He remembers his parents never getting any guidance on how to save and invest their money, and because of that, they spent more time worrying about paying day-to-day bills and less time enjoying life. So, he made it his mission to help others be rewarded for their hard work and enjoy the fruits of their labour with the peace of mind that comes with having a sound financial plan for the future.

“My parents grew up during the depression, and they were only thinking about money as the way to ensure they had enough to provide for their family and put food on the table,” said McDonald. “I can’t help but think that if my parents had someone like myself who had been able to show them how to invest and save more wisely or put their money to work, they would have had a better life and not had to work so hard. That’s part of my motivation, to make sure my clients have the advice they need to live for today and plan for tomorrow, so they can enjoy life a little bit more and not have to work so hard.”

It’s no surprise that McDonald worked hard to become a Certified Financial Planner in 1996, and in 2005 he and his partners Robin Bailey and Joe Ferrera founded Life and Legacy Advisory Group.

Life and Legacy Advisory Group set out to develop a simple, straightforward financial enrichment program to provide their clients with the freedom to LIVE FOR TODAY. PLAN FOR TOMORROW. 

Al Mcdonald (right) and business partner Joe Ferreira (left) on Life & Legacy Advisory Group

Daylite Has Been a Part of Our Day-To-Day Operation since Day-One

When Life and Legacy Advisory Group started, McDonald and his team needed a dynamic Customer Relationships Management tool to streamline their processes and ensure they stayed connected with customers and anticipated their needs. And being a Mac-based business, it is a no-brainer to go with Daylite, “With our combined expertise approach, we needed a Contact Management or CRM system where we could have all the information in one place; a shared calendar and shared notes from client consultations so we all have visibility and we’re up to date on all our clients’ needs. Daylite does all that, which has been a tremendous success for us.” McDonald credits Daylite for helping grow the business year after year.

As a Mac-based business, Al McDonald and his team rely on Daylite to have access to all the information at one place across their Apple devices.

Specifically designed to take advantage of the power and convenience of the Mac, iPad and iPhone operating systems, Daylite helps businesses with 1 to 100 people to manage more clients, close more deals and finish more projects. Daylite helps teams share communications, next steps, and details to keep everyone in the loop. This means instead of struggling with information silos, teams can collaborate and get the context they need to respond and take the next steps with clients without wasted time or interruptions.

Daylite Helps Keeps Life and Legacy Compliant

Financial advisors must navigate complex rules for regulatory compliance. According to McDonald, Daylite makes that easier too. “As you can imagine, in the financial services industry, we’re very compliance heavy. We must have our notes, we have to keep in touch, and we have to keep good records, and Daylite does all of that. It is an integral part of what we do.” From keeping track of communications to better managing leads and clients, Daylite has what it takes to keep client relationships moving forward.

Daylite keeps an accurate history of all clients’ communication, documents, and records, which also helps Life and Legacy Advisory Group stay on top of compliance.

Daylite Drives Personal Touches To Obtain and Retain Clients

The Life and Legacy Group has built up a large and loyal clientele over the years. Knowing who these clients are and keeping them engaged is crucial. With Daylite, McDonald and his team can secure new clients using smart lists to target specific market segments by classifying contacts using keywords, categories, and other criteria. They can then use filters to find exactly who they are looking for. These filters are saved as “Smart Lists” that will update automatically when contacts match the criteria.

McDonald also appreciates the added personal touches they can provide to their clients thanks to Daylite. “Daylite has this nice feature where it will remind you of people’s birthdays, so it lets us know to give them a call or send them a card. There are many thoughtful features like this that help us further engage with our clients, so they know they are our priority.” He and his team rely on these dynamic smart lists to stay top of mind with his clients by sending out updates or personal check-ins.

McDonald and his team use Daylite’s smart lists to secure new clients, target specific markets, and stay in touch

Daylite Made with Small Businesses in Mind

McDonald describes Daylite as a small business tool that is easy to use but still powerful. And because Daylite is made with the small business in mind, this tool seems to anticipate his firm’s needs. “Every time I have a need or a challenge in the business and I think, what software tool is out there that can help me, I look at Daylite, and it’s already got it,” said McDonald. Not only is he impressed with how intuitive Daylite is, but he also appreciates the level of service he gets in terms of response from customer support staff if he ever has a question. “They are fabulous, they’re easy to reach if I need them, and if I have a problem that needs solving, they find a solution.” 

McDonald also highlighted Daylite’s mission and how it matches Life and Legacy Advisory Group’s vision:

“We believe in empowering small businesses like yours in a way that helps you manage more clients, close more deals, and finish more projects so you can scale your business. Daylite adapts to support you and your team through every step of your growth journey.”

Daylite’s mission

“There couldn’t be a better description of what it has meant for us at Life and Legacy Advisory Group. Since our launch in 2005, Daylite feels like it has been part of our team as we continue to grow in our mission of providing our clients with the guidance and peace of mind to LIVE FOR TODAY. PLAN FOR TOMORROW.“

Today, not only does Daylite empower Life and Legacy Advisory Group to scale, but Daylite also helps Aria Benefits, a sister company that Al McDonald and his partners Robin Bailey and Joe Ferrera also founded to help businesses customize employee benefits programs that enhance people’s lives. Click here to learn more about how Daylite helped Aria Benefits overcome the pandemic with a 20% annual growth rate.

Hit play on the video below to watch Al McDonald’s interview with our CEO Alykhan Jetha and host Cyndi Edwards, where he talked about his entrepreneurial journey and all the ways he and his team get the most out of Daylite:

The post Financial Planner Al McDonald Depends on Mac-based Daylite CRM & Productivity App to help his Clients “Live for Today and Plan for Tomorrow” appeared first on Marketcircle Blog.

