Marcu Taylor's Blog, page 7

19+ Marketing Stats & Findings That Actually Matter For 2020

There are plenty of marketing statistic articles out there, promising to deliver the most important data points from [insert the current year]. And, once you start reading them, you find out they’re actually stuffed without dated stats from 2015 that mean nothing in today’s marketing landscape.

It’s the same old BS time and again, which is especially annoying when these articles are published by the supposed leaders in content marketing.

This is a grudge I’ve had for quite some time (content that makes a promise and doesn’t deliver) but one of my New Year resolutions is to stop complaining about stuff and either do something about the things I don’t like or shut the Hell up about them.

It turns out shutting up is harder than I anticipated so that leaves me with the option of trying to do something about the endless supply of outdated marketing stats branded as this year.

So here they are: 19+ up-to-date marketing stats that actually matter in 2020. Most of these are from 2019 although some are slightly older where more recent data isn’t yet available or the stat is still relevant for 2020.

I’ve broken these stats into the following categories:

Lead gen & nurturing stats
Conversion & purchase decision stats
Search marketing stats & trends
Paid advertising stats
Email marketing stats
Surprising stats that buck some popular “trends”

So this should be the marketing stats article to bookmark if you need a reference of up-to-date info or genuine insights into what the marketing landscape is going to look like in 2020 and the decade ahead.

Lead gen & nurturing stats for 2020

First, let’s start by looking at the lead generation and nurturing stats that matter most for 2020. In this section, there’s a strong emphasis on consumer demands, data and breaking some bad habits that have been developed over the past decade.

#1: The average consumer journey now involves 20-500+ touchpoints

In 2018, Google released a study looking into the variety of modern consumer journeys. Its findings show that the average consumer journey now involves anywhere between 20 and 500+ touchpoints.

Aside from showing how much variety exists between individual consumer journeys and those within different niches (eg: eCommerce vs travel bookings), the variety of channels used and changing user interests across these consumer journeys is staggering.

The findings only reiterate the importance of audience understanding, multichannel marketing and the ability to attribute user actions along the consumer journey in order to deliver relevant messages where they count.

#2: 72% of consumers say they now only engage with personalised messages

Research conducted by SmarterHQ finds that the majority of consumers will only engage with personalised messages. Along with many other studies on the same subject, SmarterHQ’s insights suggest consumers are uninterested in the generic messages they’re bombarded with across the web.

Brands need to show consumers they have their individual, personal needs at heart when delivering messages in 2020.

The same study also reveals that 90% of consumers are willing to share behavioural data for a cheaper and easier brand experience. Which means brands need to make it clear that the data they’re requesting from users is going to deliver cheaper prices and a more convenient experience.

Fail to clarify these two points and you might struggle to secure the data required to deliver the level of personalisation today’s consumers demand in order to engage with your messages.

#3: At the same time, 86% say they are concerned about data privacy

SmarterHQ also finds that a large majority of users are concerned about data privacy and that 79% of consumers surveyed in this report believe companies know too much about them. Again, this reinforces the point that brands need to sell the idea of data collection, based on the cheaper prices and smoother experiences consumers are looking for.

At the same time, brands also need to ensure they are transparent about what they’re doing with consumer data. For brands targeting EU citizens, GDPR should make this mandatory but these regulations don’t apply outside of Europe, even if the consumer demands are still there.

Don’t just follow GDPR regulations to cover your backside; create lead generation and signup experiences that earn user trust. Reassure users that you’re a reputable brand that respects privacy but understands they want personalised experiences.

Ditch the technical jargon and spiel about “your privacy matter to us” followed by swathes of legal text, T&Cs, etc.

Explain to users in plain English why their data is needed in order to deliver personalised experiences and illustrate the benefits they’ve received in exchange for it.

Conversion & purchase decision stats for 2020

As consumer demands change, the defining factors that influence purchase decisions also evolve and brands need to adapt to some important shifts that will define 2020 and the decade ahead.

#8: 56% of users trust SMB websites more than Google My Business

Trust is a key factor in every consumer journey and BrightLocal offered up an interesting finding in early 2019. It turns out 56% of users say they trust the information on a small business website more than the details listed on Google My Business (32%).

This is good news for small businesses concerned about the impact of zero-click searches, which are an inherent part of the Google Maps experience. Once again, however, when business really matters, the majority of users are clicking through to the business’ website to make sure they get accurate info.

Interestingly, the same study also showed that 60% of online users prefer to contact a small business by calling them on the phone.

#9: Review scores of 3.7 out of 5 deliver the highest conversion boost

Perfection is impossible to attain but, luckily, consumers are smart enough to know this in today’s review-dominated online experience. A study conducted by Uberall found that the perfect review score to maximise conversion rates is anywhere between 3.5 and 3.7 out of 5.

It turns out people are suspicious if a business has 5/5 stars on a review site (fake reviews are no secret) and the number of reviews also plays a factor (the ideal number varies from sector to sector).

Above all, the way in which you deal with complaints, comments and questions on public platforms like Google My Business has a major impact on buyer decisions.

#10: 64% of consumers are now belief-driven buyers who want brands to deliver on societal issues, as well as products

Today’s consumers are increasingly concerned about social issues ranging from ethical manufacturing, climate change and human rights. Brands need to react to this increasing demand and reassess business processes at every level.

#11: 57% of page time is still spent above the fold

While it’s true that users are scrolling further down pages than ever before, thanks to the narrow, vertical nature of the mobile web, findings from Nielson Norman Group reveal that users still spend 57% of their time above the fold – something to keep in mind with homepage, landing page and email design, in particular.

Search marketing stats & trends for 2020

Every year, we’re told again that “SEO is dead” and 2019 was no exception, yet search remains one of the most vital channels for brands across all industries. There’s no doubt the search game is rapidly changing and the constant threat of being left behind can make this one of the most frustrating digital channels to work with. But all the stats point towards search being the key channel for brands in 2020, once again.

