Mediaboss Marketing

Its been an unpredictable and disruptive year for small businesses. From shifting to remote work in a matter of weeks to unexpected loss in revenue, many companies have experienced hardship. At the same time, others have discovered a silver lining. Whether its an increase in efficiency and productivity or simply learning more about their customers and their needs, almost every small business has incorporated a new process from 2020 that theyll be keeping indefinitely.

With this in mind, we wanted to provide some advice for 2021 that is informed by the successes of two small businesses. We consulted Karl Alexander, Marketing Director for Crown Bees and Marc Fishman, Director of Sales and Marketing for Call Center Sales Pro. Crown Bees is the leading provider of materials and training for solitary-nesting bees, with the mission of increasing food production. Call Center Sales Pro is an answering service and call center provider with offices across the country. Both Karl and Marc have managed to help their businesses flourish in a difficult year, showing that listening to customers and increasing efficiency and efficacy go a long way. Here theyve shared their top advice for business planning in the new year.

Karl: We re-focused on our existing customers. That simplified many business practices, and we found new ways to reach new customers along the way.

Marc: We stemmed the tide of the pandemicwe did not have to furlough anyone, there were no pay cuts, and while we did have to send some folks home to work remotely, we were very prepared for that. We were lucky in that our business is built on the ability to be agile and scale. Its really a matter of having the right tech and the right infrastructure, which we have. Outside of that, just before the pandemic, we had a major shift in some of our revenue, and it set a new, higher goal for the rest of the year. We were able to still hit that goal, maybe a little less easily than we wouldve thought in February versus November, but we still made it. Long story short, weve added more customers than weve lost and were much better for it.

Karl: We are a small, nimble team. We were able to correct course quickly and effectively thanks to the technology that we have built our business on.

Marc: Being agile has helped our business adapt the most. Everything that can live in the cloud, lives in the cloud. In terms of how we operate the business day, having the infrastructure, the laptops, the network, and all the data at our fingertips helps us respond to things quickly. In some cases weve even had growing pains and have learned to think clearer now when it comes to how we approach things. When a portion of your staff moves to remote work, having a cloud-based platform for them to work on is crucial.

Karl: Crown Bees will be exercising a hybrid work-from-home and office model. Employees only come into the office when they are physically needed there.

Marc: Most of our leadership team works remotely, and has since before COVID, but because our business requires literal butts in seats at our call centers, its already a hybrid. Once people were safe to return back to work, they did, and we have installed more safety protocols to keep social distancing. Masks are required upon entering our building, weve built all the new cubicles six feet apart from each other, and we have hand sanitizer at every station.

Karl: Get to know your customers all over again. Everyones lives, habits, and needs have changed in some way and you need to understand how that has affected your customers. For businesses looking to grow, think about new distribution channels and ways to promote your business. Old channels may have closed or narrowed, but others may have just opened up.

Marc: Some normalcy will return to the country eventually, but dont think things will go back to the way they used to be! Any holes that the pandemic opened in your business could happen again, so load up on resources and planning and make sure that you can respond if something like that ever happens again. For businesses just getting started and looking to grow, having a consistent marketing message and brand platform to jump off of are key. Your brand, more than anything now, is going to be digital first. People need to be sold on the brand they buy, and that brand is going to be introduced to them online.

Karl: Cloud computing, video conferencing, aggressive SEO, and data-driven marketing campaigns.

Marc: Zoho SalesIQ, a live chat tool for our website. Outside of that, just being able to start working in Zoho Sites, a drag-and-drop website builder, helps us take advantage of more tools going forward, and be more hands-on from within marketing. Were re-doing our entire sales process to be inside Zoho from start to finish because weve seen the impact of having all our data in one place.

Karl: We are expanding our distribution channels and our sales team to maximize our new channels.

Marc: Inside CCSP, its really about defining our brand, whether we keep our current idea or explore some different directions. Were also going to be proactively looking at new areas to market to and distinguish niches within our major verticals, as well as doing more webinars. Additionally, were looking to improve our open rates on email drip campaigns and increase the organic leads from all sources to ultimately represent a minimum of 25% of all the leads that we add to the pipeline each year. Lastly, were going to be investing in SEO and re-marketing for our sister business.

Karl: We learned that our business model and management team can weather a big storm and after the dust settles, we will be stronger and more agile moving forward.

