The traditional system of annual performance reviews may have once been effective, but it’s clear that conventional performance evaluation practices have long been outdated. Only 5% of HR leaders believe that annual reviews are effective, and forward-thinking businesses have already found new ways of monitoring employee performance, regardless of whether they’re located in a traditional office setting or working out of a coworking space.

Continuous performance management is no longer an isolated trend, but rather one of the most promising answers to the problems raised by annual reviews. CPM provides a new type of evaluation that takes into account new trends in the workforce that have changed the way employees and managers approach performance.

Why Are Annual Reviews Outdated?

A number of factors have contributed to the creation of the modern workforce, and today’s workplace is very different from the one that allowed annual reviews to become a standard practice. There are now more than double the number of telecommuting employees than there were in 2005, and that trend will likely continue over time.

The relationship between employees and managers has also changed as workers are generally no longer satisfied by a simple source of income. The modern employee wants to play a larger role in his or her company and isn’t satisfied with the traditional top-down perspective embodied by an annual performance review.

How Does Continuous Performance Management Work?

Continuous performance management involves a much more hands-on approach than the traditional review system, so it requires a coordinated effort between employees and managers. It may take both sides some time to get used to the new feedback dynamic and feel comfortable with the process.

Rather than giving all feedback at the end of the year, managers should schedule regular one-on-one meetings with each employee that include discussions regarding individual performance. This allows managers to be more involved in each employee’s approach and gives them a chance to discuss performance issues before they become more serious.

The Benefits of Continuous Evaluation

CPM also enables employees to make small, incremental changes to their performance rather than being forced to take in large amounts of information all at once. They can also give other employees positive or constructive feedback on a day-to-day basis, making everyone more active in the performance evaluation process.

In an annual review, much of the information presented is outdated or no longer actionable. Continuous performance management makes opportunities for growth available every few weeks and allows them to be presented as soon as they become relevant. Roughly 90% of employees would prefer to have this feedback given in real-time.

Annual performance reviews may have once been an effective system, but that work environment is now a thing of the past. Continuous performance management is the best way for both large and small businesses to adapt their evaluation practices to the needs of the modern workplace.

Do you want to know how a fresh juice selling company grew their sales from $8000 to $96,000 per month? Today we will provide e-commerce business owners with some tips that can boost their sales and get more conversions. However, you must remember this: there is no shortcut to becoming an e-commerce success overnight. Some entrepreneurs start a website and then look for ways to get more sales, while some set aside heavy marketing budgets to seal more deals. Trying to build any business is not easy. With the right research and groundwork, you can put your work on the right path to unlock more sales.

Choosing a product and opening an online store is not the only task. You must look for more sales and a consistent customer base. Take a look at these tips to grow more sales on your e-commerce store:

Marketing online:

The founder of Raw Generation also had this thought in mind when she started selling fresh fruit juice from her kitchen. Jessica Geier focused on marketing while her dad managed the product end. Starting initial marketing through social media, Jessica moved on to explore other channels and used platforms like Groupon to get more sales. Currently, she focuses on promoting to her existing customer base to get repeat customers.

Start growing an audience for your brand as soon as you buy a domain name for your website. You can do wonders with organic traffic. Social media is the best marketing channel because it is relevant to people’s needs and it always free to post an update. You can collect many potential leads through your social media pages. Make sure you are using the right social medium to promote your account. Don’t start too many accounts; choose the medium which is most relevant to your business. For example, clothing brands must be on Instagram while B2B stores can thrive on Twitter and Facebook.

Trust badges:

The online world is wonderful, but it is also a dark and scary place. A person with a credit card in hand would think 100 times before disclosing their most sensitive information to you. How do you assure these people that your store is safe to make an online transaction? Through trust badges. Trust badges show a customer that you feel accountable for your presence and business. They also show credibility on the brand’s side.