#4: Paid and organic search drive more than 70% of revenue for B2B brands

A study (PDF) carried out by BrightEdge and summarised here on Search Engine Land show that search drives more than 70% of revenue for B2B brands. According to the study, organic search is responsible for 53% of all site traffic and paid search contributes 15% of all visitors to B2B websites.

#5: Google organic search visits down 8% in Q2 2019 from previous year

Organic search is still the key channel for most brands but it is also true that overall traffic numbers are on the decline. Merkle’s digital marketing report for Q2 2019 revealed that organic search visits were down by 8% from the same time period in 2018.

Contributors include the ongoing increase in paid ads showing on the SERPs and an increase in zero-click searches where users get the information they need from the results page without clicking through to a website (like the example above).

However, what these stats don’t explain is that the majority of zero-click searches come from informational queries that rarely generate valuable business needs. Checking the weather in New York or asking Google who Britain’s first prime minister was aren’t exactly exciting prospects for corporate brands.

Overall organic traffic is down but paid traffic is also on the up and valuable leads are largely unaffected by zero-click searches.

Panic over.

#6: Google shows featured snippets for 86.3% of desktop searches, 73.3% on mobile

Featured snippets are the most common cause of zero-click searches and these are showing for the majority of queries across desktop and mobile now. Brands need to optimise and compete for featured snippets while formatting content that delivers a suitable answer in the SERPs while enticing them to click through for more information.

Start by identifying the featured snippets that can generate genuine leads, determine your chances of competing and optimise for the spots that are most valuable/achievable.

#7: 91% of content gets zero organic clicks from Google

This stat originally comes from an Ahrefs study and it circulated the web a lot in 2019, normally used to peddle some kind of product, service or predictable marketing strategy.

The reality is, the majority of content gets no organic engagement because the majority of it sucks. If you’re creating content people want to read and delivering it in the right places, you’re safely in the 9% minority.

Paid advertising stats for 2020

With organic search and social media becoming more volatile, paid advertising provides a reliable source of traffic that can be used as a buffer while you adapt your organic strategies.

#12: Paid search is the fastest-growing ad format in retail

Paid search is now the fastest-growing digital ad format in the retail industry, according to findings from eMarketer. It forecasts that search will account for 47.3% of total retail digital ad spending in 2020 with Amazon taking an increasing share of digital ad spend away from Google in the retail sector.

#13: Users hate auto-play video ads more than any other format

While search ads continue to rise, the struggle of display advertising are becoming increasingly clear. More accurately, we now have data that explains why users are so frustrated with display advertising and the findings hardly surprising.

Yet more research from eMarketer shows video ads that play automatically on websites (with sound) are the most annoying ad format. While ads that play automatically without sound are still the second-most annoying, according to its figures.

Audio ads on music streaming apps and podcasts are the third most annoying and ads that show up based on previous searches come in at fourth (careful with those remarketing campaigns!).

Only 10% said they don’t find online ads annoying.

Email marketing stats for 2020

Email marketing is another marketing channel that’s been written off in the past yet it continues to prove its worth, especially in today’s extended consumer journey. Email marketing can feel like a thankless task at times but some of the performance metrics are more encouraging than they first appear.

#14: Email subscribers spend just 1.1 seconds scanning your emails before deciding whether to read them

According to HubSpot, email subscribers who open your emails spend just 1.1 seconds scanning them before deciding whether to read them in more detail. This means you have just over one second to make the message in your email clear and make it compelling enough to encourage further engagement.

#15: The average email open rate was 17.92% in 2018

This stat comes from Campaign Monitor’s Ultimate Email Marketing Benchmarks for 2019 report. For any brand looking to gauge its email marketing performance against the industry benchmarks, this is the report to look at and open rates are always one of the most measures of success.

According to the report, the average open rate in 2018 was 17.82% and there are plenty of other insights offered, including:

Average click-through rate: 2.69%
Average unsubscribe rate: 0.17%
Average click-to-open rate: 14.10%
Average bounce rate: 1.06%

The report also breaks down these metrics into industry-specific benchmarks so you can see how you compare with your competitors and see how much variations can be expected across different industries. Definitely worth taking a look at this report and keeping an eye out for Campaign Monitor’s 2020 update when it comes out later this year.

#16: 61% of people not reading your emails stay subscribed because they expect to do business with you in the future

Smart Insights has its own email marketing benchmark report, filled with its own benchmarks that make for a good comparison with Campaign Monitor’s data. There are plenty of unique insights in the report, too, such as the reasons why subscribers don’t open your emails.

Also writing for Smart Insights, Tim Watson introduces another stat from Zettasphere’s Email Addiction report that explores this topic further. The report found that a sizeable 61% of people not reading emails stay subscribed to lists because they expect to do business with those brands later, even if the present email campaigns aren’t grabbing their attention.

#17: 51% of email marketers say data integration is the biggest obstacle to personalisation

Writing for Econsultancy in October 2019, Nikki Gilliland explained how more than half of marketers say data integration is the biggest obstacle to delivering effective personalisation in email marketing campaigns. This came from Econsultancy’s 13th annual Email Marketing Industry Census, which was published in partnership with Upland Adestra.

“Econsultancy’s survey of more than 400 marketers revealed that personalisation is still a big priority, with 67% of respondents saying the thing they want to improve on is the practise of better personalisation… However, integrating data continues to be the biggest challenge for companies trying to implement personalisation, highlighted by 51% of respondents.”

As Nikki explains in her write-up, “this is often due to difficulty in unifying different sources of information, amplified by the plethora of different marketing platforms and tools available,” which highlights the importance of having the right tools to bring all of your data together and visualise it in a single place.