We’re always looking forward to the latest macOS updates, so we can ensure that Daylite is ready to offer you and your team the best of each update from day one. With that in mind, we’re happy to announce that Daylite version 2022.42 fully supports macOS Ventura.

As such, if you want to upgrade your macOS, you can do so with the confidence that you’ll be able to keep using your favourite Daylite features, including the Opportunities Board and Daylite Mail Assistant, as they will continue to work smoothly on macOS Ventura.

macOS Ventura is a significant enhancement that introduces an elevated multitasking experience, thanks to features like Stage Manager, new functions in Facetime, and more exciting updates across the platform.

Staying up to date with the latest macOS gives you Apple’s newest features as well as important security updates. As a friendly reminder, Daylite requires macOS 11 and iOS & iPadOS 15 or newer to operate. We encourage all customers to update their Apple devices to the latest version they can support.

Bookmark our Compatibility page if you’d like to stay up-to-date with the latest news and progress on our compatibility status for Daylite.

The post Daylite’s Newest Version Supports macOS Ventura appeared first on Marketcircle Blog.

As a small business, you know that success is not always easy to come by. Between competing with big businesses and maintaining a tight budget, there are plenty of obstacles in your way. But with the right tips and advice, you can set your business up for success. 

New business owners face quite bleak statistics. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 18.4% of businesses in the U.S. fail within the first year, while 49.7% close after five years. But that doesn’t mean you should give up on your dreams of owning a successful small business.

If you seek small business success and are determined to make your business thrive, there are things you can do to increase your chances of success. We’ve compiled a list of 11 tips to increase your small business’ success.

1. Provide Exceptional Value

It is impossible for small businesses to survive without a customer base; therefore, you must provide exceptional service to keep your customers coming back. It’s estimated that acquiring a new customer costs 5 times as much as it does to keep the same customer coming back. Hence, small businesses must provide value if they want to succeed.

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Why is it essential?

• Helps you stand out from the competition: There are a lot of businesses out there calling for attention. If you want yours to stand out, you need to offer something that the others don’t.
• Builds customer loyalty: If you provide your customers with a great experience, they are likely to come back for more.
• Increases word-of-mouth marketing: Happy customers are often willing to tell others about their positive experiences, which will increase your organic sales. 

Customer loyalty is not only earned through the product or service provided, but also by the value provided. Retaining existing customers has been shown to boost profits by 25%.

2. Research Your Target Market

Every successful business needs to have a firm understanding of its target market. It’s no wonder that most small business owners attribute their failure to a lack of understanding of their target market.

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Why is it essential?

• Helps to identify target market: By conducting research, you can learn about the demographics of your potential customers and what they are looking for in a product or service.
• Gives a better idea about competition: Research also enables you to better understand your competition and how you can position your business.
• Helps with funding: Investors or lenders often require research before providing funding.

Creating a small business without any idea who your target market is is like constructing a house without a solid foundation. It’s not setting your business up for success. Business planning is essential in order to thrive with your own business – and researching your target market is one of the most important parts of it.

3. Invest in the Right Business Tools

Investing in the right business tools will help you simplify daunting tasks, like deal management, sales processes, and team collaboration. When you have the right tools, you can increase efficiency while focusing on revenue-generating activities.

As a small business owner, your budget is often tight. Instead of saving money by skimping on business tools, invest in a tool that handles all the necessary aspects of your business, which will end up saving you money.

That’s where tools like Daylite come in. Daylite is an award-winning CRM and productivity business app that empowers small businesses to get more done throughout the full customer lifecycle. Daylite is a native app built exclusively for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. From meeting prospects and taking control of your sales to managing the moving pieces of projects, all the way through to winning more repeated business, it’s all done in Daylite. 

“Daylite ramped up our capacity. It took us from being able to manage 50 projects to 250 projects with a similar staff size.” Jeremy Picker, AMB3R Creative

Why is it essential?

• Saves time and money: Investing in the right tools allows you to automate tasks that would otherwise take up valuable time.
• Helps to be more productive: Using the right tools allows you to be more productive, and spend your time on the things that grow your business. 
• Improves your business decisions : Right tools help you access data you can use to make better business decisions.

4. Keep Your Overhead Costs Low

As a small business owner, it’s important to keep your overhead costs low. It’s desirable for a well-performing business to have an overhead rate of not more than 35% of total revenue. Therefore, it’s important to find ways to reduce expenses. High overhead costs can eat into your profits and make it difficult to keep your business afloat.

Why is it essential?

• Maintains profitability: It is imperative to keep overhead low to keep the company profitable as well as allow it to grow.
• Gives more flexibility: Keeping overhead costs low gives you more flexibility in the way you run and do business.
• Increases your business’s growth: By keeping your overhead costs low, you’re able to reinvest more money back into your business and grow faster.

Additionally, by keeping your overhead costs low, you will be able to offer lower prices to your customers, which will help you to attract more business. In order to keep your overhead costs low, you need to be proactive and constantly monitor your expenses.

5. Stay Up-To-Date with Industry Trends

As a business owner, it is important to stay up to date with industry trends. By analyzing market trends, you can determine which products or services are in demand and adjust your business accordingly. It can also help you keep an eye on your competition and make sure you are offering the best possible product or service. Additionally, staying up to date with industry trends can help you identify opportunities for new business ventures.

Why is it essential?

