Monday 25 June 2018
Wednesday 20 June 2018
Sprout Social’s Justyn Howard Named a Glassdoor Top CEO for Second Year in a Row
We’re proud to announce that Sprout Social founder and CEO, Justyn Howard, has been recognized as a Glassdoor Top CEO for U.S. companies with 1,000 employees or less in 2018. This is the second year in a row that Glassdoor has named Justyn to the list and it is especially exciting as the honor is based entirely on reviews from Sprout employees, who awarded him a 99% approval rating.
Justyn is a leader whose vision not only drives the growth of our business, but also inspires our team to do and be better each day. He is committed to a culture of openness and has worked tirelessly alongside our executives to create a workplace where team members are empowered to share their ideas, work collaboratively and embrace the diverse qualities and characteristics that make each employee unique. This has helped Sprout to maintain a close-knit, yet scalable culture that has developed organically over time.
“Being named to this list for a second year is a true honor and I am grateful to the team for their steadfast belief in our vision for the business and product,” Howard said. “I’m as excited about Sprout’s future as I was eight years ago when we started, and that is due in no small part to the nearly 500 team members that show up ready to tackle the toughest problems in the industry each day, while continuing to provide great value for our customers.”
So, what are employees saying on Glassdoor about leadership at Sprout?
“I have never worked with a more hard working, talented group of people! I look forward to coming to work every morning. It all starts with the leaders at the top who have been a consistent group from the very beginning.”
Anonymous Employee
“Sprout continues to foster a collaborative workplace. There’s tremendous opportunity to make an impact as leadership encourages feedback to shape company goals and processes. Sprout is routinely recognized as a best place to work for good reason.”
Account Manager
CEO approval ratings are gathered through Glassdoor’s online company review survey, which gathers current and former employee sentiment about job and company satisfaction, the work environment and the culture. Among the 770,000 companies reviewed on Glassdoor, the average CEO approval rating is 69%.
We are thankful to our team members who have taken the time to share their experiences on Glassdoor. And more than ever, we are proud to have a leader who is fiercely dedicated to team and customer success.
Want to join Team Sprout? We’re hiring.
This post Sprout Social’s Justyn Howard Named a Glassdoor Top CEO for Second Year in a Row originally appeared on Sprout Social.
source https://sproutsocial.com/insights/glassdoor-top-ceo-2018/
Tuesday 19 June 2018
Monday 18 June 2018
Tuesday 12 June 2018
How to Find Freelancers and Hire Quality Talent for Your Business
How can I find freelancers and hire freelancers for my business? If you’re a business owner, you’ve probably asked yourself this question more than a few times. This article will show you the many ways, and tools you can employ to find freelancers and hire quality talent for your business.
It’s true. The first challenge you’ll face when building your business is knowing where to find freelancers — quality ones.
Part of the issue stems from the fact that freelancers themselves often struggle with self-marketing.
According to a “State of the Freelance Nation” survey by Wisebrand:
- 51% of freelancers said that marketing themselves online is too time-consuming
- 41% said that it’s too expensive
Image source: WiseBrand State of the Freelance Nation Report
What’s more:
- Over half of all freelancers spend less than 3 hours a week marketing themselves online, making it difficult for you to locate the right talent on your own.
That’s why working with the right online tools for to find freelancers and eventually hire the right ones is so crucial, both for you as an employer looking for talent, and freelancers as self-marketers.
In fact, according to business owner and CEO of DevriX Mario Peshev: “Freelancers can be a great investment, as they allow businesses to take advantage of people’s expertise without any sort of long-term commitment regardless of the regularity of work.”
So, how do you find freelancers?
How to Find Freelancers and Hire Quality Talent for Your Business
There’s a lot riding on making the right hiring choice, so you should research the best methods to help you in your freelancer search.
Below, from experience, are what I consider the top 3 methods for finding and hiring the right influencers.
1. How to Find Freelancers via Google Search
Finding a freelancer via Google search can be tricky. You’ll find most of the time that the search results will lead you to different freelancing platforms. So if you want to hire a freelancer directly, you need to have patience in searching for them.