Surprising stats that buck some popular “trends” for 2020

Marketing stats are normally published as a way to support the emergence of new trends and defend the ongoing use of some old ones. The problem with stats is that you can generally find data that supports any argument although a lot of publishers are too lazy to even go that far. Many will simply publish any old statistic like 23% of X will do Y and expect us to be excited by the idea of fewer than 1 in 4 people doing something.

Maybe they think we won’t notice but I suspect they don’t even care.

So, with this in mind, I want to offer up a couple of stats that have genuine weight to them and contradict some of the popular “trends” that are being pedalled to us.

#18: 86% of users still prefer humans to chatbots

Just when you think chatbots are ready to take over and replace human interactions in digital commerce, 86% of respondents to a survey admit they prefer speaking to humans than a bot.

Well, there goes that theory.

This doesn’t mean chatbots don’t have their place in the consumer journey. I’m about as sceptical as anyone when it comes to bots but I can see genuine use cases where they can add value to brand interactions. Not to mention, we’ve previously looked at case studies where bots have had a positive impact.

The problem is, companies invested in this technology try to hype it up as something that’s going to solve world hunger and then people are either disappointed when it doesn’t or realise there’s no single fix to complex problems like customer service in the digital age.

#19: 72% of marketers have no plans to optimise for voice search

While the buzz around chatbots has died down a little bit, one of its close relatives is gearing up for years of buzz and hype. Listen to the majority of search marketing experts out there and they’ll tell you voice search is the key trend everyone needs to be optimising for, despite the fact few people are actually using the technology to buy anything.

“Hey Google, what’s the weather like in Trinidad” doesn’t sound like a golden lead generation channel to me.

Surprisingly, 72% of marketers in a recent study said they have no plans to optimise for voice search, almost as if they’ve analysed the business potential of devices like Google Home and decided the opportunities simply aren’t there in enough volume to make it a worthwhile channel – at least, not for now.

Keeping things relevant in 2020

Hopefully, the up-to-date stats in this article will be of some use and/or interest for you in the year ahead. At the very least, this article should act as an example of how a stats article should be compiled when the damn headline promises to deliver information that’s useful and relevant for 2020.

Who knows, maybe this will start a new trend of its own and in 2021 we can all gush over this fresh concept of publishing content that’s actually relevant to its own headline and the keywords people actually type into search engines when they’re looking for something.

The post 19+ Marketing Stats & Findings That Actually Matter For 2020 appeared first on Venture Harbour.

19 Productivity Hacks to Get More Done in 2020

Productivity has become a top priority for businesses and individuals in recent with this performance metric getting more attention than ever before. There’s a boom in productivity software and philosophies, too, which is good in the sense that we’ve got plenty of tools on our side. However, the negative side of this is that there are a lot of sales pitches hidden among the genuine advice (assuming there is any, to begin with).

In this article, we’re not focusing on the tools but rather the techniques and habitual changes that make a real difference to productivity. These are backed by science and geared towards the needs of modern digital workers and the unique challenges that come with working in this connected age.

Changing habits is the key to productivity

To maximise productivity, you have to change working habits and this is the most challenging aspect, especially when the workplace itself has formed these habits into you and everyone around you.

Changing the habits of one person isn’t enough; you have to reprogram the group think of an entire organisation to remove resistance to widespread change.

One of the biggest problems with modern work culture is the emphasis on being busy. The kind of thinking that, if you’ve completed your to-do list then you clearly don’t have enough on your workload – but where does this mentality end?

It doesn’t.

The productivity hacks we’re looking at in this article are habits that modern teams and workers need to form and a lot of these are going to require you, collectively as a team, to break some established working practices and retrain the way your mind operates in the workplace.

So let’s get started.

#1: Stop multitasking

The first thing you need to do before you can maximise productivity is to stop multitasking. This is one of those long-established habits of busy people who are desperate to save time by doing more than one thing at once or switch between tasks.

Sadly, multitasking is a false efficiency that ends up costing you more time than it saves. And, to make matters worse, studies have shown that multitasking has a wide range of negative impacts on the human mind.

“For nearly all people, in nearly all situations, multitasking is impossible. When we think we’re multitasking, most often we aren’t really doing two things at once – but instead, individual actions in rapid succession.” – Cleveland Clinic academic centre

Personally, I’ve always been a bit of a sucker for multitasking and thinking it’s going to save me time. But I can quite clearly see that it takes me longer to complete each task if I try to handle more than one thing at a time so my own experience backs up the countless studies that say multitasking doesn’t work.

Knowing this is one thing but changing the habit is something else and this is by far the toughest productivity habit I’ve had to crack. As soon as there’s a setback or time feels short, it’s easy to instinctively revert to multitasking, in a desperate bid to claw back time but it only makes matters worse.

To ditch multitasking for good, you’ll need the right team that understands it’s a false efficiency and the tools to help you focus on individual tasks.

#2: Set a single goal for each day

To forget about multitasking, you have to retrain your mind to concentrate on single tasks. This goes against everything our busy, digital lives encourages us to do but the solution to this problem also lies in the same digital tech that exacerbates it.

We use a productivity app called Serene to organise our workflow and keep us focused on the task at hand. The tools encourage you to set a single goal for each working day, which constantly reinforces the idea of focusing on individual tasks. You can break daily goals into multiple tasks or work sessions, where you’ll only work on that specific task (and nothing else) for the allocated time.

There’s no time left for multitasking.

#3: Work in short bursts

The human mind can only concentrate on the same task for so long although scientific studies haven’t been able to provide a conclusive number. Some studies have suggested people start to lose focus after 10-20 minutes while others are slightly more generous. Certain, more recent, studies point towards much shorter attention spans in the digital age.

Either way, an hour is a long time in terms of maintaining focus and this is why it makes sense to work in short bursts. One of the most popular productivity principles is the Pomodoro Technique, which involves working in 25-minute sessions followed by a five-minute break.

