funnel are as old as commerce itself. Simply seize the current available technology ... and get cooking!

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