September 2021 Summaries

Outgrow is a no-code platform that allows users to create interactive content such as quizzes, calculators, polls, surveys, and chatbots, all in one place. This type of interactive content makes the audience active participants, giving them agency over the type of content they want to see, resulting in increased engagement and longer stay times on the website. With Outgrow's automation capabilities, users can streamline their lead management process by sending leads to the right place without manual copying and pasting, saving valuable time and minimizing busywork. By integrating Outgrow with Zapier workflow automation software, users can automate almost any task at work, including creating a Zap that sends new Outgrow leads to ActiveCampaign, allowing for efficient lead nurturing and sales tracking.

As a business speaker and magician, the author had to adapt their approach to engaging audiences from their home office after 20 years of doing in-person performances. They now focus on helping remote teams overcome common cognitive biases that hinder effective leadership and collaboration in virtual environments. The five key biases discussed are proximity/distancing bias, similarity bias, anchoring bias, status quo bias, and confirmation bias, which can be addressed by creating shared experiences, replicating physical proximity, celebrating progress, automating processes, and seeking out diverse perspectives. By being aware of these biases and taking intentional steps to overcome them, leaders can create a more inclusive and productive remote work environment.

The author reflects on their experience of struggling to adjust to life after a year of pandemic-induced isolation, where they relied on an unrealistic vision of themselves as "their usual self" to cope. They realized that this mindset was not only delusional but also set them up for failure, as it created unattainable expectations and self-sabotage. However, through this experience, the author has come to accept that their priorities have shifted, and they now prioritize enjoying life outside of work, rather than striving for an unachievable ideal of productivity. They encourage others to do the same, embracing change and setting realistic boundaries, as it's essential for self-care, happiness, and productivity.

This article argues that hiring early-career engineers (also known as L1s) can be a more productive addition to a team than experienced engineers, as they bring fresh perspectives and keep teams honest by pointing out unnecessary complexity. Early-career engineers also provide mentoring opportunities for other engineers and have the potential to grow into higher-level roles with institutional knowledge. By hiring from within and promoting from these early-career positions, companies can create fertile ground for someone to thrive in and ultimately lead to team success. The article advocates for creating more entry-level engineering positions to bring new talent into the industry and break down barriers to entry.

Automating large, one-off projects can save significant time and reduce errors by moving information from one app to another. This approach is particularly useful for tasks that are repetitive, require minimal creativity or complex thinking, and need to be done more than once. By planning the project and identifying areas where automation can help, individuals can streamline their workflow and free up time for higher-impact work.

TikTok Lead Generation is a feature within TikTok Ads Manager that allows businesses to create call-to-actions within ads, directing users to forms where they can submit their contact information and respond to other questions. With the integration of Zapier, users can automatically move leads from TikTok's Ads Manager to other apps, such as CRM or email marketing platforms, without needing to download CSVs. The integration uses a trigger called New Lead, which kicks off a Zap whenever there is a new lead in a specific lead form. Users can set up their Zaps through the TikTok Ads Manager interface or on the Zapier website, and configure the app connections, action steps, and testing process as needed. Automation ideas for TikTok Lead Generation include sending custom alerts to sales teams, keeping CRM information up-to-date, tracking leads in spreadsheets, and subscribing new leads to email marketing lists. The integration is available through both TikTok Ads Manager and Zapier websites, allowing users to access it easily and start automating their lead generation process.

You can improve customer support experience by using accessibility guidelines to communicate with your customers. This includes following a logical order when providing instructions, writing clearly and simply, being concise especially when dealing with upset customers, repeating yourself to reinforce points, and never substituting images or videos for words. By implementing these tips, you can accommodate every single one of your customers regardless of their background, ability, or language, resulting in a better support experience for everyone.