We do something very similar with Serene, which allows you to create working sessions between 20-60 minutes. So what I do is break my day into two-hour slots and then use the Pomodoro Technique to have two twenty-five minute sessions per hour, broken up by five-minute breaks. I sometimes also create 50-minute sessions and have a ten-minute break to make up the rest of the hour.

I find this makes it easier for me to organise my schedule and keeps me working towards competing tasks within 25 minutes.

#4:Take regular breaks

If you follow the Pomodoro Technique or a similar approach to working in short bursts, you’ll naturally find yourself taking regular breaks. This gives your mind a chance to recover from intense focus but you have to smart about how you spend your downtime.

Your instinct might be to open Twitter or Instagram but this digital onslaught of content doesn’t allow your mind to truly “switch off”.

To maximise the benefit of each break, it helps to avoid anything that’s mentally taxing in any kind of way. This is especially true for short breaks where you’re going to have to get back to work in a matter of minutes. For a five-minute break to actually count, you’re going to want to avoid anything that divides your attention, involves any decision-making or requires concentration.

Your mind is hard at work during each session and now you want to focus as little as possible. The best thing you could do is zone out completely and think of nothing or meditate to relax your mind and body. Another good option is to do some yoga or stretches while keeping your mind clear, giving yourself a cognitive break but also an important physical break from sitting down.

#5: Block distracting apps/websites

According to research carried out by RescueTime, the average digital worker can’t go more than 6 minutes without checking their email or instant messaging. The digital nature of our work and social lives leaves us constantly checking for notifications and this constant distraction hampers our ability to focus on tasks for even short periods of time.

This really has to change.

There are a number of website and app blocker tools on the market and this is one of the key features in Serene, too. You create a list of apps and website (you can block individual pages, too), which will automatically be blocked during work sessions. You can even prevent notifications coming through during work hours and they’ll automatically come in once the session has finished.

#6: Create a dedicated workspace

This one is crucial if you work from home or remotely. Don’t just sit on the couch or at the dinner table; create a dedicated workspace where you can go to work and then leave it once you’re done. I’ve spent a lot of my time working on the road and, for me, the best I could do was work in cafes or co-working spaces although I never really got on with co-working spaces, to be honest (don’t tell anyone).

If you’re working from home, take advantage of the space you have to create a home office dedicated for work and nothing else.

#7: Choose the right project/task management tools

I’ve mentioned Serene a few times already in this article but there are tonnes of productivity apps out there to help you get more done. The first thing you’re going to want is a good project/task management platform and, again, there are plenty of options available.

Trello, Monday and Asana are great options for project management platforms and there are dozens of task management tools like to-do list makers. You can see my list of recommendations in our 10 best to-do list apps and day planners article.

#8: Create shared goals within teams

Priyanka B.Carr and Gregory M.Walton published a study entitled Cues of working together fuel intrinsic motivation in 2014. Their findings reinforced the already-accepted idea that shared goals increase productivity and motivation within teams.

ScienceDirect hosts this joint study where it lists the highlights and key findings:

A defining aspect of human society is that people work together toward common ends.
Five experiments examined cues that evoke a psychological state of working together.
As hypothesized, these cues increased intrinsic motivation as people worked alone.
Outcomes were diverse, e.g., task persistence, enjoyment and, 1–2 weeks later, choice.
These cues also increased feelings of working together but not other processes.

The answer here lies in creating a strong team spirit based around shared goals, achievements and rewards. To make this happen, you need the right project management platform that allows you to create shared goals, as well as collaborative and individual tasks.

#9: Choose the right collaboration tools

Collaboration tools help teams communicate more effectively and work together on joint tasks/projects. The tools your team is going to need depends on how you want to work together. For example, an in-house team may have relatively modest needs from collaboration tools whereas teams with remote workers will rely more heavily on them for even basic communications and group tasks.

Slack is as good as any team communication tool on the market, turning instant messaging into a genuine productivity tool. For basic document sharing and collaboration, Google Drive may offer everything you need. While InVision is a powerful collaboration tool for design teams and Spark makes collaborative email a reality.

#10: Know when to work alone

Collaboration is constantly mentioned in productivity discussion but working together doesn’t always mean we get more done. There are plenty of studies that show collaboration isn’t always helpful for productivity but we shouldn’t need test groups to confirm this.

We know there are times when we’re better off working alone.

The key thing for teams is to know when collaboration is beneficial and when it’s time to work alone. Team managers also need to understand that some people respond better to working alone more than others – like more, for example.

This is one reason why I’m not a big fan of co-working spaces. It doesn’t mean they’re not beneficial to me in certain ways and I understand they’re more beneficial to many other people.

We’re all different and team managers need to strive to get the best out of individuals, as well as the collective.

#11: Know when to say “no”

This is one I still struggle with more than I would like. I’m getting better at saying “no” to clients but it almost pains me to say I can’t do something for them. The problem is, taking on too much on compromises the quality of the work I’ll be able to deliver -not only for the client in question, but my other clients as well.

So I really have to force myself to say “no” when it’s not realistic to take more on.

I’m at a point now where I’m finally refusing to work at weekends or work in the evenings. None of my clients push me to take too much on and they’re always very accommodating with arranging alternative deadlines (as am I) but all of this pressure comes from me, nobody else.

It’s a counterproductive pressure though.

By learning to say “no” and maximising productivity in other areas, I’m naturally able to do more for my clients than I would if I kept agreeing to take everything on. Crucially, I feel justified in saying “no” when I need to because I know it’s what is best for me and my clients. I also know I’m already close to achieving maximum productivity and taking too much on will only ruin the balance I’ve found.

This problem is solved by simply changing my way of thinking and this is actually the key step with most productivity hacks. The tools and techniques will help but you really have to change yourself and your way of thinking to break old habits and achieve a higher level of productivity.