• Helps to beat the competition: Keeping up with industry trends is essential for staying ahead of the competition. 
• Develops business strategies: If you’re not up-to-date on the latest trends, you’re at a disadvantage when it comes to making strategic decisions for your business. 
• Utilizes upcoming trends: Staying informed about industry trends allows you to capitalize on new opportunities and stay ahead of the curve.

Being aware of new “growing trends” within your industry can lead to learning new strategies, tools, and taking part in different events. These things will allow you to change and adapt your business strategies and models in order to bring new customers through your door.

6. Hire the Right Employees and Invest in Them

Employees are the fundamental structure of any business. This is why it’s so important to hire the right people for your business. Having the right staff ensures your business will grow, leading to your overall success, as well as reducing your requirements for further hiring as your company grows.

Why is it essential?

• Increases your business’s growth: The right employees will help your business to grow. They will be dedicated to their work and will be willing to go the extra mile to help your business succeed.
• Promotes a positive work environment: The right employees will also help to create a positive work environment. They will be friendly and easy to work with, and they will help to create a positive culture within your company.
• Improves productivity and saves money: Investing in the right employees will pay off in the long run. They will be more productive and more likely to stick with your company for the long haul. This will save you money in the long run, as you won’t have to constantly train new employees.

Hiring the wrong employee can be a major hiccup in a business and can end up costing you more than just your time and money. 

Statistics by Haiilo show that 69% of employees state that they would work harder if they felt more appreciated in their jobs. When you invest in employees, it makes them feel more appreciated and gives them everything they need to succeed. 

7. Have a Strong Online Presence

In today’s digital age, it’s more important than ever for small business owners to have a strong online presence. A recent study found that nearly 28% of small businesses don’t have a website, and of those that do, many are outdated or poorly designed. This can significantly impact their ability to reach new customers and grow their business.

Why is it essential?

• Increases visibility: With so much competition out there, it can be difficult for small businesses to get noticed. Having a strong online presence helps to increase your visibility and get your name out there.
• Gives greater reach: A website or social media account allows you to reach a much wider audience than you would be able to through traditional marketing methods.
• Enhances customer engagement: An online presence gives you more opportunities to interact with your customers and build relationships with them. You can also use your online platform to collect feedback and help improve your products and services.

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8. Encourage Customer Feedback

By collecting and incorporating client feedback, you can gain valuable insights into what your customers want. This can help you make changes to your product or service offerings, as well as improve your marketing and customer service strategies.

Why is it essential?

• Identifies areas for improvement: Feedback provides valuable insights into what customers think of your products or services. It can also help you identify weaknesses or areas you need to improve.
• Increases customer confidence: Customer feedback can help build trust and confidence in your brand.
• Develops loyal customers: Encouraging customer feedback can help you create a stronger customer base by showing that you’re interested in their opinions and willing to make changes based on their feedback.

Research shows that 34% of consumers are less likely to do business with a company after just one negative experience, demonstrating the value of customer feedback and improving from it. 

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9. Set Goals and Have a Plan for Success

Setting goals and having a plan for business success is essential for any small business owner who wants to be successful. Without a clear destination, it is all too easy to get lost along the way or to make decisions that take the business in the wrong direction.

Why is it essential?

• Helps you reach business goals: Having a solid business plan helps clarify the goals of a small business. What does the business want to achieve? What are the key milestones that need to be reached? Without a clear plan, it can be difficult to set and achieve meaningful goals.
• Provides a roadmap for success: A plan provides a roadmap for success. It can be difficult to know what steps need to be taken to reach objectives. A plan can help to map out the steps that need to be taken, as well as provide guidance on how to deal with obstacles along the way.
• Tracks progress: Goals help track progress and identify areas of improvement. Without goals in place, it can be difficult to tell if a small business is making progress.
  
  

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In contrast, businesses that have a written plan are more likely to succeed, as they have a roadmap to follow and are more likely to receive funding from investors. 

10. Be Patient and Don’t Get Discouraged

All businesses start out small, and it takes time to grow and build a customer base. A lot of new business owners get discouraged when they don’t see immediate results, but it’s important to be patient and keep working hard. Once you’ve established yourself and built a good reputation, word-of-mouth will spread and your business will prosper.

Why is it essential?

• “Strengthens your patience:” Rome wasn’t built in a day. It takes time to build a successful business and rushing things is likely to lead to mistakes being made.
• Patience is a virtue: Staying calm and collected during difficult times is essential for making smart decisions and moving forward.
• Helps to stay focused: The most successful businesses are those that have faced challenges and persevered. Giving up at the first signs of trouble will only result in failure.

Of course, being patient doesn’t mean you should just sit back and wait for customers to come to you. You need to actively market your business and work hard to find new ways to reach potential customers. But as long as you keep working towards your goals, you will eventually see the results you’re looking for.

11. Be Willing to Adapt and Change

Being a small business owner requires a lot of flexibility and adaptability. After all, the landscape of business is constantly changing, and those who are unwilling to change with it are likely to find themselves struggling to keep up. 

However, being willing to adapt and change can give you a major advantage. By being open to new ideas and ways of doing things, small businesses can quickly adapt to changes in their environment.

Why is it essential?

• Things evolve constantly: The marketplace is constantly evolving. What works today may not work tomorrow, so it’s important to be able to change with the times.
• New business opportunities: Being open to change allows you to take advantage of new opportunities as they arise. If you’re stuck in your ways, you’ll miss out on potential partnerships, new markets, and other growth opportunities.
• A changing customer base: Customer tastes and preferences are always changing. If you’re not willing to change your product or service offering, you risk losing customers to your competition.

It is evident that any small business owner who wants to be successful must be able to adapt and change. 

Moreover, it is important to not only be open to change but also proactive about it. Those who are able to anticipate industry trends and adjust their businesses accordingly are likely to find themselves ahead of the competition. 