Most of adept freelancers maintain a website to showcase their portfolio. Using the right keywords, you can find them via Google search. Here’s how:
Run an open search on Google and type the freelance job you want to hire. For example, if you want to hire a content writer for your blog, you can search for “freelance writer for hire.” Then from the search results, you can pick your prospects.
Using the NinjaOutreach Chrome Extension, an influencer and blogger outreach tool, you can easily import your prospects’ details and add them on a list. After adding all the prospects in your chosen list, you can now set up an outreach campaign.
To do this, you should:
- Go to the NinjaOutreach app and log in to your account.
- From the dashboard, you can see the lists that you created.
- Add a personalized template which you will be using for your outreach campaign. Just go to Outreach -> Templates then click the Create Template button.
- Fill in the Template Name, Subject, and the body of your email.
- When everything’s ready, go back to the list you created and just click the “Start Outreach” button.
- You will be prompted to connect your email account if you haven’t done so. Otherwise, you’re good to go.
- You will be redirected to the Campaign Scheduler where you can set how many emails you want to send per day, choose whether to send immediately or on a later date, add email follow ups, and filter your list of leads.
When everything’s set, you can now hit the Launch Campaign button and wait for replies.
2. How to Find Freelancers on Social Media
Social media doesn’t just allow you to stay in touch with your family and friends. It also allows you to connect with industry leaders, advertise your services/products, and generate income among others. It’s a treasure trove of opportunities!
Social media also helps in connecting job seekers and employers. Let’s see how you can find freelancers using Twitter and LinkedIn.
Finding Freelancers on Twitter
Using Twitter’s search bar, you can type your search phrase or use a hashtag.
To continue with freelance writer as an example, just type “Freelance writer for hire” or “#freelancewriterforhire” and it will show results of posts and profiles with those keywords.
You can also do an advanced search to filter the search results and find the specific Tweets that you’re looking for.
Just find the Search filters box and click the Show button then click Advanced Search.
Then fill in the appropriate fields to refine your search. You can use any field combination that you want. In the screenshot above, I use the words and dates field combination to find the specific Tweets and profiles that I’m looking for.
Finding Freelancers on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a social media platform that allows you to connect with business people and professionals. It’s like an online resume where you can see people’s work experience, education, skills, and accomplishments.
Here’s how to use LinkedIn to find freelancers:
Using the search bar, type freelance writer and you’ll notice that LinkedIn will load some suggestions.
Choose the Freelance Writer in People because you’re looking for job seekers.
Then it will load the search results of candidates which you can filter by location, industry, connection, etc.
You can also go straight to NinjaOutreach and use the find Twitter or Instagram Influencers search features.
Just type your target niche or industry in your keywords (plus location, if you need it) and hit enter.
You can also use Smart Tags to make sure your results only show those tagged as Blogger or Influencer, and excludes those tagged as Company or Executive.
3. How to Find Freelancers Through Freelancer Hiring Platforms
Not as flexible (or free!) as Google. But, freelancer hiring platforms are definitely the easiest, fastest, and ultimately the most convenient way to find and hire freelancers.
Each of the platforms listed below has different strengths and drawbacks.
1. Upwork
An all in one platform for those looking to work with freelancers. Upwork, previously Elance-oDesk, is a place for freelancers in a range of different work categories to find work, and for businesses to easily navigate the hiring process. Once you find the right person, Upwork has online collaboration features for communicating with your freelancer. As with most such platforms, make sure you dedicate enough time to create a comprehensive description of your workflow, and set aside time for follow-up, in order to hire the right person.
2. Peopleperhour
Peopleperhour is a standby for freelancers in the United Kingdom for over 10 years now. This platform gives freelancers the flexibility to market themselves in creative ways via custom profiles, and gives you as the hirer the flexibility in how much you would like to engage the freelancer. Peopleperhour’s particular specialty lies in the “Hourlies,” or quick freelance hires for a discrete hourly workflow. Of course this isn’t the only way that freelancers offer their services on the site, so you can easily engage freelancers for lengthy projects if you so choose.