Remote work isn't just for pandemics or digital nomads, but for anyone who values flexibility. I've found that working from a secondary space, such as a local cafe or outdoors, can help combat loneliness and boredom. Taking long weekend trips and visiting long-distance friends are also great benefits of remote work. It's essential to remember that you don't just work from home, but rather from anywhere with a reliable internet connection. This flexibility allows for changes to be made daily, not just in the long-term. By embracing these aspects of remote work, individuals can enjoy a better work-life balance and create meaningful connections with others.

Some people are already back to the office; some people don't plan to go back, ever. And a big chunk of the workforce is in between—working from home some days, heading into the office on others. Google Calendar has added a feature specifically with this in mind: work locations, which allows users to specify whether they're working from home, at the office, or somewhere else on any given day. This lets coworkers know when you will or won't be available for in-person meetings and generally keeps everyone's schedules organized. The feature is part of Google Workspace and requires personal Google accounts to access. Users can customize their work locations, set default locations for weekdays, and choose whether to display working hours. By setting your work location in Google Calendar, users can more easily communicate with colleagues about availability and schedule meetings accordingly.

Being a founder requires significant support from family, friends, and other founders, which can be especially valuable when navigating the unique challenges of running a business. The author has found entrepreneurial support in various women's collectives, including the Female Founder Collective (FFC), Ladies Get Paid, DWEN, and Dough, each offering distinct benefits such as content, connections, grants, and networking opportunities. These communities have had a direct impact on the author's business growth and personal evolution, providing access to knowledge, opportunities, and resources that align with their specific needs. By exploring communities in your niche, entrepreneurs can tap into similar support systems, ultimately enhancing their personal and professional journeys as founders.

A company is looking to make its employees feel appreciated, connected, and understood through a meaningful gift-giving strategy. To achieve this, it's essential to plan ahead, as Q4 can be busy with sourcing and shipping issues. The ideal time to start holiday gifting is by the end of October, targeting the first or second week of December for distribution. A thoughtful note with a warm sentiment is also crucial, along with considering the unboxing experience and presentation of the gift package. To make the gift-giving strategy even more impactful, it's recommended to tell a story that connects the recipient with the company, using gifts that represent this narrative. Offering a few gift options can be helpful for large recipients, but too many choices can be overwhelming. The goal is to create a moment of delight and value for the recipient, while also reflecting the company's values and culture.

Google's Customer Match is a feature that allows advertisers to create custom audiences from offline and online lists to retarget with multiple ad placements, helping drive conversions by reaching the exact audience at the perfect time. Automation can help update these lists without manual effort, making it crucial for effective retargeting. Google Ads' Customer Match requires select advertisers who meet specific criteria, including having a Google account manager, strong payment history, and an active account with a lifetime ad spend of $50,000. The feature is based on user actions and digital sales funnel data, necessitating frequent updates to avoid missing conversion windows and wasting ad spend. Automation can update these lists for advertisers, ensuring they operate with updated information and maximize their campaigns' effectiveness.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant increase in the adoption of team chat apps, with many people starting to use these tools for remote work. These apps offer several benefits, including control over what messages are seen, separation of internal and external communication, avoidance of in-person interruptions, ease of collaboration across different locations, and integration with other apps. As companies transition back to the office, it's likely that team chat apps will continue to be useful tools for remote work and beyond.

The critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy 14 has built a loyal customer base through its active investment in business and marketing practices that prioritize customer trust. The game's development team has learned to own up to their mistakes, involve customers in the fix process, follow a consistent schedule for updates, stay in touch with customers through regular live streams and updates, listen to smaller voices and concerns, geek out with customers by sharing personal passion, and make customers feel cared about by showing genuine appreciation. These practices have been instrumental in building trust with players from the ground up and maintaining a strong fan base seven years after the game's rehaul.