#12: Prevent interruptions

Earlier, we talked about digital workers constantly checking apps and research has shown how long it can take us to recover from such distractions – up to 25 minutes, according to some studies. Notifications are a real issue here and the constant barrage of emails and IMs is a major productivity killer that teams often fail to address.

Working in short bursts will help you maximise productivity but this isn’t going to happen if you’re constantly being interrupted by colleagues.

The answer is pretty simple: block the notifications during work sessions and use availability statuses in tools like Slack or Status Hero so everyone can see who is busy and avoid interruptions.

#13: Track tasks but let people crack on

Another great feature of Status Hero is that team members quickly provide a status update to say what they’re working on and they can also list “blockers” which are issues preventing them from completing specific tasks.

This means everyone on the team can see what people are currently working on and understand why certain tasks may not have been completed yet. This context, along with availability statuses, not only helps prevent unnecessary interruptions but also saves a bunch of time on pointless messages like “are you busy,” “have you done [task] yet?” etc.

#14: Tame your email inbox

Email remains one of the most powerful communication platforms for businesses and teams, connecting you with the outside world (wide web). However, it’s also a major drag on productivity when it comes to notifications or creating messages that need input from multiple departments/people.

Spark basically solves all of these problems with its intelligent email client that prevents your inbox from being a liability. Its Smart Inbox automatically categorises your emails from every account assigned to it, allowing you to filter out the emails that don’t matter and prioritise the ones that do.

You can also snooze specific emails for later, assign emails to team members, chat with team members, share drafts, set reminders for follow-ups and schedule emails to send them later.

With Spark, multiple team members can even work on the same email at the same time while communicating via instant messaging on the platform. This means there are no more emails to clients, saying “I’ve CC’d James and he’ll explain that technical issue we talked about earlier”.

All the key details can be included in emails by the right person without any confusion or inaccuracy.

#15: Use a scheduling app for meetings

Organising meetings and group work sessions can be a nightmare for digital teams. If you’ve got a bunch of remote workers in your team, this task is made even more difficult and worse still if you’ve got team members spread out across different time zones.

The good news is there are scheduling apps that can take out the endless email back-and-forths. Doodle is one of these apps but it’s by no means the only option you’ve got for this task.

#16: Make meetings productive

When you do have meetings, make sure they’re also productive. A common problem I’ve experienced as a remote worker is being part of teams that seem to have meetings every week for the sake of it with the same people attending when they don’t really need to be there.

In the majority of cases, I’ve signed out of digital meetings thinking I didn’t really achieve enough to justify a 30-minute group chat rather than a few instant messages.

The meetings I’ve found to be most productive are the ones where we’ve used the time to discuss and solve problems that are getting in the way of progress. This is where group ideas can really shine.

Sadly, I’ve spent too much time in “meetings” listening to people talk about what they have done/will do when I don’t really need to hear that information, unless I’m the team manager.

#17: Schedule notifications

You may have noticed I’m not a big fan of notifications but this comes from knowing how much of a distraction they have been to me in the past.

When I first started working remotely, I told every client that “I’m only an email away” and prided myself on responding to emails almost instantly.

In principle, I still like the idea but, in practice, it simply isn’t workable.

Every time I allow a notification to interrupt my workflow, in letting it interrupt the work I’m doing for another client. The best thing for everyone (myself included) is that I focus on the task at hand, do it to my best ability and address other things when the time comes.

So now I block communications apps during my Serene sessions and address notifications during the two hour-long breaks I take (20 minutes for admin tasks and 40 minutes for actual break time).

#18: Switch off after work

For me, this is one of the hardest parts about being a remote worker and a freelancer, in general.

I’m not alone, either.

According to Buffer’s 2019 State of Remote Work report, switching off after work is the hardest part about working remotely/from home.

For me, this comes back to knowing when to say “no”. It’s a personal battle that has more to do with you than your clients, team or employer (if it’s not, then they have a major problem).

The easy answer for me was to schedule notifications so I don’t see them outside of working hours. I make it clear to each client when I’m available and Tool blocks notifications until 8am, Monday-Friday.

I do this with a tool called Daywise.

#19: Don’t get bogged down in too much tech

We’ve looked at a lot of software tools in this article that will help you boost productivity and there are plenty of other great tools out there. That said, I should point out an inherent danger in becoming overly dependent on software. Or, more to the point, the wrong type of software or too much of it.

Use the tools you need but make sure they are actually improving your productivity. You don’t want to spend five hours every week looking at analytics on your productivity performance if the tools are only saving you three hours, for example.

Make 2020 more productive

While we’ve looked at quite a few software tools in this article, the emphasis here is on forming productive habits and simply choosing the tools that will help you focus on achieving your targets. To become more productive, you have to be willing to change the way you think about organising and completing tasks, but you’re also going to need the right kind of team (with the right kind of mentality) to nurture a truly productive working relationship.

So hack your thinking with the 19 points we’ve looked at in this article and make 2020 your most productive year yet,

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9 Ways to Increase Leads By Adding ‘Good’ Friction to Your Website

In conversion rate optimisation (CRO), there’s this terrible misconception that friction is a bad thing. Marketers, software companies and self-proclaimed experts are constantly telling us that we need to reduce friction at all costs (normally via expensive CRO software) to maximise conversion rates.

What a load of nonsense.

Friction isn’t inherently a bad thing. It’s a tool we can use to influence user behaviour and the vast majority of what we do as marketers, designers and developers is utilise friction in calculated ways that shape the user experience. When we use friction poorly or create it unintentionally, conversion rates are likely going to suffer – and this is the kind of “bad” friction you want to remove through optimisation.

However, “good” friction is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal and, in this article, we’re looking at nine common examples of how you can increase conversions by adding friction.