Marc: Silver lining for me is that this time a year ago, we didnt have a sales team. I took over and now we have four strong voicessmart people. And for me especially, I get to worry less about pushing pixels and doing things ad-hoc. Now it can really be about strategic planning, following those plans through, and actually capturing data to take action on instead of being so reactive. In 2020, you had to be so reactivein 2021, we might be lucky enough to work with foresight.

As Karl said, small businesses weathered a massive storm this year, but taking both the blows and the triumphs into consideration for the next year will help your business become more agile and resilient. Take time to reflect on this year and assess where your focus should go and how to simplify whenever possible. Theres no telling whats ahead in the next year, but with due diligence and a little luck, your small business can outlast any storms on the horizon.

Read the original:
Small Businesses Share Their 2021 Advice - Small Business Trends

>>> AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 rescheduled to December 2021

>>> Vietnams national team convene for first gathering in 2020

The aforementioned information was announced by the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) during a ceremony in Hanoi on December 15.

The friendly games are part of Vietnams preparations towards the 2022 World Cup AFC qualifiers, the AFF Suzuki Cup 2020, the 2022 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers and the 31st Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in 2021.

Specifically, the first match is set to take place at 6pm on December 23 at Quang Ninh Provinces Cam Pha Stadium, while the second will be held at Phu Tho Provinces Viet Tri Stadium at 5pm on December 27.

Tickets for the two games will be available from December 21 (for the first match) and December 25 (for the second match), respectively, at VND50,000 each, VND100,000 each and VND150,000 each.

At present, 36 members of the national team are participating in their first training camp of 2020 at the Vietnam Youth Football Training Centre under the leadership of head coach Park Hang-seo. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese U22 squad will convene this December 18.

Read more from the original source:
National and U22 teams to play friendly on December 23 and 27 - Nhan Dan Online

While this blog series is split into key elements, its important to note that our entire team worked simultaneously, catching up via weekly stand-ups to make sure that proposed solutions were achievable.

The final component of our sustainable website build journey with the Climate Group is one that isnt really all that final. It focuses around continuous improvements, building the foundations for a roadmap which keeps on iterating itself.

To action this, Manifesto has put together a list of future improvements the team will look to work on with the Climate Group to continue reducing the percentage of emissions caused by the charitys website. Its not necessarily because we didnt have the budget or time to do these things. In some instances data wasnt available or the wider impact isnt yet measurable.

What glues all these smaller ideas together is the fact that a sustainable website build is never finished. In the same way that SEO, accessibility, and user experience arent activities with a final chapter either. The book is instead ongoing, and its narrative should continue to weave through the sites existence.

Human activity on the internet accounts for less than half (48%) of traffic on the internet. This means a majority (52%) of traffic is generated by bots. Half of that 52% are deemed bad bots, which makes up a quarter of a sites traffic. They scrape content, crash websites, look for security loopholes, bulk buy products on ecommerce sites, and simulate advert clicks. The list could go on.

Nowadays these bad bots behave in an almost indistinguishable way from humans. This means they consume HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JQuery images, and videos in the exact same way as humans. That equals the same emissions, and in turn, increases costs of data centre storage and bandwidth - with no benefit for the site owner

This is why well look at specialist bot blocking services, such as Radware Bot Manager, to better understand, and ultimately remove, traffic from bad bots.

A CDN stores bits of a website in data centres around the world. This gets content to global users faster. We decided not to use a CDN during the development phase, largely because we wanted to focus on reducing the number and size of images, as well as on using srcset for responsive images.

But we do want to do more research on the potential impact of using a CDN. We want to understand how far we can push it to deliver fonts, code and images, within the parameters of sustainability. And we want to find the best locations for CDNs, ones based on genuine, (not bot) traffic.

Adding to the work weve already done on fonts, we want to sort through our custom font files. By removing the characters and symbols we know we wont ever use, we can streamline the sites structure. These are marginal gains, but with every new user directed to the site downloading each font file, its absolutely worth it.

The new sites weve launched for the Climate Group will generate 75% less emissions than the charitys previous sites. However, we need to ensure it doesnt creep back up again! Thats why we want to automate emission audits. This will allow us to identify problem areas and sort them out - whether they be a bug which can be directly fixed, or a training issue an editor needs to iron out. It will also help us chart the impact of changes we make as part of our programme of continuous improvement. By tracking our progress, we can continue to challenge carbon budgets in the future.

We think more can be done to help guide editors in creating streamlined content which fits with the climate-focused ethos of the website. With some more extensive research and idea generation alongside the Climate Group, we can explore the creation of tools and training which could help with this. Functions such as an alert which warns the editor if a page goes over a certain size, inline hints or tips, and dashboards breaking down page size and performance.