In 2012, ServiceTitan was founded by Vahe Kuzoyan and Ara Mahdessian with the goal of creating an all-in-one software for contractors and tradespeople to manage their businesses more effectively. The company has since grown into a leading software solution, helping users sort out routine tasks such as scheduling, dispatching, mobile invoicing, and payment processing. Four years ago, Matt Grebow joined ServiceTitan as a senior manager of demand generation, where he saw an opportunity to improve the company's workflow automation. He introduced Zapier, which has helped ServiceTitan optimize their Google Ads products by creating automatic workflows that send data between their ad platforms and other software used for lead generation and sales. With Zapier, ServiceTitan can now easily pass the right data to the right place at the right time, ensuring they have the highest security standards in place. The integration has enabled the company to streamline tasks such as syncing CRM and Google lead form extensions, creating Zoho CRM module entries, and connecting Marketo lists with Customer Match.

Consumers want personalized experiences with brands, but many are hesitant to share their data due to privacy concerns. To overcome this, businesses can use progressive profiling, which involves gathering first-party data in a privacy-compliant manner by asking customers for small bits of information throughout their customer journey. This approach allows businesses to create detailed user profiles without violating GDPR regulations and capture granular data that gives better insight into consumer preferences. However, it's essential to be mindful of the thin line between good progressive profiling and overstepping boundaries, as excessive data collection can lead to a negative experience. By using quizzes, conducting one-on-one interviews with customers, and offering series of premium content, businesses can effectively use progressive profiling to deliver personalized experiences while respecting their customers' right to control their data.

A design brief is a document that outlines all necessary information for a designer to execute on the goals of a given project, aiming to form guidelines that leave room for creative output while meeting requirements. To ensure this, companies can create an intake form with questions covering requester info, high-level details, detailed context, and strategic aspects, such as target audience and desired actions. This form helps gather essential inputs before starting work, allowing designers to create a well-stated problem and set up the team for success. By automating the process of creating design briefs and sending notifications, companies can streamline their workflow, improve communication, and ultimately deliver better results.

You can set up a great-looking form or survey in just a couple of minutes with Typeform, which offers a lot of customization options beneath its simple surface, including the ability to customize interface messages, get email notifications for all submissions, design custom themes, and add UTM tracking, among other features that make it a powerful tool for creating interactive forms, surveys, and more.

Medium is a content publication platform that can be strategically used for content distribution without requiring extra adjustments, allowing users to repurpose their existing content into new mediums such as videos and graphics, while still keeping the focus on their own company blog. To take advantage of Medium's built-in audience, users should syndicate their existing content on Medium by creating a brand profile, importing a link to the published content, and setting up canonical links so that search engines index the original article instead of the version on Medium. Additionally, allowing third-party publications to syndicate content can expand reach, but it's essential to keep all backlinks going to the user's website, as reposting content on Medium may have downsides such as reduced SEO value and lack of brand recognition.

Using automation tools like Zapier can help businesses manage their contact information more efficiently, reducing frustration and errors associated with manual data entry. With Zapier, users can create custom workflows, known as Zaps, that automate tasks such as sending new contacts to CRM or email marketing platforms. The process involves selecting a trigger event, such as a new form submission, and an action, like creating a new contact record, followed by mapping relevant information from the form or email into the new contact. By automating these tasks, businesses can free up time to focus on higher-priority activities, such as writing emails, while ensuring accurate and timely data entry.

This entrepreneur's focus on customer retention led to a successful nail bar business, where the key metrics of Customer Retention Rate (CRR), Net Promoter Score (NPS), and Customer Value (CV) were tracked to ensure steady growth. To achieve this, the business implemented various retention strategies such as offering return buyer incentives beyond discounts, creating a loyalty program with non-monetary benefits, sharing expert knowledge through educational content, asking for feedback, providing unique experiences that generate social media buzz, and maintaining consistency in services and operations. By taking action on these metrics and strategies, the business was able to retain customers, increase customer value, and ultimately grow its loyal client base.

