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It’s important to make your employees feel appreciated and fulfilled all year long, but there’s no time like the holidays for ensuring your employees know you’re happy to have them around! A small gesture of appreciation goes a long way, especially during the busy holiday season and amid this year’s stress and turbulence due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To help your employees feel valued, here are four meaningful ways to show your appreciation, during the holidays and beyond.

[Read more…] about Four Ways to Show Employee Appreciation During the Holidays

As a business owner, you’re bound to encounter a negative review from an unsatisfied customer at some point. A negative review can be frustrating, especially when you believe that you’re in the right. However, addressing negative reviews in a prompt, thoughtful manner is a critical part of being a successful business owner. The next time you receive a bad review, follow four tips for crafting the perfect response.

Respond promptly

When someone leaves a negative review, it’s important to respond as quickly as possible. This shows that you are committed to addressing the problem and that you’re attentive to feedback. It may be tempting to ignore a bad review, but then you will never have a chance to win your unhappy customer back. Failing to respond may also make your business come across as unfriendly, unhelpful, and unwilling to listen.

Apologize and take responsibility

In your response to a negative review, an apology is one of the most important parts. An apology appeases the unhappy customer and shows that you are committed to addressing the issue instead of jumping to the defense. It can be difficult to issue an apology when you feel that the customer is wrong or being unnecessarily demanding, but a simple statement like “I’m sorry that we didn’t meet your expectations” can go a long way. Even if you feel like you didn’t do anything wrong, you can still apologize in a way that empathetically acknowledges their feelings.

Similarly, take responsibility for the issue. If applicable, provide a brief explanation of what might have gone wrong, but avoid aggressive or conformational responses.

Take the conversation offline

When a review is posted somewhere like Facebook or Yelp, it is available for all future or potential customers to see. This is why you should respond publicly. In some cases, a great response to a bad review can even change the minds of people who might be considering your business. Responding publicly is a great chance to take a negative situation and turn it into something that showcases your integrity and commitment.

However, you might also want to consider offering the chance to discuss the issues further in a more private space, like via email or private message. This gives both parties the opportunity to share more details.

Offer a solution

In your response, offer a solution. In some cases, this might be a discount or special offer, or some kind of refund. In other instances, the solution might be speaking to an employee about their behavior, offering additional training, or doing something to remedy the issue at hand. Regardless of how you choose to solve the issue in the negative review, make sure your customer is aware of the steps you’ll be taking to address the issue. Then, be sure to follow-through on swiftly implementing that solution.

When you’re trying to drive more attention to your business through your website, keep search engine optimization (SEO) in mind while creating your online content. SEO can help you drive traffic to your website, attract repeat website visitors, and help your business maintain a high ranking on search engines like Google. However, it can be a challenge to create online content that will interest your website visitors and improve your SEO ranking. These five SEO copywriting tips will help you do both.

1. Have an Attention-Grabbing Headline

When you’re creating content for your website, one of your first copywriting goals should be a great headline. List-centric headlines, like “10 Reasons Why You Should Hire a Graphic Designer” are an easy way to grab a reader’s attention. It also promises them that the content will be a fast, accessible read. For all headlines, make sure it is specific and interesting, and include your SEO keywords directly in the title.

2. Be Accessible

Both human readers and search engines love readable, accessible content. Increase accessibility by breaking up your content with heading and subheadings, bullet points, or numbered lists. This make it easier for readers to quickly scan through the content. Short sentences and an active writing voice also increase readability. By creating accessible content, you increase your chances of connecting with online viewers who will then engage with your content, boosting your SEO ranking.

3. Don’t Forget a Meta Description

When copywriting for SEO, don’t overlook your meta description. This text, which shows up underneath your website page on search engines, is only around 150 words, but it’s just as important as the rest of your content. Since your meta description is what people see before they click on your website page, make sure it is to-the-point and informative, and include any important keywords. If you don’t write your own meta description, the search engine will provide one for you. That said, creating your own allows you to have more control over your keywords and the audience you’d like to attract.

4. Include Links

Including both internal and external links in your SEO copywriting boosts traffic to your website. Linking to external website sites, particularly to credible websites, builds trust in your content and shows that your content has merit. Internal links make your website more appealing to SEO “crawlers,” which go through your website to look at links and data on your website to determine your SEO ranking. Links make it easier for crawlers to go through your website, which will improve your ranking.

5. Don’t Overdo the Keywords

Finally, when creating SEO copy for your website, don’t get bogged down with throwing in as many keywords as possible. Even though you are trying to appear attractive to online algorithms, your human readers are just as important—and they don’t want to read an article that is packed with keywords or jargon. Focus on sharing your thoughts in a clear and concise way, and find natural ways to incorporate your SEO keywords. This makes your content readable while also ensuring that you’ll be seen by search engines.

Did you know that 51% of people in the United States have listened to a podcast? While many people turn to podcasts to hear the daily news or an entertaining story, plenty of others also listen to business-focused podcasts in order to learn more about a specific industry, pick up tips on how to improve their own business, or hear wisdom from their favorite entrepreneurs. If you have experiences and expertise to share as a business owner, this means creating a podcast can be a great chance to connect with a new audience and build your brand.

[Read more…] about Starting a Podcast for Your Business

At some point in your career, you may come across someone who had a bad experience with your company. Perhaps they worked with your company in the past and were unhappy with the results, or had a negative customer experience that soured their opinion. In some cases, they may have even worked directly with you. When someone has a previous bad experience with you or your company, they may be hesitant to give you a second chance.

However, this doesn’t mean you have to say goodbye for good. With the right approach, you can work to win back a client after a bad experience.

[Read more…] about Winning Back a Client After a Bad Experience

VensureHR is a client of OutMarket.Pro and they recently conducted a webinar to guide businesses on the employment ramifications of the Coronavirus.

COVID-19 FAQs Webinar (WATCH NOW)

If you have further questions, the presenters give contact information.

Good luck and stay safe!

 

Mark Stein

OutMarket.Pro