The illustrations weve used on the Climate Groups site hold a strong visual identity. However, we would like to add a much wider range of illustrations going forward. This will allow the charitys editorial team to replace stock imagery still sitting in some areas of the site. Well establish with the editorial team what these additional illustrations will be, make them and then store them somewhere easy to locate in the Content Management System (CMS).

To get the maximum benefit (reducing page weight) from illustrations, they must be SVGs. An illustration in .PNG format will be smaller than a photo, but not as small as an SVG. And given our implementation of colour-coded site sections via Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), a .PNG image simply wont function the same way as an SVG image. This makes setting aside additional budget for ongoing design and build work an essential consideration.

There was a healthy debate in the team about which way to go on this Shakespeare-esque conundrum. Wed already implemented embedded SVGs, so we ran an experiment to see if there was a clear and obvious reason to revert that.

As you can see from the results below, there wasnt one. But given our mantra of every byte counts, well definitely be reviewing this. That way, we can keep analysing the impact of implementing the change, and what the exact carbon cost of those extra requests would be.

The aim behind this article series is to encourage openness around the concept of a sustainable web build. That way, other people can become inspired to embark on similar projects.

We do, however, want to take this work further than the website build itself. That way, we can make people visiting the site aware of its impact, and its role in the wider digital ecosystem. Because the worlds digital CO2 footprint is just as important as other, more visible industries footprints such as aviation or mining.

We think the most obvious way to spread such awareness is to badge the site with a carbon footprint. There are a few different ways we could do this. But wed like to use the automation technology already built into our carbon calculator tool. This will display a badge per page and per sites carbon footprint, similar to what Oatly does on its packaging.

By signalling the sites carbon impact clearly to visitors, we think the Climate Groups new website can set an exciting precedent for the wider web development industry.

Although we have already stripped back our base Drupal template, we think theres more we can do. We just need a bit more time to play around and make sure we dont break anything too important!

Similarly to our templates, our caching set is already optimised. But we want to see how much further we can go. Well be looping in our hosting provider on this project to discuss possibilities. These kinds of tuning decisions are always better made with a few weeks or months of data. This helps you to see where further improvements can be made, based on how the site is actually used in real life.

Finally, the charity already owns a number of initiatives which form key parts of its offering. But there will undoubtedly be new ones.

Its therefore vital, when working with an organisation whose product offering is dynamic, that you set them up for future successes, as well as victories in the present. So when a new section or initiative for the site crops up, unless a microsite is truly required, it doesnt see the organisation build a whole new site unnecessarily, with a new code base, new design, new hosting, and new SEO equity. Because that all detracts from the efforts put into the original build.

Rather than concluding this series, we invite you to continue it. We want you to share your digital sustainability journeys. It doesnt have to be a full web build. If youve spotted something weve covered that can be improved - tell us! And show us how it could be done better.

Its important for us to understand suggestions which make for continuous improvements. That are constructive, rather than simply critical. If were going to create positive change, we need the learning experience to be positive too.

Check out all of the articles in this series by searching Digital Sustainability.

Neil Clark, environmental lead at Manifesto.

See more here:
Digital Sustainability: why must we plan for continuous improvements to support the sustainability of websites? - The Drum

Its Green Monday week and that means there are discounts and savings to be had all over the place. And while youre likely considering a physical gift for your loved ones (or yourself), theres always the option of something more valuable.

Knowledge is power, right? What could be more awesome than giving someone the keys to the door that opens a new career path? Or, if were talking about you, how awesome would it be to kick off 2021 with a lucrative side-hustle in the works?

Stop by the AG Deals Store today and youll see that we have a wide variety of online training courses, spanning a whole array of disciplines, tools, and services.

Whereas we typically discount these online bundles rather heavily, weve got a limited time promo code that takes an extra 70% off the price. Seriously. Thanks, Green Monday!

Here are a few of the options available today; these are some of the more popular bundles from the last couple of months. Put that promo code in at checkout and youll have training thats valued in the thousands but priced at pennies on the dollar.

