6 Best Online Team Collaboration Tools For Start-Ups
A Thread…
#startup #digitaltools
1. Trello
This tool is excellent for checking what a team member is working on and what particular stage tasks are in. Trello can be integrated with third-party apps like Slack, Google Drive, and Evernote.
2. Slack
Slack is primarily a versatile team messaging app. It is a mobile and desktop app that allows you to send direct messages and files to a particular person or group. It can organise chats into channels for a specific topic, project, department, or company.
3. Asana
Asana is an ideal collaboration tool for startup teams. The app allows you to create and manage to-do lists for their current and future projects and track their employees’ work assignments and progress.
4. Podio
Podio is a newcomer in the pool of online collaboration tools but is quite efficient in getting work done. It is a great way to facilitate collaboration and communication among teams, allowing them to organize large projects and assign tasks.
5. Microsoft 365
Formerly known as Office 365, this tool is one of a kind for online collaboration. Microsoft 365 is Microsoft’s collection of cloud-based office tools. All the tools are extremely capable and easy to use.
6. Flock
Flock is an online collaboration application with essential productivity tools. It provides unlimited individual and group messaging and an archive for up to 10,000 searchable messages. It allows 10 public channels and 5 GB of total file storage space per team.
Customer satisfaction is one important factor that businesses need to focus on. Here are 5 tips that can help you in satisfying and winning more customers!
1. Improve how you measure customer service:-
You can use net promoter score or customer satisfaction score or through tracking business metrics which matters most to you.
2. Speed up response time:-
If your customers are having any problem then they will need the solution as soon as possible. Faster the response, more will be the customer satisfaction.
3. Create a customer centric culture:-
Make your whole team customer centric. Make each and every department to think about customers first.Customer-centric companies are more profitable and enjoy better work cultures.
4.Get creative on social media:-
It’s the best way to connect with your customers, to interact in a better way. It is necessary for brand awareness also.
5.Provide the value:-
This is the most important goal, whatever product or service you are providing must be able to add value to your customers which can retain them for long term. Give them a unique reason to stay with you for long.
Startups taught me more about life and business than I ever could imagine
Thread: 20 tips I wish I could give to my 20 year old self
Startups are simple:
There are good times and bad times
Good times: enjoy the ride
Bad times: enjoy the ride
Beware of pessimistic people
Pessimism is the worst disease
Professional lies we tell ourselves:
1. Your email inbox is getting stuff done
2. A full calendar is positive
3. Big meetings are the answer
You know better
FAANG give you credentials
Startups give you education
Bob Dylan on the common sense behind criticism
“Don’t criticize what you can’t understand.”
There is nothing easier than being a critic
A tremendous waste of energy and bad vibe
On the life at a startup:
I’ve never met a startup that has gone according to plan
Buckle up
Emotional decisions kill startups, careers and your day
How to avoid making emotional decisions:
1. Wait
Point: If you can wait, wait
Be kind to yourself
A recipe for failure:
1) Being compulsively critical
2) Being massively unforgiving
Being too hard on yourself is a hindrance to growth
Reminder: you are enough
The greatest productivity trick:
Listening to people you respect
You won’t be able to get them out of your head
They will make you better
Tip: the internet makes it easy to find and listen to these people
Elon Musk on what it takes to change the world
“I could either watch it happen, or be part of it.”
Say less, Elon
Good habits are life’s magic pill
Reading fast: defeats the point of reading
Read slow to really learn
A sweet illusion:
You are in control
A true sign of success:
Someone who doesn’t keep track of failures
Unlearn: filling your life with possessions
Learn: filling your mind with mastery
Everyone could become a master
Literally, everyone
Free:
– Exercise
– Go for a walk
– Being in nature
– Sharing knowledge
– Learning from others
– Listening to others
– Asking for help
– Being kind
– Positive attitude
– Twitter
The amount of growth you can experience for free is massive
Expensive:
– Spending time with the wrong people
– Populating feeds with toxic content
– Spending too long at a job
– Spending not enough time at a job
– Chasing startups for the money
Product/market fit happens when you least expect it
Realization:
People don’t support your company’s vision. They support their own vision of the world
#1 behavior of successful people:
Thinking clearly
I write weekly threads
Follow me @gregisenberg to stay up to date
80% of readers only scan headlines.