Conclusion

Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy, a SBA report concluded that small businesses create up to 44% of all US economic activity. It is possible for you to be successful in your own small business endeavors with hard work and determination.

For small businesses, acquiring new business often means juggling multiple priorities at the same time, as each deal has its own time frame and different client requirements. That’s why you need a tool like Daylite Opportunity Board that will help better manage your sales pipeline, so you’re making the most of every sales opportunity that comes your way.

The post 11 Tips for Small Business Success appeared first on Marketcircle Blog.

As a lawyer or the owner of a law firm, you need to invest in marketing strategies to win more clients and grow your law firm. You can rely on the common forms of marketing, or you can choose to stand out from the rest with compelling video marketing strategies. 

Video marketing for lawyers means creating informative and relevant videos for your target audience. You can create different types of videos to draw traffic to your business. However, your videos can only help your firm grow if done correctly. 

Here are a few tips to help you leverage video marketing for your law firm.

1. Create Video Series 

One of the best ways to engage your target audience is by using video series. This entails tackling different relevant topics in a series of videos. For instance, if you run a family law firm, you can create a series on the different aspects of family law. You can have a video series on the different steps in a child custody case to prepare your clients, for example. 

Here’s an example of part of a video series by White & Case LLP on LinkedIn. In the videos, the firm discusses diversity and inclusivity in the workplace:

Here’s another video that belongs to the same series, this time on inclusivity: 

Around 86% of businesses use video content as part of their marketing strategy. This statistic shows you how much you need to create compelling video series for your law firm. 

Send your video series to the prospective clients on your email list or post them on your social media pages. You must be consistent with the quality of videos and the intervals at which you send them. Your clients need to know they can rely on you for timely and informative content with solutions to their problems. 

Before sending your videos to the clients on your email list, ensure the videos are high quality. The voice should be clear with no background noises, and the video should be shot in well-lit spaces. These are some of the small things that will make your prospective clients watch your videos to the end. 

2. Produce Individual Videos that Provide Value

Video series aren’t the only types of video content you can churn out. You can produce individual videos, too. However, video marketing for lawyers can only work for you if you understand the kind of content your target audience needs and deliver according to their expectations. 

As such, your individual videos should answer your prospective clients’ questions or feed them with information that will benefit them. 

You can create educational videos to enlighten your audience on what they should do if they are in legal problems. 

Here’s an example of a value-laced video from Kilpatrick Townsend. The firm specializes in business law. In this video, the firm discusses design patents. 

As an example, if you run a personal injury firm, you can create an educational video explaining what a person should do after an accident. Ensure you only provide factual information in your individual videos so you don’t mislead your audience. 

To determine what content your audience is looking for, you can run polls on your website or social media channels. You can also ask your team to identify the most common questions asked by clients and base your video content on answering those questions. 

Do your research well before recording a video for your law firm. Your audience relies on the information you provide to make legal decisions. Be conversant with the laws in your practice area to create correct and informative content for your audience. 

Remember to insert a call to action (CTA) at the end of each video. With a compelling CTA, you’ll likely get more clients from the videos you post on your website. 

3. Share Videos on Multiple Social Platforms

Video marketing for lawyers has become an increasingly popular marketing strategy. However, posting videos on your website alone won’t get you the clients you need. Instead, post the video on other social platforms linked to your business. 

You can use Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

You can also use podcasting sites to increase your video marketing reach. You can either post the videos as a podcast or speak as a guest on a podcast. 

There’s no limit to the kind of video content you can post on these platforms as long as it’s relevant to your business. You can post video ads for your firm to get clients on Facebook and LinkedIn. You can also post video testimonials to build credibility and authority for your business. 

Here’s an example of a video post on LinkedIn by Lisa M. Cukier. Lisa is a family law attorney. 

Social media channels are a SaaS marketing goldmine if you can leverage them to your advantage. For instance, you can post client testimonials, case studies, and informative videos on your firm’s Facebook page. If your potential clients like the video content you post, they’ll likely come to you for legal services in the future. 

According to VocalVideo, 78% of businesses realize 100% ROI or more on their investment in testimonial videos. This is because more people trust testimonials from other human beings than other marketing strategies. You can share the video testimonials on social media platforms to earn more clients. Leverage your digital presence as a marketing tool to reach a wider audience. 

4. Optimize Video Content

Google indexes YouTube videos and ranks them according to their SEO compliance. This means that if you create vague videos, they won’t gain the organic traffic you need to grow your law practice. 

Video marketers understand the importance of using SEO in their videos to reach their target clients and widen their client base. This could be what sets you apart from your competitors. 

Some of the SEO video marketing tips you could use to improve your search rankings include:

• Inserting the keyword or keyword phrase in the title of your video
• Using the keywords or keyword phrases in the video transcript 
• Using the keyword naturally in the description
• Using relevant video tags that reflect the video content

Here’s an example of a video by Teri Herron Law, a divorce attorney. The keywords here are manipulation tactics and divorce. 

You can also structure the topics of your videos in question form to increase engagement in your videos. You will create a personal connection with your audience by asking them questions and responding to the questions they ask after watching your videos. 

5. Monitor Your Performance 

If you want to earn clients from video marketing, you must monitor and track the performance of the content you post. This helps you understand which videos work for your brand-building efforts, those that need improvement, and those you should stay away from. 

Google Analytics is a free tool to monitor your videos’ performance on your website. The tool can show your users’ locations (to see if you’re reaching your location-specific audience), redirecting sites, viewer durations, and more. 