Defend Any System from Digital Attacks with 98 Hours of Cybersecurity & Ethical Hacking Content from Top Instructors Joe Parys, Total Seminars, and More $40 $12

Ace the Worlds Leading Tech Certification Series w/ Lifetime Access to 14 Expert-Led Courses & 300+ Hours of High-Quality Instruction $70 $21

Become a Better Human Being by Developing Emotional Intelligence with 13 Hours of Content on Self-Awareness, Personality Styles, Empathy, and More $35 $10.50

Monitor Your Sites Growth & Traffic Better with 12 Hours of Content on Google Analytics, Data Studio, SEO, and More $35 $10.50

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Amp Up Your Skills on Electronics, Programming & Robotics with 39 Hours of Content on Raspberry Pi, Python, and ROS2 $50 $15

Continue reading here:
GREEN MONDAY promo shaves another 70% off online training courses - AndroidGuys

Long gone are the days where strength training and sport was male-dominated. In fact, its thought that the number of women participating in powerlifting has more than doubled since 2015!

Although the idea of starting powerlifting may be a little daunting, growing in strength and confidence is highly rewarding.

To help you make the best start possible, this article will highlight eight steps that you should consider to familiarize yourself with the sport and best prepare you for entering a powerlifting competition.

The following eight steps will ensure that you understand the demands of powerlifting before embarking on your quest to become the strongest woman in your weight class.

Before you begin your training, its crucial that you understand powerlifting, the rules, and how competitions work.

Doing so will lay the groundwork for entering a powerlifting competition as you will have a better idea of what to expect when it comes around.

If you are programming your own training, failing to understand the demands of the sport may cause you to train in a sub-optimal manner.

Powerlifting is a sport that assesses your maximal strength through three different lifts the deadlift, squat, and bench press.

During meets, you will be given three attempts with each movement to lift as much weight as possible. Your best lifts will be recorded and tallied.

For example, lets say that you lift 160lbs for the deadlift, 130lbs for the squat, and 90lbs for the bench, your accumulative total will be 330lbs.

The athlete who has lifted the most accumulated weight will be crowned the champion.

There are a number of other factors that you must know about powerlifting. Powerlifting is a weight classified sport. This means that you will be placed in a group depending on your body weight.

This is done to even the playing field, otherwise heavier lifters would have a substantial advantage over lighter lifters (1).

There are also many different powerlifting federations all of which have their own set of rules and regulations regarding competitions, attire, drug testing, and weigh-ins.

If you want to perform competently and avoid being disqualified from competitions, you must familiarize yourself with the rules of your chosen powerlifting federation.

If you dont know which federation to chose, check out choosing a Powerlifting Federation.

Once you have begun to grasp the sport of powerlifting and how competitions work, go and see it for yourself.

There are thousands of powerlifting meets hosted around the world each year. Its likely that you dont need to do a great amount of research or travel far to find one.

While its all fine and well reading about powerlifting competitions and how they work, however, attending a meet will give you a better feel for it.

By familiarizing yourself with the ins and outs of a powerlifting competition, you will certainly feel a lot more comfortable and confident when you eventually do compete.

Furthermore, you may find that attending a meet will significantly increase your motivation. It is absolutely inspiring to see athletes lift heavy weight and set new records.

Lastly, it will give you an opportunity to chat with other women within the sport and ask them any questions that you may have about their training and preparation for the competition.

Also check 6 methods to help you cut weight for powerlifting events.

If you are an absolute beginner to strength training, it is highly recommended that you hire a coach, preferably one with experience in powerlifting.

Doing so will ensure that you learn the correct techniques with all strength training exercises.

Research suggests that poor technique is the number one cause of injury during strength training (2). Therefore, if you aspire to get strong while remaining injury-free, your technique must be good.

This training program that you are given should be a progressive plan that will allow you to significantly enhance strength across the board and also increase your competence with the powerlifts.

Additionally, having a coach can certainly help with accountability, motivation, and support.

With so many coaches to choose from, it can be difficult to know where to begin. The first thing to do is to consider what it is you are looking for from a coach.

As mentioned, you should look to find a coach who is well-versed in powerlifting, that should go without saying.

Beyond that, you may need to consider your budget and select the service that works best for you.

Some lifters prefer to have multiple one-to-one sessions per week while others prefer less frequent sessions.

If you already have experience with strength training, online training may be a worthwhile option. Typically, online is more cost-effective than one-to-one training and involves a greater degree of independence.

There is no doubt that hiring a coach can be expensive and, therefore, this may not be possible for some.

However, if this is the case, fear not. There are an array of high-quality beginner powerlifting programs that you can find online.

The 5/3/1 by Jim Wendler, GreySkull LP program, GZCLP program, nSuns LP program, and Madcow 55, are all excellent examples of beginner powerlifting programs.