#1: Using form friction to increase conversion rates, improve lead quality

All the guides on optimising web forms tell us that shorter forms are better for conversions. Reduce the number of fields, they tell us, and watch the leads roll in.

So why have multiple studies found that longer forms outperform shorter versions? Take the following experient carried out by conversion expert Michael Aagaard, which he published in a blog post for ConversionXL. After running a series of form optimisation test, removing form fields actually reduced conversion rates by more than 14% while opting for a longer field with more context provided in field labels increased conversions by 19.21%.

That’s right. Longer forms can achieve higher conversion rates.

As with most things in digital marketing, there are no absolute rules. So any time you read or hear a statement like shorter forms are better for conversions or any kind of X = Y absolute, you should question it.

There are always variables.

For example, let’s imagine someone is buying an expensive product online and they want to pay using finance. Users are going to be pretty suspicious if a supposed lender only aks for their email address and bank details. In this case, short forms could appear untrustworthy but lenders also need to make sure applicants meet the right criteria – so it’s also a question of improving lead quality, not only quantity.

Adding ‘good’ friction with multistep forms

You can also use longer forms to enhance the conversion process for users. One of the worst metrics for poor conversion rates is form dropouts. These are people who start filling out your form but fail to complete it for whatever reason. They’ve bought into your message but your web form has somehow killed the motivation.

We spent years trying to solve this problem and we finally cracked it by creating multi-step forms that guide users through the conversion. We’ve increased lead generation by up to 743% on the Venture Harbour website and our clients’ products.

The impact was so huge that we built our own form design and optimisation tool called Leadformly that allows you to design high-converting forms and embed them on any page.

Now, there are a number of things that contributed to those huge conversion increases by switching to multistep forms:

The multistep design means users only see the first step of each form, removing form length from the equation as people decide whether to convert or not. Every form looks like a short form, no matter how long it actually is.
Conditional logic removes questions that aren’t relevant to each user as they fill out your form. This shortens your forms in real-time, based on the information users provide.
Conditional logic also means you only ask relevant questions to each prospect, which means every part of the form engages them on a personal level.
Progress bars provide visual feedback on how much of your form users have completed. More importantly, studies show this encourages form completion because people don’t want to lose the time they’ve already invested in making it this far – a psychological phenomenon known as sunk cost bias.
Image buttons drastically reduce the amount of typing users need to do in order to complete your forms and this is where the majority of bad friction comes from in terms of form optimisation.
By replacing text fields with image buttons, your forms are far better suited for the mobile experience where typing form information is particularly frustrating.
Built-in form analytics allows you to pinpoint any issues users are experiencing with your forms and minimise form dropouts.

By implementing and optimising multistep forms across our ventures (and our clients’) we’ve removed bad friction from the form process, eg: unnecessary typing, poor mobile optimisation, irrelevant fields, etc. However, we’ve also managed to add good friction by asking more questions to increase engagement and relevance. The trick was formatting these longer forms in a way that enhanced the experience of completing forms rather than compromising it.

The end results has been significantly higher conversion rates but also a much higher quality of leads that are more engaged and likely to buy from us.

#2: Using exit-intent popups to capture lost leads

This technique is simple and common enough that it doesn’t need too much explanation. Exit-intent popups triggered on desktop devices when it looks like a user is about to quit the session. Now, in terms of pure UX principles, this adds bad friction by making it more difficult for people to quit your website. However, from a lead generation point of view, this gives you one final chance to convert users who would otherwise leave your website.

Once a user decides to leave your site, you haven’t really got anything else to lose by adding a bit of friction to the experience. This tactic isn’t without its risks, though. If the message in your exit-intent popups doesn’t tempt outgoing visitors, you might put them off your brand for good by making it more difficult for them to leave.

So it’s really important the message in your popups is compelling – something you’ll want to test.

Unbounce has a really great popups feature built into its platform that makes it easy to add and test popup messages. This is one of those pros/cons compromises you have to make in terms of compromising UX for the sake of increasing conversions.

#3: Adding friction to create personalised experiences

According to research from Salesforce, 57% of online buyers are happy to exchange personal data in return for personalised offers or discounts. Now, personalisation is one of the biggest trends in marketing right now but something that seems to be left out of the conversation is that personalisation drastically increases friction. The key thing is this: effective personalisation adds good friction by enhancing the customer experience and studies show consumers are willing to accept this friction when it’s clear that they’re going to receive better offers/services in exchange.

Effective personalisation adds good friction by enhancing the customer experience and studies show consumers are willing to accept this friction when it’s clear that they’re going to receive better offers/services in exchange.

Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Bull&Bear adds navigational friction to personalise the on-site experience

Clothing retailer Pull&Bear uses a data-free navigational approach to personalising every session on its website. This refines the options available to users based on the preferences they define by navigation through the site, starting by selecting which gender of clothes they’re interested in.

Users are then prompted to choose more specific clothing categories rather than simply using the search field or working their way through a complex navigation menu.

In theory, this is a restrictive approach to navigation that adds friction by increasing the number of clicks users need to take to get to their destination. But this added friction allows Pull&Bear to deliver more relevant content at each step of the way. Users can still use the search and navigation menu options if they know what they’re looking for but this navigational approach to personalisation creates a more intuitive experience for users who are more interested in browsing before they make any purchases.

Care/of turns friction into a personalised service

Care/of requires a lot of personal information from users in order to deliver unique health supplement recommendations to every user. The main CTA on its homepage asks users to “Take the quiz,” which makes it clear that this isn’t going to be a quick name and email process.

However, this is the entire concept behind Care/of’s business model. It provides 100% personalised services to each customer and makes it clear that it’s in-depth data collection process is precisely what makes the brand able to improve the health of each and every customer.

The perceived value Care/of’s service outweighs the friction users experience while signing up. Users know that the more information they provide, the more relevant Care/of’s recommendations will be and this is the crucial exchange brands need to deliver when it comes to highly-personalised experiences.