Most customers will abandon the cart if they feel insecure about the mode of payment. If customers love your products, why should they feel insecure in online payment? ConversionXL did an online survey where people felt encouraged to go ahead with online payment by seeing the ‘PayPal’ seal. The same study found out that other trust badges from Norton Security, Google and BBB were amongst the most trusted seals in the e-commerce world. Trust badges will help you grow more sales on the site.

Fashion startup LeatherSkinShop has prominent trust badges on their website. These badges show that your privacy and data security are a primary concern of the online store. Another guarantee that will make people buy more from your shop is the money back guarantee.

Most people will know that you are serious about their experience in your store and they can always come back for another purchase.

CRM:

With the sharp shift of customers towards the online store and mobile shopping, CRM technology has evolved manifolds. The importance of customer reputation management is directly linked to more sales. Most of the major CRM solutions providers have established the fact that the e-commerce industry is a huge market for investment. For e-commerce entrepreneurs, it is high time to invest in a CRM solution.

Online CRM solutions like Salesmate are a good choice because they are a one-stop solution for all your online sales needs. If your website uses Wordpress, you can simply install the Wordpress crm plugin on the website dashboard to get an immediate overview of your leads through the day/week/month.

An efficient tool helps you streamline the sales process and limit manual intervention as much as possible. The busy e-commerce entrepreneur has too many hats to wear in a single day. Let CRM tools do their magic and organize regular reports which you can analyze at the end of the day. You will gather more leads, follow up with warm leads and reach inactive customers when the sales process is automated.

Mobile optimization:

Most of your customers are shopping through their mobiles. It is essential to optimize your site for mobile and gather more mobile customers. Mobile shopping will soon overtake desktop or laptop shopping. Your site must be prepared to welcome these customers. Keep a check on visitor devices on your website by installing the Google Analytics plugin. The plugin is the best in business to know about traffic on your site. Check mobile traffic and then work on improving your site navigation for mobile visitors.

Think about how your site should look on a tiny phone screen. Design mobile first by placing buttons and menu bars in the best places. It will help you decide what looks best for the customers. If you want to give it a soft launch, try A/B testing your site by subjecting two different looks to selected users.

Live chat:

In a physical store, one can always walk up to the salesperson to ask for advice. In an online store, there is no salesperson to ask. Luckily, technology helped close this gap by introducing live chat tools. These live chat tools are an extension of your customer support program. A customer service representative can always be on hold when a customer is buying on your site. Simply tap the live chat window, and help is few clicks away!

This will ensure that more people proceed to buy the items they have questions about. Comm100 reports that the average satisfaction rate for live chat is 85.39%. Find an efficient tool online to take care of your live chat needs. If you can’t invest in a customer service team, find a good live chatbot.

Last word:

The tips mentioned in this article will be effective in your mission to secure more sales on the e-commerce platform. However, every business works differently. Marketing, technology and customer trends will continue to evolve, and a savvy online business owner must keep up. Search for new trends and adopt the latest ways to keep your site active and buzzing with traffic.

 AUTHOR BIO

ABOUT Erica Silva

Erica Silva is a blogger who loves to discover and explore the world around her. She writes on everything from marketing to technology, science and brain health. She enjoys sharing her discoveries and experiences with readers and believes her blogs can make the world a better place.

Find her on Twitter: @ericadsilva1

Are you looking to use social media in your business, but you’re not sure where to start? If so, you’re not alone.

Many businesses are aware of the power and potential of marketing using social media, but few know how to actually do it successfully.

Perhaps you’ve also asked yourself some of the following questions:

• What social media channels should my business join?
• How often should I post on social media?
• How do I find my potential clients using social media?
• What’s the best way to engage with business people on social media?
• How do I convert leads to sales using social media?

In this article, I’ll show you what you need to do, step-by-step, to successfully use social media as part of your businesses marketing strategy.

STEP 1: CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA PLAN

Wait.. “You mean to say, before I do anything on social media, I need a plan?”