Most social media tools have analytic tools that you can also use to monitor the performance of your video content. For instance, Facebook has Facebook analytics which helps you see how many people viewed your videos, the viewer duration, and the viewer engagement, etc. 

When monitoring your performance, you’ll also see what search terms drive more traffic to your content. You can use these terms more frequently on your videos to increase organic traffic. 

You can also use analytics tools to check the number of likes, shares, and comments your videos earn. The engagement levels on your posts help you understand if you’re reaching your target audience. You can use the statistics from these posts to improve your video marketing strategies. 

Wrapping Up 

The legal industry is embracing the concept of digital marketing to grow law firms. While most law firms use blogs as part of their digital marketing strategies, you can stand out by incorporating video marketing. 

You need to create a video series and value-laced individual videos that are SEO-optimized to rank on Google. You must also share the videos on your social platforms, such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Monitor the performance of your content so you can continually improve your marketing strategies. 

If you follow the tips in this article, you’ll leverage video marketing and grow your business. 

About the author: Nico Prins is the founder of Crunch Marketing. The company works with enterprise SaaS clients, helping them scale lead generation globally across EMEA, APAC, and other regions.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Video Marketing For Lawyers  appeared first on Marketcircle Blog.

The opposite of that, Might is Right, Alpha, Pack Leader, Dominant (Yank and Crank) was also not how higher-order social species helped their youngsters develop life skills. John’s first mentor was experienced in training police dogs, which gave him a unique opportunity to develop his interest in the dog training world, while gathering the research and experience he needed to develop a more evolved method of training.

John Wade, aka “Ask the Dog Guy”, developed the “Fully Balanced Dog”, a unique method of training that has helped thousands of dogs and dog owners be the best they can be.

A Renowned Dog Trainer

Over the past 30+ years, John has crafted the Fully Balanced Dog Training technique, which has helped thousands of dogs and dog owners be the best they can be. In addition to training dogs for movies and television, he conducts seminars and has written books about dog training. John also runs the website AsktheDogGuy.com and hosts his own “pawdcast” on Youtube, called “Ask the Dog Guy”. 

As a proficient dog trainer, besides an extensive knowledge in canine training, John also needs to remember every little detail about his clients and their dogs and follow through with his commitments. Daylite, the Mac-based CRM and productivity app had the ideal features to enable him to build stronger relationships and trust with his clients.

To remember every detail about his clients and their dogs, John Wade relies on Daylite to help him follow through with his commitments and become a reference in the dog training world.

The main value of Daylite is that it helps small businesses manage more clients, close more deals, and finish more projects. Daylite helps teams share information, next steps, and details to keep everyone in the loop. This means instead of information silos, your teams can collaborate and get the context they need to respond and push deals, projects, or next steps with clients forward without wasted time or interruptions.

Daylite Drives Referral Businesses

Daylite plays a fundamental role in John’s business from the first contact he has with a client, to when they leave him a 5-star review and refer his services to friends and family.

“I’m the most referred trainer by past clients and veterinarians in my region. It may be impolitic to say, but one of the most common things I hear when someone contacts me about training is how few trainers return calls and how poor the follow-up process was that they ended up booking the training elsewhere. I have found that what other trainers find very difficult to organize is pretty close to effortless because I’ve incorporated Daylite into creating responses to inquiries and post-appointment follow-ups.”

John credits Daylite for helping him easily keep track of his clients communication, tasks and appointments. For example, when a dog owner gets in touch to schedule an appointment, he looks at his  Daylite Calendar to confirm availability. To ensure nothing slips through the cracks, each morning he goes to Daylite to knock off his daily To-Do’s that are set up in his worklist, such as checking his Youtube channel, website, and other social media to see if comments need to be approved or replied to. 

An example of the Daylite Home screen to stay on track with daily and upcoming tasks and appointments and make sure nothing slips through the cracks.

Daylite Is a Time Saver

“I love the way Daylite integrates with Apple Mail. It’s very easy to review a client’s history,” said John. Daylite Mail Assistant integrates seamlessly with Apple Mail, allowing John to take inquiries and record all the client’s details in just a few clicks. He first replies to inquiries with an informative email that also reduces time on the phone and to screen/qualify clients. If they reply, he creates a record by adding them to Daylite through Daylite Mail Assistant. He then creates a 24-hour follow-up Activity Set in Daylite, which he credits for a large increase in bookings. 

Daylite Mail Assistant allows you to take action from emails right from the inbox.

“When clients book with me, they do so online using a calendar service I subscribe to (another enormous time saver). I even automated this service using Zapier, which automatically exports all of the client’s necessary information into Daylite. Then, it sends me a notice that a new booking has occurred.” After that, John implements another Activity Set for all of his post-booking/pre-appointment tasks.

Since most of John’s work is done virtually, he spends part of his time reviewing progress videos that clients send him. “Before watching the client’s video(s) and creating a response tutorial, I have to review all correspondence sent by email and text. All the emails have been snatched by Daylite mail and added to the client’s record. This saves me a ton of time. I review that information as it often has additional questions and comments that need addressing in the response tutorial.”

Before preparing a training tutorial or client response, John Wade checks the client’s record and communications, such as emails, notes and mail attachments in Daylite.

No Client Is Left Behind Thanks to Daylite’s Activity Sets 

“The Activity Sets are another godsend,” said John. “When a client books a meeting, I trigger the Activity Set as a to-do list before the appointment. I export their information and their dog’s details to my Ninox database, so that I have everything to refer to post-appointment.”

Daylite integrates with Zoom through a plug-in by iOSXpert, which lets John know which virtual client sessions are scheduled, and provides the client’s email and text information so he can send them the Zoom link. 