#4: Adding friction to prevent errors

There are other cases, where adding friction can improve user experiences by making it more difficult for people to make mistakes. We see this in software design all the time – for example, when we’re asked if we’re sure we want to delete files permanently before they discarded into oblivion.

We also see friction being used to prevent errors during the conversion process. For example, form validation prevents people from successfully submitting information if it’s not provided correctly. Essentially, you’re making it more difficult to complete forms as a way of guaranteeing the data you really need is there. Good form validation benefits the user by helping them to add accurate info, such as their correct email address.

Implemented well, form validations also provides visual feedback to show users everything they have entered is suitable while picking up any errors as they fill the form out.

Source: Baymard Institute

In theory, this should lead to fewer mistakes and fewer users quitting the session before successfully converting.

Another example of this is using dialogue boxes asking users if they’re sure they want to leave the checkout process before completing the purchase. By adding friction, you can rule out accidental dropouts and use this as an opportunity to deliver a message that encourages users to complete the purchase now. Alternatively, you could push for a softer conversion by asking users to save their cart by submitting their email address.

Source: Sleeknote

Users don’t need to make any commitment now but getting your hands on their email address now means you’re able to chase up the lead and even tempt them with other purchases that might peak their interests.

#5: Encouraging users to create accounts

This is a common technique used by eCommerce brands that have a lot to gain from users creating an account before completing a purchase. Having that all-important email address allows you to send follow-up campaigns featuring purchase recommendations, upselling/cross-selling offers, new promotions and personalised offers.

For eCommerce brands, having customer data assigned to a user account can be invaluable. Well worth the price of adding friction.

For consumers, this friction might be too much for them to willingly complete the purchase so it’s worth thinking about providing an option to checkout as a guest.

eCommerce brands aren’t the only ones pushing people to create user accounts, either. Software platforms ranging from SEMrush to Spotify revolve around user accounts and publishers are increasingly asking users to create accounts in exchange for accessing content.

In many cases, these are paid memberships designed to monetise websites that have lost out on advertising revenue over the years. However, a lot of publishers also ask users to create free accounts in order to access content, especially if the publisher monetises its brand in other ways.

It all comes down to what you need from conversions. Some brands have little choice but to ramp up the friction in order to guarantee all conversions are of a certain value, even if this means accepting lower conversion rates overall.

#6: Adding friction to secure the data you need

As we’ve established multiple times already in this article, getting user data from people adds all kinds of friction. Sadly, this is a necessary evil in today’s digital world but we’ve also looked at a number of ways that you can add “good” friction to enhance the user experience while collecting the data you need.

There is another approach, though.

In this blog post, Growthmentor‘s Foti Panagiotakopoulos explains how the company intentionally added friction to its onboarding process, for a temporary period, purely for the sake of collecting data. The experiment resulted in conversions dropping by more than 80% (ouch!) by creating a signup process that “disjointed, annoying, and completely hacked together,” in his own words.

Source: Growthmentor

However, the experiment also provided the company with the critical data it needed to better understand its user base. Once Growthmentor had the data it needed, it reverted to a more user-friendly signup process and doing what it can to secure additional data from users after they’ve already signed up.

In this particular example, we see a brand introducing “bad” friction temporarily for the sake of achieving a higher, long-term objective.

#7: Adding friction to reassure users

Earlier, I mentioned an example where friction during the process of applying for finance helps reassure potential customers that they’re dealing with a legitimate lender. At the time, I was talking specifically about form optimisation and why shorter web forms don’t always convert well. However, this principle applies to all kinds of online transactions where customer trust in the retailer needs to be earned.

Adding the right kind of friction here is crucial.

For example, making it too easy for existing customers to buy additional products with a single click could result in accidental purchases and discourage them from continuing to use the same site/platform. Again, adding friction to prevent errors, in this case, can help secure ongoing conversions over a long-term basis.

Before users even get to this stage, though, adding friction can reassure users that they’re dealing with a legitimate brand and build trust. In this article for Smashing Magazine, Zoltan Kollin cites an example where users of a Well’s Fargo eye-scanning system didn’t trust the application because it worked too quickly.

According to another anecdote, Well’s Fargo developed an eye-scan-based log-in to its mobile banking app that worked really quickly. The user’s eyes were scanned and processed, and the user was logged in in milliseconds. In fact, the log-in experience was too fast for users; they felt that they had been logged in without their eye patterns being thoroughly validated, and they reported that they would not continue using such an unreliable log-in method. So, in the next iteration, designers simply added a few seconds of delay to the authentication process, and customers immediately started to claim that the log-in process was thorough and secure.

Zoltan Kollin goes on to explain how adding fake progress bars for certain interactions can increase the perception of trust, especially when it comes to actions people expect to be secure.

He uses the example of Facebook allegedly adding a fake progress bar after users update their privacy and security settings to illustrate the fact those changes are actually taking place.

#8: Creating value by adding friction

We’ve already looked at how software companies use friction to prevent mistakes, collect data and provide personalised experiences. Arguably, though, the most important application of friction for software companies is using it to create a perception of value between the different versions of its product.

By restricting features on cheaper versions of subscription-based products, companies can use friction as a motivator to buy a more expensive plan. They can also ramp up the friction these lacking features create while using cheaper versions of the platform to increase the incentive for existing users to upgrade to a more expensive version.

#9: Friction as a cross-selling/upselling technique

Software companies aren’t the only brands that use friction as a cross-selling/upselling technique. In fact, retail brands can use this to great effect as well, as you’ll see if you add an item to your basket on the Jessops website.

As soon as I add a nice new Nikon Z 6 to my basket, the website hits me with this popup asking me if I want to add these related items. I can add them if I want, continue shopping or head right to the checkout to complete the purchase.