3. Freelancemyway.com
Freelancemyway is a platform that emphasizes simplicity of services by focusing on providing a straightforward marketplace for posting and bidding on jobs. Freelancemyway provides you with free job postings, after which freelancers will send you bids privately. Freelancers can create profiles for free as well, and are subject to a basic screening process, but it’s largely up to you to check into their work record prior to hiring. If you don’t need much in terms of different services, and are comfortable with a no-frills site, then this is a good option.
4. Freelancer.com
An online marketplace for finding freelancers with global reach. Freelancer.com allows you to post a job description in any field for freelancers to bid on. With 44 regional marketplaces and operations in 34 languages and 21 currencies, freelancer.com is one of the more global platforms for finding talent. Since its founding in 2009, freelancer.com has acquired several other online marketplaces, meaning that you’ll be working with a platform with staying power.
5. Simplyhired
More of a job aggregator than an online marketplace in its own right, Simplyhired compiles job postings from around the web, but also allows you to post jobs directly to the site. You have the option to post a limited amount of jobs for free, as well as pay per post and per click options. Simplyhired has won a number of awards since its founding in 2003, which gives it a leg up on some of the competitors in terms of credibility.
Find more sources to find freelancers in this NinjaOutreach article listing the top 10 marketplaces for finding freelancers.
Conclusion
Working with freelancers can be a smart business investment, allowing you to engage different experts at competitive prices.
According to the CEO of LionZeal Daryl Rosser, he has built his entire business with the help of freelancers. “They're what allow me to focus exclusively on the things I enjoy,” he said.
Another business owner, Oskar Jasniewski of Clickmeeting, said how careful he is when it comes to finding freelancers for his team. He even does job interviews and hires freelancers via Webinar
In the globalized labor market,your access to freelancers has never been better. But it can definitely be a challenge to figure out how to find freelancers and hire the perfect fit for your business.
By choosing the right methods and tools, you can learn from other entrepreneurs’ experience, avoid mistakes, and set yourself on the right course.
The post How to Find Freelancers and Hire Quality Talent for Your Business appeared first on NinjaOutreach.
source https://ninjaoutreach.com/find-freelancers-for-hire/
Monday 11 June 2018
Thursday 7 June 2018
Wednesday 6 June 2018
#SproutChat Calendar: Upcoming Topics for June 2018
Summer is just around the corner and we’re getting ready by brushing up on our strategic chops. This June #SproutChat is bringing you insight on industry topics ranging from knowing which analytics you should be focusing on, different ways to use social to appeal to millennial audiences and we’ll cap it all off by celebrating #SocialMediaDay together.
See a topic that interests you? Use the “add to event” button to ensure a calendar reminder.
Wednesday, June 6: Metrics That Matter With #SproutAllStar Elite, Steph Nissen
Without looking at metrics, there is no way to tell if a marketing campaign is working. As a marketer, uncovering which metrics correlate with your overall business goals will help you tell a complete story to your clients or stakeholders. But before you can measure your social ROI, you need find out which social metrics matter. This #SproutChat, Sprout All Star and Director of Digital at Atomic Revenue, Steph Nissen, will provide tips on pinpointing the most valuable data and presenting it in a way that impacts.
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Wednesday, June 13: Marketing to Millennials With #SproutAllStar Elite, Mandy Edwards
Millennials are not going away, they are the next generation of customers, advocates, and prospects. Learning how to market to millennials effectively can be tricky but with the power of social, businesses can finally reach this special target demographic. During this #SproutChat, Sprout All Star Mandy Edwards of Me Marketing Services, will join us to talk about the tactics you need to speak directly to the new age!
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Wednesday, June 20: Launching Your Own Social Media Consulting Firm With #SproutAllStar Elite, Jen Kirk
Do you have what it takes to be a social media consultant? Being a consultant isn’t easy and specializing in social media doesn’t make you unique in the marketplace. Join us, and take notes as Sprout All Star Jennifer Kirk provides her inside view on what it takes to launch your own consulting practice and helps us answer our burning questions along the way.
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Wednesday, June 27: The History of Social on Social Media Day
Social Media Day was launched back in 2010 and still sees social pros meeting up to celebrate today. We want to celebrate with you, our loyal and amazing social community! Join us for a fun #SproutChat where we will talk all about the origins of social in modern marketing, and reminisce about our journeys in the digital space!