Daylite also provides post-appointment follow-up guidance. Each client has 1-week/2-week/3-week/4-week follow-up emails that need to be sent. All of these appear in the Activity Sets. “One of the Activity Sets adds immediate tasks right after the appointment, and another is for the following day. I split up the immediate follow-up, so the client is less overwhelmed. It also includes reminding me to send the invoice.” 

In addition to ensuring the client is satisfied, there are also reminders to ask for a Google Review. This has helped John amass over a hundred five-star reviews. 

An example of how Daylite Activity Sets automatically create periodic follow-ups with clients and leads.

Daylite Empowers Growth for Over 30 Years in Dog Training

John praises Daylite’s user-friendly and easy-to-use application that allows him to sustain his dog training and lecture business for over 30 years. “I think the surface benefits don’t require the most sophisticated users, and most would find those very beneficial. The more in-depth features are more a matter of discovering rather than being difficult to implement. Daylite has a ton of resources for people to explore those features.”

John’s goal is to reach as many people as possible and convey to them that there are better, more natural approaches to training companion dogs that don’t involve treats or the aforementioned polar opposite dominance techniques. He has a five-year plan to accomplish this goal and has the tools and know-how to do it. 

Watch the video to discover how Daylite has helped John Wade in his journey toward becoming a true reference in the dog-training world, his favourite Daylite features and much more:

The post Dog Training Expert Uses Mac-Based Daylite to Build Relationships With Clients and Scale His Business  appeared first on Marketcircle Blog.

Introducing the Daylite Opportunities Board, a new enhancement in Opportunities that will increase teamwork and let your sales soar.

Introducing Daylite Opportunities Board

The Opportunities Board lets you visually track how many open Opportunities are in your sales pipeline and see where each Opportunity is in the process, allowing you to nurture the most important or valuable ones.

In the Daylite sidebar under the Objectives section, you’ll find a new item called Opportunities Board. This board is directly connected to your Pipelines and shows the stages of the selected pipelines as columns, with cards for each opportunity.

Now, you can drag and drop your opportunities to move them from one stage to another. You can also easily classify them as “won” or “lost” by dragging them to the respective states at the bottom, which allows you and your team to stay focused on the active deals in the pipeline.

The at-a-glance view lets you see all your opportunities at once, so you can identify any areas of concern, such as deals that are stuck at a particular stage, so you and your team can focus on moving them along.

Visually Track and Prioritize Your Deals

Get an overview of the actual and expected values within every stage of your pipeline based on forecasted dates, create dates, categories, owners or types. At the top of the Board, you will see the total count and total value of all the opportunities in the selected pipeline, so you can get a sense of whether you’re on track or behind your sales target. You can then sort in various ways, including by next activity, forecasted close date, probability, days in stage, and more, to get different perspectives that allow you to spotlight the most valuable or urgent deals first.

Daylite Opportunities Board gives you a powerful overview of your sales pipelines, allowing you to spotlight the most valuable or urgent deals first.

Master Your Sales Process

Having a structured process gives your team a roadmap to success. Daylite allows you to customize the pipeline stages to best fit your business and your team, from building a sales process to onboarding new team members. With the Daylite Opportunities Board, you can trust your team to follow the correct steps for every opportunity, from the initial reach out to closed deal. Having clear and defined steps help you keep things from falling through the cracks, empowering your team to close more deals in record time.

The Opportunities Board empowers your team to follow the right steps for every opportunity, from the initial contact to closed deal.

Boost Team Collaboration and Celebrate Team Success

Daylite Opportunities Board gives you a clear view to oversee your team’s effort and impact on your business. You can visually track how many deals each team member is working on and the status of each. Filter down by owner and sort by next activity, total value and more, to have a concrete view of the pipeline and identify where you should focus your team’s time and energy to drive higher returns. If you see that a team member’s opportunities are not progressing as expected, you can offer them the support they need and work together to move the opportunities forward.

As the Opportunities Board is accessible to your entire team, everyone can work with more transparency, owning the responsibility of hitting their targets and celebrating won deals. This creates an environment that fosters team collaboration and saves time on status update meetings, so your team can focus on winning deals.

Wrapping Up

At Daylite, we made it our mission to empower small businesses to collaborate better and close more deals. That’s why we designed our product with the small business in mind. And now, we have made it even easier for you to convert more leads into paying clients, speeding up your sales cycle.

The Opportunities Board in Daylite is an exciting new way for you and your team to close more deals by:

• Streamlining the process for tracking Opportunities
• Getting an overview of where each Opportunity is at in the pipeline
• Getting an overview of your team’s activity vs results
• Keeping track of the next steps for Opportunities to move them forward through the pipeline
• Prioritizing the most valuable or urgent Opportunities first

Opportunities Board is available in Daylite version 2022.32 or later for macOS 12 Monterey or later. Follow this Learn Article to learn how to take advantage of this new feature now.

Staying up to date with the latest macOS gives you Apple’s newest features and important security updates. As a friendly reminder, Daylite requires macOS 10.15.4 and iOS 14.0 or later to operate. We encourage you to update to the latest version your Apple devices can support.

To learn more about how Daylite helps small businesses take control of sales, visit our close more deals page.

Join thousands of Mac-based small businesses in 80+ countries to grow efficiently. Try Daylite for free!

The post Take Control of Your Sales With Daylite Opportunities Board appeared first on Marketcircle Blog.

In this very spontaneous talk, AJ shared a glimpse of his journey from Congo to Canada as a refugee and how he became a successful entrepreneur and founder of Marketcircle and Daylite – an award-winning CRM and productivity app used and loved by thousands of small businesses worldwide.