This makes headlines a magnet for eyeballs.
Here are 13 tips and examples to craft a perfect headline 🧵
1. Use Numbers or Data
Numbers are brain candy.
It automatically helps us visualize context and organize info.
And pro tip: odd numbers work best.
Example: 7 Copywriting Tips to Turn Scanners Into Readers
2. Use A Rationale
This means nothing more than giving a good reason for why an action should be completed.
That reason should be value-driven, so they’re urged to click.
Example: 9 Uncovered Secrets to Boost Your Site’s SEO
3. Rhyme
A conducted study showed that “Rhyme as Reason” was rated as more likable, trustworthy, original, memorable, and persuasive.
Example: Delightfully Capable. Surprisingly Affordable. (h/t Apple)
4. Use Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of the same sound in a series of words.
It’s poetic like fashion makes it easy to remember.
Example: Don’t Dream it. Drive it. (h/t Jaguar)
5. Avoid Sound Smart Adjectives
Using sound smart adjectives doesn’t make you sound smart.
Consumers can read right through the BS.
Bad Example: 7 efficacious copywriting tips.
Good example: 7 persuasive copywriting tips.
6. Offer A Test
It’s nearly irresistible to pass up a challenge.
That makes using offering a test a clickable headline.
Example: Does your site pass the SEO test?
7. Drop a Hint
When we’re hit with a cliffhanger — we’re intrigued.
We naturally want to know the answer.
This works for headlines too.
Example: This Instagram Ad Secret Dropped Conversation Rates by 20%
8. Share Your Experience
People connect with people.
Sharing your experience is a great way to connect with your audience and build trust.
Example: What I learned about going viral after writing 50 Twitter threads.
9. First 3 Words. And Last 3 Words.
Because people are scanners, the first 3 words and the last 3 words are the most important.
Start with a punch. And end with one too.
Example: (7 Facebook Ads) That I Used (To Increase Sales)
10. Get To The Point
Don’t waste any words.
Wasted words equal wasted time.
Start with a keyword.
Then get to the point.
Example: Better soles. Stronger feet.
11. Open-Ended Questions
Open-Ended questions spark discussion.
Perfect for creating an engaged audience.
Example: Is it a good idea to invest in Bitcoin?
12. Close-Ended Questions
On the other hand, close-ended questions spark curiosity.
Example: Did you invest in Bitcoin too late?
13. Problem. Solution.
Address the problem.
Express the solution.
Example: Your sale page doesn’t convert. Here’s how to fix that.
Would this help you?
– marketing breakdowns
– copywriting tips
– how-tos
– growth strategies
– campaign dissection
If so, follow @alexgarcia_atx 🙂
I drink too much coffee and spend too much time on the internet to write valuable marketing threads for yah.
I promise.
TL;DR
1. Use Numbers
2. Rationale
3. Rhyme
4. Alliteration
5. Avoid “Sound Smart” Adjectives
6. Offer A Test
7. Drop a hint
8. Share your experience
9. First 3 & last 3 words matter
10. Get to the point
11. Open-ended questions
12. Closed-ended questions
13. Problem. Solution.
In between several courses and ebooks that are available online to learn from, here are 6 websites to learn marketing – all via real life case studies.
6 Kickass Websites to Help You Learn Marketing Through Real Life Case Studies
🧵👇
#MarketingTwitter
Thank you for exploring, do follow these amazing websites and get marketing insights.
Follow @FuelerHQ for more amazing threads.
Being a solo founder is tough but not impossible – it can make your startup & can kill it too. Kuljit Jagpal’s thread is a quick motivation for people who are trying to make it as a solo founder. If you are of them, this post is for you!
A little late night Monday early morning Tuesday motivation . Sharing a little bit of research that I volunteered for (thanks for the inspiration JM- it’s been a very helpful exercise).