To improve meeting attendance and save time, automation can be used to send reminders and notifications to team members about upcoming meetings. Zapier is a workflow automation software that allows users to create custom workflows, known as Zaps, to automate tasks such as sending automatic reminder emails or messages ahead of scheduled meetings. With Zapier, users can connect their calendar apps with their communication platforms, such as Slack or Discord, and set up notifications for new events, including meeting reminders. This approach helps teams stay organized and focused on higher-priority tasks, while also reducing the need for manual reminders and copying/pasting Zoom links into team chats. By leveraging Zapier's automation capabilities, users can streamline their workflow and save valuable time to focus on more important tasks.

The best email marketing apps come with pre-designed templates, but filling them with words requires creativity and attention to detail. To get started, using these templates can help ensure that all bases are covered and no important information is missed. Four adaptable email marketing templates are presented: welcome, post-purchase, content promotion, and customer feedback templates. Each template has a specific purpose, such as thanking users for joining the email list or sharing valuable information after an order. The templates can be customized to fit different brands' unique voices and styles, and examples from various companies like ILIA, Who Gives a Crap, AdEspresso, and Vuori are provided to illustrate their use. By using these templates, businesses can create high-performing emails that drive action and increase customer satisfaction.

Zapier is a workflow automation software that allows users to create custom notifications for calendar events, automate recurring tasks, and send reminders to themselves or others. With Zapier, users can set up automated workflows, known as Zaps, that perform specific actions based on triggers, such as sending a text message before a meeting starts. Users can also create their own Zaps to customize notifications and add filters to further tailor their automation. By using Zapier, users can save time, stay organized, and increase productivity by automating routine tasks and reminders.

Automating information logging tasks using Zapier's Chrome Extension can help alleviate the problem of "Too Much Information" by reducing manual data entry and providing valuable time to focus on higher priority items. The extension allows users to easily create automatic workflows, or Zaps, that track specific events and actions, such as saving links to a spreadsheet or sending emails. With Zapier's vast number of integrations, users can automate most tedious tasks, gaining back time to concentrate on more important work. By utilizing automation tools like Zapier, individuals can streamline their workflow, reduce data entry, and increase productivity.

The concept of open source software refers to any software where the source code is freely available for anyone to read, edit, and redistribute. This allows programmers to learn how an application works by digging through its source code. Open source projects are typically managed by someone or some organization, with a team of contributors who can contribute code, but not without oversight. Anyone can take the source code of an open source project and use it to start their own project, known as forking. Forks can lead to new applications that become popular, like Libre Office replacing Open Office. Many companies fork open source projects in interesting ways, such as Microsoft Edge using Chromium's open source code. Open source software is generally considered free to download and use, but not necessarily free beer, which refers to the idea of freedom rather than just cost. The concept of open source uses copyright law to enforce sharing through copyleft licenses.

I've found six different ways to use my phone on a break, each one that refreshes me, clears my head, and re-energizes me, including listening to short podcasts, getting in some foreign language study, trying walking meditation, creating and listening to 15-minute playlists, enjoying long reads of personal interest, and if needed, scrolling through social media with carefully selected hashtags or accounts. A break worthy of the name takes some planning, so it's essential to have a working list of good options that work for you.

Automation is crucial for businesses to respond quickly to customer inquiries through forms and ticket submissions, as ignoring them can lead to a negative experience and lost business opportunities. Zapier is a leader in workflow automation that enables users to create secure, automated systems for their business-critical workflows across various technology stacks. By using Zapier, users can automate recurring tasks, such as creating tasks or project cards whenever new form or ticket submissions are received, giving them valuable time to focus on higher-priority items. With thousands of integrations and a user-friendly interface, Zapier allows users to create automatic workflows that help manage leads and tickets, making it easier to stay on top of customer requests and maintain a positive business image.

EmbedSocial's experience with collecting user-generated content (UGC) through email outreach highlights the importance of personalization, clear expectations, and respect for users' decisions. The company's 5-step process involves creating catchy subject lines, personalizing messages, getting straight to the point, being specific about what is asked for, and respecting users' choices. Templates for different types of UGC, such as reviews, testimonials, social media content, success stories, and more, are provided, along with examples of successful campaigns and results achieved through these efforts. The company emphasizes the value of UGC in building trust, creating a deeper connection with audiences, and promoting products or services. By following EmbedSocial's approach, businesses can also collect and utilize user-generated content to succeed.