As the founder and CEO of Marketcircle for over 22 years, AJ mentioned the following common mistakes that startup entrepreneurs should avoid: having the wrong people in the wrong roles, not knowing how to manage cash flow, and having team members whose core values differ from the company’s. In addition, AJ reflects on how it is very easy to lose faith in yourself in a fast-paced startup setting, but hard work and learning from mistakes are essential steps in your entrepreneurial journey. 

As a bootstrapper himself, AJ also takes this opportunity to offer advice to startup founders and business owners who are considering bootstrapping. He explains that it all depends on your experience level because investors and Venture Capitalists will often invest expecting a certain outcome in a pre-established time. When you’re experienced and know how things work in a startup setting – such as financial statements and what kind of people you want to hire – it’s easier to measure such parameters and meet the investors’ outcome expectations.

This meaningful and insightful conversation provides valuable insights into AJ’s path to fulfilling a life-long goal: helping small businesses and entrepreneurs grow efficiently, which he does through the award-winning CRM and productivity app Daylite. We highly recommend this episode of The Brand Called You Podcast if you’re looking for a motivation boost. 

The post The Brand Called You Podcast Featuring Our CEO Alykhan Jetha appeared first on Marketcircle Blog.

Converting these leads is what brokers are struggling with. The National Association of Realtors has over 1.50 million active members. To stay ahead of the curve, you must develop a sound lead conversion and management strategy. In this guide, we’ll take a deep look at the reasons why you may not be converting more leads and how you can remedy this.

Why Are You Failing To Convert? 

First, you need to figure out where you’re going wrong. Your lead management strategy may seem sound, but you might not be covering all your bases. This section will explore possible reasons behind your low conversion rates.

Sluggish Follow-Ups

Whether you’re harvesting prospects from lead forms on property portals, your website, or online ads, you must put in the work to convert these leads.  

With the efficiency and speed at which services are delivered these days, a hot lead can become cold if your team takes too long to reply to inquiries. When a lead contacts you through email or fills in a lead capture form, they expect an immediate response.

Your team should be contacting prospects and leads as soon as you’re notified of their interest. It’s no secret that technology has left many of us impatient. If potential home buyers are forced to wait too long for a follow-up, they are more likely to move on to a more responsive alternative. Sluggish follow-ups can be highly detrimental to your lead conversion rates. 

Daylite is an example of a software that centralizes communication between real estate agents and buyers, appointment scheduling, and listings. Learn more here.           

Subpar Lead Nurturing

In marketing, a sales or lead funnel describes a potential buyer’s conversion journey before becoming a guaranteed client. Leads are seldom handled by a single agent; they’re systematically guided from channel to channel and agent to agent. Thus, real estate agents shouldn’t be managing the entire lead funnel process themselves – even with the assistance of AI and other software-based tools.

On the other hand, you may have systems in place to handle your lead and customer pipeline, but they may not be optimal. If all the disparate pieces in your funnel system fail to click the way they should, it can result in poor lead conversion. You must ensure prospects transition through your lead or customer pipeline as smoothly as possible. 

Failing To Personalize Follow-Ups

Realtors now have access to various lead generation channels and tools. However, these solutions have come with some downsides. Our continued emergence into digital media and the internet has resulted in increased cases of depersonalization. It’s easy to get lost and forget that there are actual people behind the words and numbers representing your leads.

And, of course, people are different. They have different tastes, payment preferences, communication preferences, goals, incomes, and so on. In regards to communication, some customers prefer to communicate via email, while others will prefer direct phone calls or text messaging. In regards to transferring payments, some customers may prefer to pay via bank transfer, credit card, or even via crypto, which would necessitate having a place to receive and store crypto payments on your end. 

Consequently, you cannot apply a singular approach to your lead follow-up strategy and expect positive outcomes across the board. Your approach should be tailored to each potential client.   

Failing To Prioritize Leads

According to the NAR’s 2022 Home Buyers and Generational Report, only 7% of all home buyers discovered real estate agents through online property views. 47% were referred to by a neighbor, friend, or relative, while 13% used an agent from a previous purchase or sale. 

However, we should not misunderstand this data. It does not imply or prove the inefficacy of online lead generation. It only shows us that leads are more likely to convert if they’re referred to by a trusted source.

Thus, you should not prioritize leads discovered through digital channels over leads that may have been referred to you by word of mouth. Your repeat or past clients should be at the top of your priority list as they’re more likely to become actual buyers or sellers.        

Addressing Poor Conversion Rates With an Optimized Lead Management Strategy

As you may have gleaned from the previous section, a substandard approach to following up with leads is at the center of poor conversion rates. The quality of your follow-up will determine how quickly you can nurture and convert leads. Therefore, your lead management strategy should focus on enhancing it both directly and indirectly. Your cash flow projections and success as a realtor depend on it.

So what are some methods you can use to build a more effective lead management strategy?

Create More Detailed Lead Forms

It’s crucial  to learn as much as possible from a lead before engaging with them personally. One way to do this is by implementing more detailed lead forms. 

Your lead forms should quiz leads on their preferences, professions, age, income, tastes (city vs. suburbs, houses vs. condos, etc), goals, etc. You can make some of these fields optional, as some prospects may be too impatient to complete the entire form, especially in one sitting. 

Additionally, you should have a system that observes and records how your lead interacts with your website. You must track which properties they view, their search history, etc. It would be even easier to accomplish this by allowing leads to create user profiles to log in to and use your website’s services. As you’re doing this, you must comply with local and international data and privacy regulations such as the GDPR. Again, the point here is to learn as much as possible about your leads.