Solo founders, here’s a thread 🧵
#startup #founder #solefounder #cofounder #solofounder
Have to agree – even though it looks like it’s just a solo founder, it’s often not. Just the PR friendly/ pitch ready / face of the startup. I think the following are solo founders, here they are in no particular order. #startup #founder #solefounder #cofounder #solofounder
Building startups are hard , lots of things in life are hard …. it doesn’t make them impossible as all these founders show ⬆️. 👏🏽
Customer satisfaction is the key to any successful business, and customer engagement strategies help the same. The interaction or ‘engagement’ between the customer and the brand as we label it here is done in multiple ways. It is a process that has developed over time.
Well planned strategies take customer engagement from reactive to proactive. They must incorporate two major ideas — the first being how your brand interacts with its customers and the quality of such interactions. Mere acquisition of customers is not sufficient, so secondly, it is also significant to actively engage with your base.
Advantages of customer engagement strategies:
When you engage with your customers, it is more than just fulfilling your business agenda. You form a bond with them, a bond that is not restricted to giving and taking of products, but rather more of emotional relation.
Just like low budget movies with good stories that earn great profits solely on the basis of mouth publicity similarly, word of mouth is equally important for small businesses that cannot invest much in advertising.
It might sound weird and obviously outdated, but “words matter the most”. Even today, word of mouth is of prime importance and assurance in the time of reviews and ratings. The care and tenderness with which you handle your customer relations reflect in the referrals your customer makes to their family and friends. The strategies mentioned below are surely going to assist you in enhancing your customer engagement.
10 customer engagement strategies for your business:
1. Creating custom content
You have a variety of customers, and their needs, wants, and desires vary. So it is equally important to cater to each one of them. Custom content is the key to it, but what does the term actually mean?
We do talk a lot about content marketing. But what about the customers we already have? This is where the idea of custom content marketing hops in. Custom content is tailored to engage with the ‘existing customers’.
“78% of CMOs think custom content is the future of marketing. And 61% of buying decisions are influenced by custom content.”
No matter how old we grow, the thought of rewards always excites us, be it in any way. Suitably rewarding your customers is a great way to maintain their loyalty towards your business. Weird, but true, customers feel happy when you reward them for spending their money.
Rewarding your customers must top the list of your loyalty programs. In fact, a lot many businesses also hire a team just for designing their loyalty programs.
It might sound expensive to some of you, but a little expense to retain your customers does no harm.
3. Implement in-product messaging
Apart from email marketing, in-product messaging can also be a great option to communicate with your audience. In-product messages are highly targeted and are influential in helping new customers get acquainted with the product.
The main aim of using this feature is to enhance customer engagement and motivate them to use your products more.
4. Personalise user experience
Personalisation is the new way of showing that you care for your customers ― that their presence matters and is valued. From Myntra personalising the recommended products we see to Netflix suggesting shows we would like based on our watch history, all the major brands are rolling it off pretty well.
“72% of consumers only engage with marketing messages that are customised to their specific interests. And 80% of those who classify themselves as frequent shoppers say they only shop with brands who personalise their experience.”
In the world where nothing remains constant, at one moment you might be delighted with the number of customers you have and in the next moment highly shocked with their sudden disappearance. There might come a moment when they cease to use your products. Such customers are labelled as churned customers, and they should top the list of your priority because they have used your product, service or app at some point ― and might need it again.
All you need to do is decode why they stopped using your product or service and make efforts to bring them back. Re-engaging is a great way of dealing with this problem. Establish your connection with lost users via emails and make them realise their importance. Doesn’t everyone love to be treated as ‘special’?
6. Investing in analytics tools
These days customer engagement can be easily evaluated well with analytics tools. The data obtained from these tools can be used to build a dashboard with various pointers, like the features used by a certain group of people or how long aṣ user goes on with your app or product before discontinuing.
The data collected helps you in knowing and analysing the performance of your product or service in both ways, good and bad — this further aids in building new strategies.
7. Take help power users
Each brand has a group of highly engaged individuals who intend to become product champions for its company. You should always keep such people very close and very prioritised as their opinions matter the most. Their views regarding your product can either make it a great success or a bad failure. Keep a tap on their demands and requirements.