Yep.

Businesses that jump straight into social media without a clear plan, usually end up failing and getting no results.

Therefore, creating an effective plan is essential to the success of your social media campaign.

In your plan, you need to identify:

• Who are your ideal clients?
• What social media channels are they using?
• How can you best engage with them?
• What content will you create and share?
• How will you convert your leads into sales?

Your plan, is ultimately a marketing and sales funnel, that takes people who have never heard about you before to people who like, trust and buy from you.

It’s important you create a clear social media plan before jumping into the next steps.

STEP 2: POST REGULARLY ON SOCIAL MEDIA

The next step is to make sure you build a strong social media foundation. You can do this by setting up your social media channels and start to post regularly.

What is the best content to post?

We recommend sharing content that your potential clients will find interesting and relevant.

For example, if you’re targeting business consultants, then post content that business consultants will find interesting – such as how to win more clients, how to be more productive, how to be a better consultant, etc.

With a bit of research, you’ll find that there’s plenty of content available. And if you do happen to be working in an industry where content is very scarce, then you can always create your own content (see step 4).

STEP 3: GENERATE LEADS AND GROW YOUR AUDIENCE

One of the most exciting parts of social media is lead generation: finding new potential clients who are interested in working with you.

One of the easiest ways to generate leads is by creating content that your potential clients will find interesting and helpful.

This can include free guides, articles, videos, webinars and even live events.

The key is to use social media to get the relevant and helpful content in front of your target audience in return for your potential clients’ contact details (usually their name and email).

Once you have their contact details, you’ve generated a lead, and you can start to nurture and convert that lead into a paying client (see step 5).

STEP 4: BUILD TRUST THROUGH CUSTOM CONTENT

No one will buy from you if they don’t like or trust you. So how can you build up likability and trust?

Create your own content.

Creating consistent content for your business is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to build trust with your leads.

What kind of content is it best to create?

We recommend you create content that your potential clients are asking (whether to you, others or on Google).

The more you can help your prospects with the problems they are facing, the more you will trusted in their eyes.

STEP 5: CONVERT LEADS TO SALES BY FOLLOWING UP VIA EMAIL MARKETING

The final step to a successful social media strategy involves your email marketing.

This may come as a surprise to some, because email marketing isn’t technically “social media”. But, it’s important to note that a successful social media strategy actually includes more than just social media.

To actually get sales from your social media, you need to create content and follow up with your leads on a regular basis.

Regularly following up with your social media leads can be accomplished using email marketing.

What kind of emails is it best to send your leads?

We recommend sending simple, plain-text emails, from a person (such as YOU). These types of emails look less salesy and usually get better results (higher open and engagement rates).

In the emails you send, you can share with your leads your content.

This combination of following up via content builds trust and helps you sell to your prospects in a way that isn’t salesy or annoying.

WHAT NEXT?

First, it’s important that as part of a successful social media campaign, you have to do all of these 5 steps. None of them are optional.

So if you don’t have the time or expertise to do everything in-house, then hire someone, or hire a social media agency, to do this for you.

Secondly, remember to be consistent with your marketing. This isn’t something you do once for a few months. You need to do it regularly for at least a year.

Businesses that get the best results from social media are the ones who are in it for the long-term. Sure, there are definitely some short-term results you can get. But overall, the best results will come after doing this for at least 12 months.

Finally, remember to track, monitor and improve your results each month.

Track how many leads you generate, who opens your emails, how well they convert and so on. By tracking your results, you’ll be able to see how you can improve at each step within your marketing and sales funnel.

Many organisations are focused on the EU General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR), but this May sees another EU legislation coming into effect: the Directive on security of network and information systems (NIS Directive).

In the UK, the NIS Directive applies to operators of essential services (OES) and digital service providers (DSPs) involved in:

• Drinking water supply and distribution;
• Energy;
• Digital infrastructure;
• The health sector; and
• Transport.