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This post #SproutChat Calendar: Upcoming Topics for June 2018 originally appeared on Sprout Social.
source https://sproutsocial.com/insights/sproutchat-calendar-june-2018/
Tuesday 5 June 2018
How To Do Link Building Outreach That Converts Over 15%
Outreach emails are a crucial part of link building. However can you get those links without sending outreach emails to your target blogs?
In this article, I’ll talk about what I’ve learned about link outreach, and how I sent cold link outreach emails that can convert over 15%.
Have you ever been REALLY mad at SEO?
So mad that you thought it was huge a crapshoot and that it was impossible to get real, quality links from other bloggers?
I have.
For the longest time, my link outreach emails didn’t work.
I spent hours finding great link opportunities for my sites. I used “expert” email templates to persuade them to link to my content, and guess what happened?
I got a grand total of 0 links.
I was so mad that I was on the verge of switching industries entirely.
Until something happened…
One day out of frustration, I went against the grain. I deleted all of my outreach templates and sent 10 custom emails to the last prospects on my list.
And boom!
I got 3 links.
After that fateful day, I started testing different link outreach emails and noticed a pattern:
If 4 simple things were used in my emails, my conversion rates shot through the roof.
I’m not talking about a simple 10% increase, I’m talking about results that make you feel weird because they seem like a fluke.
In fact, right now I feel like I’m in a hydroxycut commercial…
But the following result is real:
My conversion rate on cold link outreach emails went from 1% to over 14%.
The result?
My main client’s traffic increased by 94% in 6 months and my uncomfortable feeling towards cold outreach disappeared.
If you’re mad at SEO like I was, it might be because of your outreach templates.
Luckily, that can be fixed. 🙂
Why Common Outreach Templates Don’t Work
I’ll be the first to admit that using someone else’s outreach template for link building sounds like a good idea.
After all, it:
- Worked for them
- Doesn’t require much work for the link builder
- Can be automated
But there are several issues with this—and they become apparent when you put yourself in the shoes of the person on the other end of the email.
Issue #1: Website Owners Get These Emails Frequently
Website owners know popular link building templates by heart because they see them ALL THE TIME.
Whenever one shows up in their inbox, they throw up their defenses.
Within 30 seconds they delete the email (and maybe even mark it as spam).
Issue #2: They Don’t Focus on Value
A standard outreach template goes something like this:
“Hi,
I found your site and you write good articles.
I wrote a good article that would fit well on your resource page: [Link]
I’d love to have it mentioned if you think it’s a good fit.
Either way, keep up the good work.
Best,
[Name]”
Would you like to know why this template sucks?
It never addresses why the other person would want to link to your content.
It essentially says, “Hey, I want you to link to me so I can rank higher. Pls? Thanks.”
Issue #3: They Aren’t Personalized
Most outreach people send emails like this:
Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
This email was obviously sent to thousands of other websites.
How do I know?
- The weird space after “Hey” in the greeting because the software couldn’t find a name associated with my email.
- The content of the email isn’t dynamic—meaning it doesn’t change regardless of who it’s sent to.
These emails don’t work.
If a website owner thinks (even for a second) that your email is automatically sent to thousands of other sites, they’ll delete your email.
And can you blame them?
They’re too busy to deal with your auto-email that provides ZERO value to them.
If you want links, you need an ultra-personalized email instead.
I know that sounds like it’ll take a lot of time, but if you use a blogger outreach CRM like NinjaOutreach, you can send custom emails at light speed.
Take a look at this mass email outreach feature below.
Before sending a ton of link outreach emails, you also get the option to skim through each recipient’s profile.
From there, you can view identifying tags, relationship status, message history, and even their previous blog posts.
This will give you material to quickly personalize each link outreach email.
A Look at the Data…
Since May of 2017, I stopped using other people’s templates and made my own.
So far, I’ve sent 337 link outreach emails with the 4 elements I’m about to go over.
Here’s the data:
- Open Rate: 82.49%
- Reply Rate: 37.69%
- Conversion Rate: 15.43%
I also get several compliments like this on a regular basis:
With a template, you’re lucky to get a 3% conversion rate.