8. All hands support
All hands support is an innovative way of engaging all your company’s employees ― from developers to product managers to the sales team ― in supporting the customers.
This technique boosts growth in many companies by keeping their entire team in contact with their customers’ needs, wants, desires, and pains.
“Effective all hands support focuses on making life better for your customers. But it can also cause a shift in how you and your team think about and build your company.”
With the money you don’t end up spending on events, you can double down on digital channels and/ or invest in some truly engaging digital experiences. Create an integrated experience when reaching out to prospects by adding more targeted ads and social media layers.
Also, consider putting budget into a piece of interactive content. Consider creating interactive top-of-funnel content, case studies, or sales demos where prospects can peruse through information at their own pace whenever they have time. The possibilities are limitless here and generally evergreen, so you have the opportunity to generate an ongoing return.
10. Collect customer feedback
Feedbacks are a great way of conveying whether the customer likes your product or not. It helps you to view your product from a customer point of view and work on shortcomings, if any.
Asking for feedback from your customers is a great way of customer engagement. It gives you an insight into what the customers think about your product and helps in developing a customer-centric business.
What are some of your proven strategies for customer engagement? Share with us, and we will share it with the masses!
Last week, I asked my followers to share their favorite free investing tools
I received 200+ responses and dozens of recommendations
Here are my top 10 favorite answers:
2/ @QuartrSE
This is a GREAT app for listening to investor conference calls for free
I love that you can 2x the call speed & skip ahead/rewind easily
It’s SO much better than calling in
6/ @KoyfinCharts
This is yet another platform that gets plugged A LOT on fintwit, but for a good reason
The dashboards are great, customizable, and it’s very useful for building a watchlist
It’s a bit intimidating at first, but you get used to it fast
10/ YouTube
I wish YouTube existed when I first started
Here are some great channels for learning about money/investing:
@7investing
@AswathDamodaran
@ChooseFi
@heydave7
@JonahLupton
@MicroCapClub
Minority Mindset
Our Rich Journey
@RichardMoglen
Rose on Investing
1/ If you are a growth stage founder raising $$$, this thread is for you…
2/ At the growth stage – the types of investors you can access are much broader than VCs (e.g., crossover, PE, Sovereign Wealth Funds)
3/ As a result the rules of the game are different
1. Term sheets are not final — valuations can drop and/or investors can pull TS’s last minute and your entire round can fall apart
4/ Having been at YC and seen a spectrum of fundraises I do realize this happens across the board (international, non- Silicon Valley investor) but to a *large extent* Silicon Valley investors work very hard to keep their word and reputation intact.
5/ But in this new trend of crossover and PE funds investing in the late stages.. we see this happening more than ever
6/ What can you do as a founder?
(A) If you have decided to take a TS close ASAP
Why? In the last week when markets crashed we had few investors message founders asking if they can drop the valuation by 30% from their original offer since the market has corrected.
(B) If you have just started the process — finish your process to understand the range of valuations and who the *real* long term partner is..
Why?
You need to have a plan B if your lead pulls the TS and it is good to get market feedback.
Examples of why investors have pulled TermSheets —
* Market correction,
* Entered COVID lockdown (In March 2020 there were several that pulled TS’s)
* Did not finish our work in time and we gave a TS prematurely to win the deal!
(C) If your fundraise does fall apart because the lead pulled the TS then pause the process if you can
If you have enough runway, go back to building your business and go back to market in two quarters
(D) If you have only reasonable runway then try raising a SAFE /Bridge to buy you time before you go back to market
7/ Pulling last minute TS’s are not common but when it happens it can be quite damaging in terms of morale to both the founders and the broader team.
Therefore as PG would famously say — it is not done until the money is wired in the bank!
8/ Many founders have experienced this and gone on to build really successful companies. At YC most of our successful companies have had at least 1 or 2 rounds of fundraising that were extremely hard.
Don’t let the short term pain get to you. You will come back stronger!
9/ Last but not the least you should reference check investors even in the late stage.