There are slight differences in the way OES and DSPs need to prepare for the Directive, but guidance is coming thick and fast.

Last year, the European Commission published a draft implementation regulationfor DSPs, which Elizabeth Denham, the UK’s information commissioner, commented on. She criticised “the overly rigid parameters” of the regulation, which “may be undesirable and may lead to a failure to report incidents which nevertheless have a substantial impact on the users of the service and which should, by the nature of the impact, be considered for regulatory action”.

The European Commission has since approved the final draft, and the UK government has released the findings of a public consultation on how it should implement and regulate the NIS Directive. IT Governance has also published a compliance guide.

Each of these documents will help you understand where the NIS Directive fits into the cyber security landscape. DSPs will have to be particularly organised, as they are expected to define their own information security measures proportionate and appropriate to the potential risks they face. These measures must address:

Information security

• The systematic management of network and information systems, which will require organisations to map their information systems and set up appropriate policies, covering risk analysis, human resources, security of operations, security architecture, system lifecycle management and, where applicable, encryption.
• Physical and environmental security, protecting against environmental damage and accidental or malicious actors.
• Security policies to ensure that service functionality supplies are accessible.
• Access control measures to ensure that physical and logical access is “authorised and restricted based on business and security requirements”.

Incident management

• Detection processes and procedures, which should be regularly monitored to ensure that they are up to data and effective.
• Processes and policies for reporting vulnerabilities and security incidents.
• Procedures for documenting the response to cyber security incidents.
• Incident analyses to assess an incident’s severity and collect information for the organisation’s continual improvement process.

Business continuity

• Contingency plans based on a business impact analysis, ensuring the continuity of services.
• Disaster recovery plans appropriate to the potential risks.

Monitoring, auditing and testing

• Planned monitoring to assess whether information systems are working as they should.
• Auditing and measurements to monitor whether the organisation is complying with relevant standards or guidelines.
• Processes aimed at revealing flaws in security systems, covering both technology and the people involved in the security system.

Get started with the NIS Directive

Those who want help preparing for the NIS Directive should consider our cyber resilience solutions. An effective cyber resilience strategy can mitigate the risk of cyber incidents and enables you to respond to attacks, containing any damage and allowing you to promptly return to ‘business as usual’.

Today, digital trends seem to be fashionably altering too rapidly to keep pace with. What's not keeping up is an organization's agility to adapt. Social platforms have made it imperative for marketers to be the first or be scrolled out and in the fusillade of messaging, a consumer trolls down any that is not unique or irrelevant.
10 important trends will define the marketing framework of organizations. Five of which are in the organization process framework and five are emerging trends driven by consumer preferences. To be able to ride this hyper-wave, we need to ask ourselves a few questions... everyday!
Transforming a legacy organization to a dynamic one requires a fundamental change in thinking, structure and process evolutions. The more visionary ones that lead the way will be the change makers, large or small in size irrespective.