Luckily, your link outreach success rate doesn’t have to be that low…
4 Elements of Link Outreach Emails That Actually Work
Element #1: Extreme Personalization
Including someone’s website name and URL in an outreach email isn’t enough—30%-40% of each email needs to be unique.
You want the reader to feel like they were the only person you emailed.
And you can do that by including these 3 things in each email:
1. Their First Name
Whenever you find a site owner’s email address (or webmaster/marketing director if it’s a company) you need to use their first name in your greeting.
I use this as my greeting: “Hey, [NAME]!”
Proper grammar and an exclamation point help this stand out from the first line.
Tools to Find People’s Email Addresses: hunter.io
I use the free hunter.io (not affiliated even though they have a great name :D) Chrome plugin.
Once it’s installed all you need to do is head to a site on your link outreach prospect list and click the plugin icon in Chrome.
About 70% of the time, it’ll find emails associated with that site. If it doesn’t, I normally go to the “contact us” page and use the form (it’s less likely you’ll get a response from a contact form this way).
Tools to Find People’s Email Addresses: NinjaOutreach
Another Chrome plugin you can use to find anyone’s email address is NinjaOutreach.
The process is pretty same at first. Download and install the plugin, go to a link outreach prospect’s blog, and click the plugin to start crawling all emails associated with the site.
But NinjaOutreach doesn’t stop there. The plugin also crawls for other data such as other social profiles, engagement and SEO metrics, and even an RSS feed.
If you have an account, you can add any link outreach prospect into a contact list, too, then view all of this data in an organized dashboard.
And, as I previously mentioned, having all this extra data on hand can give you loads of material with which to compose a more personalized link outreach template.
2. An Actual Compliment About Their Site
Most people see right through a hollow compliment in outreach emails, but if they can tell you actually enjoyed something about their site, it can work wonders.
Instead of opening your email with:
“Hey, [Name]!
My name is ___ from ____.
I love your site!”
Take a look at their site, read some of their content, check out the about page, then open with something like:
“Hey, [Name]!
My name is ___ from ___.
I found your site the other day and am super impressed with the work you’re doing with ___.
I started reading [Blog Post Name] and I learned a ton. The section on ___ really stood out to me because ___.
So, thanks for taking the time to write that post—I found it incredibly valuable!”
Mention something specific that you liked and why you liked it.
I’ve found that specific, well-thought-out compliments drastically increase conversion rate.
3. A Warm Closing Line
90% of the outreach emails I’ve seen end with this:
“…I’d love for you to link to the post, but no worries either way.
Best,
[Their Name]”
This isn’t necessarily bad, but it doesn’t help you.
Your closing line is another opportunity to personalize your emails—and the more personalization the better.
My favorite closing line is: “Let me know your thoughts, [Name]—I’d love to connect with you!”
This let’s them know that you’re interested in a relationship with them (rather than just getting what you want) and gives you another opportunity to use their first name.
If your emails are so good that people think you are a real person and aren’t sending the same email thousands of times, you’ll get responses like this:
Element #2: Authority
Are you more likely to respond to an email from a New York Times Bestselling author, or a shift manager at Taco Bell?
If we’re being honest, the true answer is WAY more likely.
That’s the power of authority.
You can use this psychological principle in your outreach emails to increase your conversion rate—regardless of whether you’re doing outreach for yourself or someone else.
All you need is something that sounds impressive.
Examples of Authority
As long as you aren’t lying, you can use pretty much anything for this.
Do you (or the person you’re working with) have an impressive:
- Title?
- Accolade?
- Accomplishment?
- Statistic?
Use it in a short introductory sentence at the start of your email.
Example:
“Hey, [Name]!
My name is Hunter and I’m the founder of Rank Tree—a company that helps small businesses, startups, and brands drive passive traffic and leads through SEO.”
It’s short and to the point, doesn’t sound fake, and the word founder sounds good.
Use whatever you can to implement authority in the first sentence of your email. If you do, the person on the other end of the email will take you more seriously.
Element #3: Value
It’s the first thing you learn when you study copywriting…
When it comes to making decisions, people need to see what’s in it for them.