The rise in digitization and seamless connectivity has seen a boom in business development. A news article by the Telegraph shows that in 2016 there were 80 new businesses alone in the United Kingdom! Given this sharp increase and fascination towards entrepreneurship, another report states that only 25% of a new business lasts for 15 years or more, and 20% of the new business fail within a year! Thus, it is essential to understand business or product growth hacking strategies.
There are various strategies that a company or a business might consider to scale and sustain their product. Growth Hacking strategy is a buzzword that allows a business to scale quickly ― a technique that is accepted by experimentation. The process involves all the crucial components – marketing, design and development, engineering, and, yes, data analytics.
Growth Hacking Strategies
Some elaborate strategies are mentioned, which might help your customer find a quick and cost-effective solution to find new leads and build a solid user base.
Strategies to Develop at Pre-Launch
A study by Gartner states that a company needs a lot of time and effort to build a long-lasting product and sustain future generations.
Considering every aspect, an organization must strategize clearly – what their goal is. Even before you start, your marketing strategy should be solid, and you should let the mass know about the new product.
Pre-Launch Advertisements
Why not let people know that a new product is coming? Increase the Hype? Well, building hype is excellent! For instance, a popular video game Cyberpunk 2077, made so many promotional events before the game’s launching event that it became one of the most-awaited games.
Likewise, as an entrepreneur, you can strategize to let the mass know about your product. Pre-Launch Email List is a good starting point. It allows one to reach a targeted audience and deliver the correct message.
Pre-Launch Offers and Discounts like an additional one-month free subscription! The strategy allows you to build funds for your product – even before the launch, also you know precisely how many people are waiting in line.
Strategies at Product Launch
A company needs its advertisements. Portals like Product Hunt curate the new products in technology and let the user know.
Leveraging Referral Marketing – once your product is launched, and you have some customers, let them bring you more! Sounds great! Yes, this strategy is applied for products like CRED, American Express, and Google-Pay. There are always some self-cost requirements, but it is an effective solution!
Brand Partnerships and Launch Events
A Launch Event is where you get to market your product and understand new players in the same field. Another excellent advantage is that you get to build new connections that might give you potential good leads for your product – a remarkable growth hacking strategy!
Partnership and Collaboration with well-established business are perhaps one of the best strategies. It gives a solid buzz and news coverage!
Social Media and Digital Marketing
Social media plays an important role. A tweet at the correct time can do wonders! A single tweet by Elon Musk let the dogecoin see a 2800% rise in its valuation!
Well, that was lucky! But, advertisement and building hype in the social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter can bring wonders to your products. It is a very cheap and cost-effective way to let the mass know!
The HARO Strategy
Consider Helping A Reporter Out (HARO) as a forum for displaying your skills as one of the best growth hacking tips. It is not a tool for developing your brand; instead, it is a place to read different questions from journalists that may or may not be necessary to your domain.
Yes, it will take a lot of time, but it will be well worth it if done correctly. Consider it a worthwhile venture if you can spare 30 seconds three times a day to read their newsletters.
Market Analytics
Understand various points and strategies that you have applied – and learn which activity is bringing you customers, and which is not – and Why? In short –
How do I ensure that a transaction is credited to a user who reads material on our blog and then signs up?
Which paid traffic sources are the most effective in terms of ROI?
Which landing pages are converting the best for us?
Do smartphone apps convert?
Is there a group of users that convert well? How can we define that so that we can find more of them?
How do I use Analytics to detect errors?
Company Profile and Reputation
Platforms like GlassDoor analyze a company’s work status based on user reviews of past and present employees. Likewise, research for a suitable venue which your competitor uses – advertise and grow your company’s image.
Build some helping guides or tutorials that will let your user know how to use your product seamlessly. Also, it brings you new customers – since by knowing what it can do, and how it can be done – I might consider using it too!
These are some of the cost-effective strategies that can help you reach out to the masses – bring you valuable customers. One must strategize and choose among these channels – a combination of this and a bit of that!
What was your surviving strategy? What did work for your business? Share your learning with us, and we’ll be happy to share it with the masses!!