Five Organizational Trends That Will Impact Digital Marketing Frameworks

Structure on Demand - Legacy organization structures are a bane to its agility. Unless the entire internal eco-system is networked to remove all hurdles and expedite the process from idea to end delivery and service management, the threat of getting disrupted hangs sword on its head. Organizations will be forced to create "structure on demand" teams that emerge and dissolve to needs without the baggage of the old-fashioned matrix reporting hierarchies. Marketing will no longer be the sole ownership of the marketers but will be split into specialized parts being led by experts.
Leader on Demand - A 'Structure on Demand' will also require 'Leaders on Demand'. Leadership too will become more project based than a fixed organization structure based since solutions at any point in time will require a very different set of leadership skills suited to a particular project. The concept of a universal leadership will loose its appeal in the coming years and we are beginning to see this trend in the more progressive marketing organizations.
New Marketing Roles - With the core of marketing shifting from brand-centricity to unique Customer Experience (CX) creation, traditional designations of digital marketing and channel marketing etc will start to disappear. Marketing teams will be led by CX Managers, Omnichannel Managers, Content Marketers & Design Managers. Digital by itself will no longer be a role as it become ubiquitous in the organisation.
The Marketing FlexiForce: The future will be run by young professionals, especially in fast changing markets like India. And these young bees choose flexibility and freedom over fixed pay and formula. Ubiquitous digital makes remote talent leverage possible and allows for speed of innovation and delivery making marketing super agile. Transcending time zones keeps the engine running 24x7, a new expectation that customers are demanding.
Automated Marketing - Automation in marketing platforms and programmatic deliveries will also be complemented with automated CRM processes relieving organizations of its dependence on human timelines and errors. Visionary organizations are building strong capabilities in automating the infrastructure for production and logistics to support this speed-need of marketing teams. Stronger inter-dependencies will be established between departments forcing co-marketing KPIs across functions.
Five Trends That Will Reshape Digital Marketing and the Brand-Customer Equation
No two global markets are in the same level of digital maturity and so reflect trends unique to each. However, they do converge at some level on customer choices of the 3 Vs - video, voice and visual. This is of particular significance in lower literacy geographies and multi-lingual needs that drive new trends in search and social platforms.
Mobile Video on Demand (VoD)
VoD is now a no-brainer. Over a billion hours of video consumption daily by Youtube viewers, over 8 billion videos by Facebookers and with equally staggering numbers on Twitter and Snapchat, it is no surprise that over 87% of online marketers use video content. But the next wave of VoD will be the increase of what I call "RFC Content" I.e. Relevant, Forwardable & Commercializable Content. Much of what we see is a churn out of the old advertising style with tear-shedding emotional messages. The rise of this medium will be in geometric proportions. Especially in the inner markets, over-riding language and literacy barriers propelled by increase in mobile connections will see a rise in Product and Conversational Content; and Commerce embedded social content taking over.
Voice as the Primary Tool for Search and Social Media
Perhaps not fully leveraged all through 2018, but this will clearly become a growing trend in the near future. Human lethargy to type as well as lower literacy levels in inner markets will catalyze this shift. Marketers will be wiser to create voice based interactive modules that can engage users better than verbose text to provide information. So better fine tune that voice of yours as you begin to leave voice-prints all over the net!
Visual Search Over Text
Image search, together with voice search, will ease the tedious task and errors of type search. The Power of Google Lens and its immense application potential will open up great possibilities in sectors such as Travel, Healthcare, Education, Fashion to name a few. Marketers must collaborate with leaders in visual search tools to leverage this for their brands early and even participate in its Beta stage.
Augmented and Interactive Video Group Chats
Still in its nascent stage, this trend will be a definite enhancement of chat platforms that are currently very text restrictive. And as voice and video grow in search and social use, this natural extension will bring like-minded social groups closer together and creating stronger but closed peer to peer influence groups. Marketers will need to create data access points to weave into these micro group chats and use extensive AI to leverage conversations to their advantage.
Customer Becomes the New Big Influencer
Already a trend in the West, the trend of customer-certified products will rise and brand claims will lose relevance on hard sell promotions. Social influencers are already impacting purchase decision amongst the netizens and the credibility they bring steadily peels off the delusive claims of celebrity endorsers. And now, customer influencers are beginning to add a whole new dimension of post purchase review authenticity. Organizations must work on managing long term customer relations to ensure these brand ambassadors are active throughout their product use journey.
AI will play a critical and ever increasing role in 2018 and beyond and marketers must invest and ride these trends effectively. Simply embedding the features to their digital assets will yield little result and ROIs will be under the scanner. Marketers are getting overly swayed by content storytelling. That's great for a few awards if it tugs at the heart but smart digital presence has to bear concrete business results and marketers who seamlessly integrate the organizational fluidity with agile innovative customer solutions will wear the crown and hold the shield with pride.