If your outreach email isn’t focused on the value you bring to the table, people aren’t likely to even respond.
That’s why it’s vital to focus the second half of your emails on a benefit-oriented pitch.
To formulate your pitch, you only need to answer one question:
Why Would They Link to You?
It’s a hard question to answer, but one you need to think about if you want links.
There are generally 4 reasons why people will say yes to your link ask:
Reason #1: Your content is so good, it makes them look good.
Whenever someone finds a hilarious meme or reads an insightful article, what’s the first thing they normally do?
They share it—they send it to a family member, friend, or colleague they think would be interested.
Ever wonder why they do that?
They want to be seen by others as intelligent, funny, helpful, etc. through the content they share.
And you can reverse engineer this principle when developing your content so it attracts links and shares.
To do this, you must focus on creating the best answer to a search query on the internet.
It sounds like a lofty goal, but you’re really only competing with about 10 articles for any given keyword (and most of the time, the articles that already rank on the first page aren’t very good).
Before you start writing your content, research every result on the first page for your target keyword.
Then, ask these questions about the content that ranks on the first page:
- What type of content already ranks? (Is it a list post, an in-depth guide, an expert roundup, etc.)
- Is this content compelling? (Does it make you feel a certain way, is it insanely insightful with tons of research, is it visually appealing, etc.)
- What’s similar about the content that already ranks? (Does each article include research, are they all really long, do they all have tons of pictures, etc.)
- How could each of the top 10 results be improved? (Make a master list of things missing from these articles.)
Doing this gives you a roadmap to creating the best content on the internet for your target keyword. And when you have the best content on the internet, influencers are happy to share it with their audiences.
Reason #2: They’re interested in a relationship with you.
This goes back to authority.
If someone thinks a relationship with you will benefit them, they’ll likely say yes to your link ask in order to begin or continue a friendship.
That’s one of the reasons I like saying something about “connecting” at the end of my emails.
Reason #3: They’re interested in a transaction with you.
They think they can benefit from trading links (or something else) with you.
Reason #4: They already know about you (and like you).
The person happens to be in your audience, follows you on social, or heard about you from a friend.
Most likely, scenarios 1-3 will get you the majority of your links.
But there’s actually a secret 4th reason people will say yes to a link ask…
Element #4: Offering a Freebie
Yes, bribery, but not in a sketchy sense.
Let me explain…
If you have something you can offer someone in your outreach emails, you can:
- Drastically increase your conversion rate.
- Actually develop relationships with people.
When you give a gift with your ask, your email suddenly stops screaming, “HEY I WANT SOMETHING FROM YOU!!”
It just whispers that instead. 🙂
You now come across more like someone who’s interested in a relationship instead of a transaction.
Offering a free gift, regardless of whether they give you a link or not, shows that you respect the person on the other end of the email.
The result?
You get more responses and conversions with your emails.
Once I started doing this, I got 3x more links.
What You Should Offer
Thinking of a freebie to offer can be tough—especially for a business without many digital assets.
So, here’s a list to inspire things you can create (or offer if you already have them):
- An eBook
- A free 1 year membership to your membership site
- A free 6 month trial of your software/tool
- A PDF report
- Access to a video/workshop
How to Position Your Freebie
My favorite way to position a freebie is as a means of beginning a mutual relationship.
At the end of my email, I include a phrase like this:
“Whether you add it or not, I’d love to offer you a free [Insert Gift Here] and one to give away to your audience as well.
Let me know your thoughts, [Name]—I’d love to connect with you!
Thanks!
-Hunter”
It’s really that simple.
What Would Happen to Your Traffic If Your Link Outreach Emails Converted at Over 14%?
I’ve tried nearly every email template out there, I’ve tried writing my own and winging it, and I’ve tried incorporating these elements in my emails.
Incorporating these 4 elements into your link outreach led to hydroxycut-type results.
You can get similar results by taking the time to write fantastic, personalized emails.
Have any questions or thoughts? I’d love to chat in the comments!
The post How To Do Link Building Outreach That Converts Over 15% appeared first on NinjaOutreach.
source https://ninjaoutreach.com/link-outreach-email/