Improve Your Response Times

Most prospective buyers and sellers expect same-day or even same-hour responses. However, the tempo of your follow-ups may be slow due to the sheer unmanageable volume of daily calls and messages you receive. You and your team may not be equipped to respond to all these queries.

This problem can be partially remedied by implementing a comprehensive automated response system. It would be best to use a system that can personalize responses based on the source of the inquiry.

For instance, if an inquiry is received through a lead form, your automated response system should be able to formulate a coherent reply based on the information provided on the lead form. If your prospect prefers to be contacted by a text message (SMS), your response system should be able to prioritize this channel.

There are a wide variety of AI-powered tools that offer these facilities. You can integrate chatbots into your website, social media, and direct messaging accounts. Your business should also maintain a reliable phone system despite Gen Y and Z’s collective aversion to telephone communication.

Some things are better said than written, and some leads may find a human voice more reassuring than a digital letter. Make sure that your phone system includes rollover lines with interactive voice responses.

Finally, your automatic response system should be able to initiate consistent multi-touch responses. Often, it isn’t enough to send a single response to queries. Because it may take a while to respond to inquiries personally, your automatic response system should feature multi-touch functionality. It must be capable of sending leads daily or bi-weekly messages with helpful information.

Prioritize Your Leads and Schedule Your Follow Ups 

Your automated response system is only a small part of a larger lead management strategy. It is there to prevent hot leads from cooling off. Additionally, it can provide potential clients with critical information and help them schedule meetings with your team.

Nevertheless, you’ll need an automated lead scheduling and prioritization system in addition to your automated response solution. It should ideally feature a record-keeping function that registers all your client and lead interactions. 

When leads use your automated response system to make inquiries or schedule a meeting, your digital appointment book, calendar, and to-do list should be updated too.  

Thus, your automated response system must be capable of interfacing or integrating with your automated scheduling software. Some customer relationship management (CRM) tools bundle these features together. In fact, some solutions can even connect to your business bank accounts, allowing you to streamline your entire sales pipeline from lead acquisition up to invoicing/billing.   

For instance, Daylite, a Mac-based CRM app, offers a host of comprehensive contact management and project management functions. It provides real estate agents with a centralized platform to manage and synchronize their Apple mails, calendars, contacts, and lead-related notes. Furthermore, you can match Daylite with workflow automation solutions such as Zapier to enhance its sync capabilities. 

Regardless, real estate agents should continually reassess their lead scheduling and prioritization process. Your lead management system should instantly capture and organize all incoming leads. The more efficient it is, the quicker and more effective your sales pipelines will bel.   

Putting It All Together

So how should your lead management strategy look? Here’s a step-by-step outline for your potential lead management system: 

1. Implement detailed lead forms (and wait).
2. Auto-respond to leads who have made an inquiry.
3. File, categorize, and schedule follow-ups with the leads – this process includes assigning leads to appropriate team members.
4. Continue to nurture leads through consistent multi-touch contact.

Again, your team should continuously reassess your lead funnel’s performance – aim for perpetual refinement. Set aside time (weekly or monthly) to review your lead management strategy. Additionally, you should constantly be researching ways to optimize it even further. 

Wrap Up

Much of the realtor’s time and energy is dedicated to prospecting and following up on leads. Of course, modern technology has made both these processes far easier; however, realtors should not be lulled into a false state of assurance.

You still have to work to convert those leads into clients. Conversion primarily hinges on how well you follow up and not just how quickly you respond but how effectively you communicate with prospects. Thus, you shouldn’t neglect your business’ tone of voice and the importance of the human element in real estate. Developing a well-formulated and holistic strategy will go a long way in improving your client acquisition.  

About the author: Nahla Davies is a software developer and tech writer. Before devoting her work full time to technical writing, she managed – among other intriguing things – to serve as a lead programmer at an Inc. 5,000 experiential branding organization whose clients include Samsung, Time Warner, Netflix, and Sony.

The post How To Convert More in Real Estate With a Sound Lead Management Strategy appeared first on Marketcircle Blog.

In this episode of the Best People: Best Place podcast featuring our CEO Alykhan Jetha (AJ) and hosted by Matt Granados, President and Co-Founder of LifePulse Inc, you will find out how Marketcircle created an environment where people love to work and AJ’s key learnings from growing the company and the team for over 22 years – all while going over and highlighting the results of Marketcircle’s latest employee survey.

Best People: Best Place is a space to discuss what the best places to work have in common and what managers need to know to manage successful teams. During this insightful conversation, Matt and AJ talked about how technology has evolved since Marketcircle started in 1999, how Marketcircle grew from a small team to 50+ employees and the challenges of managing growing teams. AJ explains that the key learning is slicing the goals into small accomplishable pieces and providing employees with the autonomy and tools they need to do their best job. 

When asked about how AJ found the balance between allowing people to fail and the ability to critique and correct in the same environment, AJ explains that “balance” is the keyword and that he aims to put in perspective the goal a team member is trying to achieve and the effort they made to get there, and that’s how Marketcircle offers room to fail and space for employees to learn from mistakes. 

AJ also takes the opportunity to highlight how efficient communication and team building are crucial, especially in remote teams and how it reflects on Marketcircle’s core values of teamwork, Kaizen, ownership, creativity and empathy. 

Don’t miss out on this episode of the Best People: Best Place Podcast if you want to know more about AJ’s journey as the CEO of Marketcircle, creators of Daylite. And if you feel inspired and would like to be part of our growing team, check out our open positions and join us!

The post Best People: Best Place Episode 14 With Alykhan Jetha, President & CEO at Marketcircle appeared first on Marketcircle Blog.