These beginner-friendly programs have all been designed to help you make the best progress possible and allow you to substantially increase the weight lifted for the deadlift, squat, and bench press.

Also a must read 12 strength training programs.

The physical training that you partake in prior to competition will ultimately determine how much weight you lift on the day.

If you want to be competitive as a powerlifter, you have to be fully committed to your training. Missing sessions or being inconsistent is not an option.

A useful way to look at your training is to view it as an appointment. Schedule your gym sessions in your diary or weekly planner like you would a dentist or doctors appointment.

While you may feel very motivated at the moment, there may be times where your enthusiasm starts to waver. This is totally normal every lifter experiences this.

However, this method may help with your adherence and consistency which will keep you on track, even on the days where you dont feel like training.

Once you have done these things, its time to knuckle down and work hard. Initially, the focus of your training should be on learning the three powerlifts the deadlift, squat, and bench press.

Some people pick up the techniques of these lifts fairly quickly while others may need longer to get to grips with them.

If possible, have a coach or someone with powerlifting knowledge teach you the techniques. This way you can be assured that your movement and technique is safe and effective.

The other thing to consider is that powerlifting federations have particular rules relating to the deadlift, squat, and bench press.

Therefore, its worthwhile having a coach check your technique to ensure that it fits the criteria and will pass when it comes to a powerlifting meet.

Once you have the technique down, you can then begin to plan for your first ever powerlifting competition.

This involves assessing your strength and then determining goal weights for the deadlift, squat, and bench press.

Its important to become familiar with one-rep max testing. As the name suggests, this involves performing one rep with as much weight on the bar as possible.

This is often seen as the gold-standard of strength testing and is, therefore, something that powerlifters should use frequently (3).

Your results from your one-rep max tests can be used to calculate the appropriate amount of weight to use in your training program.

Furthermore, strength tests can also give you a rough idea of your goal weight for each lift.

Once again, this is best done under the supervision of a coach who will ensure that goal weights are realistic and actually attainable.

Once you have determined goal weights, you can then look to sign up for your first ever powerlifting competition!

When choosing an event, there are two things to consider.

Firstly, if possible, look for a local beginners powerlifting event. These events tend to be much more relaxed than large competition meets.

Entering these competitions will give you a taste of what its like to participate in a powerlifting competition without causing you to feel overwhelmed or stressed.

Having participated in a competition like this, you may then feel more prepared to sign up for a more competitive and advanced event.

Secondly, you need to consider the time until the event. There is no point signing up for a competition that is only a couple of weeks away as this does not give you enough time to train.

Ideally, look for an event that is anywhere between eight and twelve weeks away. This is a more appropriate timeframe as it will give you enough time to reach your goal weight for the deadlift, squat, and bench.

Powerlifting is not just for men. There are thousands of incredible women who are building insane strength and competing at the highest levels.

While the thought of powerlifting may be a little overwhelming, following the eight steps outlined in this article will help to guide you through to your first ever competition.

References:

1- Ten Hoor, Gill A.; Plasqui, Guy; Schols, Annemie M. W. J.; Kok, Gerjo (2018-03-01). A Benefit of Being Heavier Is Being Strong: a Cross-Sectional Study in Young Adults. Sports Medicine Open. 4. doi:10.1186/s40798-018-0125-4. ISSN 2199-1170. PMC 5833324. PMID 29492711. [source]

2- Saragiotto, Bruno T.; Di Pierro, Carla; Lopes, Alexandre D. (2014). Risk factors and injury prevention in elite athletes: a descriptive study of the opinions of physical therapists, doctors and trainers. Brazilian Journal of Physical Therapy. 18 (2): 137143. doi:10.1590/S1413-35552012005000147. ISSN 1413-3555. PMC 4183252. PMID 24845023. [source]

3- Seo, Dong-il; Kim, Eonho; Fahs, Christopher A.; Rossow, Lindy; Young, Kaelin; Ferguson, Steven L.; Thiebaud, Robert; Sherk, Vanessa D.; Loenneke, Jeremy P.; Kim, Daeyeol; Lee, Man-ki (2012-06-01). Reliability of the One-Repetition Maximum Test Based on Muscle Group and Gender. Journal of Sports Science & Medicine. 11 (2): 221225. ISSN 1303-2968. PMC 3737872. PMID 24149193. [source]

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Link:
Womens Powerlifting: What You Need to Know to Get Started - FitnessVolt.com