When communicating with remote team members, using informal greetings like "hi," "hello," or "hey" without context can lead to misinterpretation and anxiety, as it implies a serious issue. This phenomenon was studied through an advanced computer simulation, which found that such messages are perceived as ominous and may trigger worst-case scenarios. To avoid this, managers should make small talk while working remotely, learn how to initiate conversations effectively, and be clear about the purpose of their message. It's also essential to consider the context of serious conversations and have them face-to-face, rather than via text or video call, to ensure a more positive outcome for all parties involved.

This change in work dynamics has led to the evolution of etiquette in remote meetings, with lessons that can be applied to in-person interactions, such as saying "go ahead" when someone overlaps in conversation to ensure everyone gets a turn. Scheduling time for socializing and accepting multitasking are also key principles that should be carried over from remote work to the office, allowing employees to feel more comfortable and engaged during meetings. Furthermore, having fewer meetings is essential to optimize productivity and reduce unnecessary time consumption, as companies can adopt alternative methods such as asynchronous communication channels to achieve similar outcomes.

Automating tasks such as exporting form or ticket information into a spreadsheet can help businesses save time and focus on higher priority items. Zapier, a workflow automation software, allows users to create automatic workflows that capture information from specific platforms and fill out spreadsheets in real-time. By following a simple structure of "When this happens, do that," users can automate tasks such as capturing form submissions or ticket entries into a spreadsheet. With thousands of integrations, Zapier enables businesses to automate the most time-consuming tasks, allowing them to focus on more important tasks requiring human interaction.

The pressure is on` - a blog post introduction formula. A well-crafted intro can excite readers, introduce new perspectives, set expectations, and make writing easier by having a few formulas or thought starters up your sleeve. The ideal intro should achieve these goals quickly and effectively. A four-part formula includes an opener to catch attention, a problem to make readers care, a solution to address the issue, and expectations to provide a next-step guidance. By using this formula, writers can create engaging introductions that help them connect with their audience and convey their message more effectively.

Canadians spend a significant amount of time on non-core job functions such as data entry, checking messenger apps, and have lower automation usage compared to American workers. Despite this, Canadian knowledge workers report higher productivity motivators including compensation, recognition, and client satisfaction. The COVID-19 pandemic may have led to increased adoption of automation workflow tools among Canadians, but they still trail Americans in automation usage.

You deserve a little play in your workday to break up the monotony and prevent burnout. Automation, like Zapier's workflow automation software, can help with tedious tasks, giving you back valuable time to focus on higher priority items. You can create automated workflows, called Zaps, that add delight to your day, such as posting fun GIFs from GIPHY when keywords are mentioned in Slack or sending a direct message notifying you of a coworker's funny quote. With thousands of integrations, Zapier lets you automate anything you can imagine, making you happier and more productive in the process.

At Mailshake, email marketers can't guarantee that their emails will reach their subscribers' inboxes or be opened, but they can take steps to maximize deliverability by warming up their IP addresses, implementing double opt-in confirmations, making the opt-out process easier, and setting subscriber expectations. Factors such as low sender scores, spammy content, high bounce rates, negative recipient actions, and clone phishing attacks can decrease email deliverability, while segmentation and cleaning the email list are also crucial for improving deliverability and engagement rates.

Gantt charts are a visual representation of project schedules, allowing users to view project names, deadlines, milestones, tasks, resources, and dependencies. They provide an improved visual overview, ergonomic project management, better resource management, real-time changes and agility, and steps to planning a project with automation capabilities. Gantt charts can be used by various industries and project management methodologies, making them adaptable and versatile tools for managing projects of any size or complexity. By leveraging Gantt charts in conjunction with Zapier, users can automate workflows, streamline processes, and increase productivity.

We're big fans of using paper as a productivity tool—task lists in particular. The best tool is whatever works for you, and for some people, that means paper. It's just more tangible than a to-do list app. A simple way to make paper task lists more effective was discovered by Keren Kinberg, a frontend engineer at Zapier, who began highlighting completed tasks instead of crossing them out. This change provides an odd satisfaction and makes it easier to see what is left to do. Additionally, this method has benefits that go beyond just productivity, such as giving someone an excuse to buy new office stationery.

With the help of Zapier, users can automate tasks such as logging contacts and leads, adding new subscribers to spreadsheets, and creating rows in Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. By using pre-built Zaps or creating custom workflows, users can save time and focus on higher-priority tasks. The platform offers a user-friendly interface, thousands of integrations, and certified experts to help with more complex automation needs.

The author met their business coach, Rick DeJarnette, after being recommended by his wife at a charity dinner and later bumped into them again at a church event. The author was struggling to manage growth in their small business and felt they had gaps in knowledge. Rick's coaching helped the author gain confidence in leading their company by bolstering decision-making and prioritization skills. Through their sessions, Rick taught the author three key lessons: understanding urgent vs. important, putting on the CEO hat, and playing big. The author reflects that these lessons have been transformative and has grown their team and company significantly, while also applying them to their personal life.

Sentiment analysis is a crucial tool for businesses to monitor online sentiment, which can indicate an impending crisis or reveal areas for improvement. By tracking online comments, reviews, and social media mentions, businesses can identify spikes in negative sentiment that may be related to their marketing efforts, competitors, news, or other factors. Sentiment analysis tools can help businesses measure the tone of comments, engagement, brand mentions, frequency of mentions, and net sentiment to understand how they are perceived online. By using these tools, businesses can prevent crises, select the right platforms for their campaigns, measure campaign effectiveness, beat competition, and grow their business by connecting with their audience on an emotional level.

Quotient is an online quoting system designed to help graphic design agencies create professional-looking quotes that streamline the client onboarding process. By integrating Quotient with other business tools like Trello, users can automate workflows and save time by automatically creating Trello cards whenever a quote is accepted in Quotient. With Zapier's workflow automation software, users can build and automate almost any task at work, making it easier to focus on what matters. The integration of Quotient with Zapier enables graphic design agencies to optimize their client onboarding process, reduce errors, and increase productivity.

Zapier is a workflow automation software that empowers users to create customized, automated solutions by combining user interfaces, data tables, and logic with thousands of apps. Kristin Tara Horowitz, CEO of The Pad Climbing, discovered Zapier and used it to automate various tasks at her company, including appointment confirmations, reminders, and an application system for hiring new team members. By automating small tasks, she gained time and reduced stress, while also improving productivity and consistency in her business practices. With Zapier, Kristin was able to streamline processes, eliminate mental load, and create a more efficient hiring process that eliminated back-and-forth emails and ensured fairness for all applicants. She encourages others to start small and automate tasks they wish they didn't have to do, as it can lead to improved business practices, happy customers, and increased efficiency.

Ten years ago, I attended a networking function where I was introduced as a TV commercial producer, but one person expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of TV ads, highlighting common misconceptions about TV advertising, such as "TV is dead" and that only older demographics watch TV. However, many first-time TV advertisers have recently revised their assumptions, finding that data-driven targeting through addressable TV can be highly effective. Addressable TV offers targeted commercials based on detailed consumer data, including household income, property value, car ownership, and more, allowing for a high level of precision in reaching the target audience. The author argues that TV ads provide trust, credibility, and immediate brand awareness, as well as increasing the effectiveness of ads by stimulating brand search and direct traffic to an advertiser's site. To get started with TV advertising, advertisers need to create a media plan focused on budget, find a production company specializing in TV ads, draft a clear brief for the production company, and define their objectives, target audience, desired outcome, and budget.