The quality of Jessops’ recommendations is crucial, too. Here’s it’s asking me whether I want to add a Sony XQD card, one of the few types of cards that are compatible with Nikon Z (regular SD cards are no good). The other recommendation is an extra battery compatible with the Z 6, which is tempting because mirrorless cameras like the Z 6 have inferior battery life to modern DSLR type cameras.

Both of these recommendations are highly tempting because they’re so relevant to the needs of Nikon Z 6 users.

Reduce the bad, utilise the good

So, there you have it. Don’t buy into the misconception that friction is a conversion killer. If it is, it means you’re not using it properly. Understanding the difference between “good” and “bad” friction is a learning process that never ends but the first step along this journey is realising that not all friction is bad.

Generally speaking, good friction should do one of two things: either add value to the user experience or add value to the leads you’re generating, even if it comes at the expense of hurting UX to some extent. It all comes down to finding the right balance between optimum conversion rates and capturing the right quality of conversions.

The post 9 Ways to Increase Leads By Adding ‘Good’ Friction to Your Website appeared first on Venture Harbour.

30+ Killer Examples of Personalised Customer Experiences

According to research from Salesforce, 75% of business buyers expect the companies they buy from to provide personalised experiences, anticipate their individual needs and provide relevant suggestions.

Separate research has found that 57% online buyers are happy to exchange personal data in return for personalised offers or discounts. While a similar majority of 58% say personalised experiences are important when buying from a company.

There’s a lot of talk about personalisation in the marketing industry these days but it’s important to understand this is a subject that matters to business and consumer buyers themselves. This isn’t just another buzz term doing the rounds at marketing conferences and tech shows; this is one of the trends that matter most to the people you want on your customer list.

If you haven’t got a sold personalisation strategy in place for 2020, you’re in danger of falling behind competitors who deliver the experiences your target audiences are really looking for. The aim of this article is to show you how widespread personalisation already is across brands of different sectors and sizes, as well as how many different approaches there are to providing a more compelling customer experience.

Here are 30 brands that are already killing it with personalised customer experiences.

#1: Pull&Bear’s navigational approach to personalisation

Every conversation about marketing personalisation seems to revolve around user data, suggesting it’s not possible to deliver personalised experiences without getting your claws on personal info. While it’s true that you can do so much more when you have relevant data on your side, you can create personalised experiences without it and you don’t need to wait until you’ve got users handing over data to start doing so.

Clothing retailer Pull&Bear is proof of this with its navigational approach to personalisation. For new visitors, the session starts by asking users if they want to browse women’s or men’s clothes and the site continues to navigationally personalise the experience from there.

This doesn’t require any data whatsoever but it does create a more relevant and personalised experience that’s intuitive every step of the way. Pull&Bear does ask users for consent to store their data for future sessions but the experience doesn’t rely on this data exchange and users are never denied access to anything for refusing to give consent.

User choices can be remembered via cookies and the experience becomes even more personalised when users create accounts, buy products and engage with the brand. But Pull&Bear is providing personalisation from the very first visit for every user, regardless of when they convert.

#2: Personalising the signup process with multi-step forms

Signup forms aren’t something many marketers think about in terms of personalisation. In fact, web forms are rarely at the top of priority lists for brands, despite them being where the most important actions take place: conversions.

Instead of delivering the same, poorly-optimised forms to every user, you can create a more engaging experience that adapts to the needs of each user. Leadformly‘s multi-step forms use conditional logic to adapt to the information users provide.

Aside from engaging with users on a personal basis, this also allows you to qualify and segment leads while they’re signing up. This means you can prioritise leads, automate responses and send more relevant messages to each user from the very first email.

Welcome to personalised conversion experiences.

#3: Amazon’s product recommendations

One of the most famous examples of personalisation is also one of the most successful. Amazon’s product recommendation engine reportedly contributed to 30% of the eCommerce giant’s revenue by 2015 and, in theory, it’s recommendations should only be more effective with five years worth of additional data running through its algorithms.

There are plenty of product recommendation engines on the market, promising to deliver a similar experience for B2C and B2B retailers. Keep in mind that product recommendations are routinely cited by customers as one of the most desired forms of personalisation.

#4: Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign

Coca-Cola offered up another example of (mostly) data-free personalisation with the Share a Coke campaign, which was created by Ogilvy.

With 50% of teens and young adults having not enjoyed a Coca-Cola in the previous month alone – we had to reconnect with our key audience. We printed the 150 most popular Australian names on Coke bottles and cans and invited Australians to ‘Share a coke’. The rest is History.

The campaign ran in over 80 markets over a seven-year period, featuring popular names in countries from Australia to Vietnam. The campaign reversed an 11-year consumption decline in the US and helped the drinks brand boost its presence across international markets.

It also proved offline personalisation can be effective, too.

#5: Spotify’s account customisation

Spotify’s music recommends are designed to keep users engaged with the platform and consuming content but this isn’t the only way it uses hyper-personalisation. In fact, I would argue the streaming app’s most effective use of the technology lies in the extensive user account customisation that’s made possible.

Spotify encourages users to create their own playlists, essentially building an entire library of music on their account. Over the past ten years or so, I’ve gradually created hundreds of playlists with thousands of tracks assigned to my account – I couldn’t even guess what the actual numbers would be.

Why does this matter?

Because I can’t image the prospect of ditching Spotify and recreating those playlists on another platform (or losing them altogether). I’ve invested way too much time into Spotify and, as a result, I’m locked into paying for a premium account – quite happily, too.

#6: StitchFix’s personalised business model

Some of the most impressive examples of personalisation come from brands that turn it into an entire business model, delivering 100% personalised experiences for every customer.

Clothing retailer StitchFix turns the online shopping experience on its head by treating every customer as an individual. The startups isn’t merely selling clothes, it’s selling personalised style recommendations – entire wardrobes curated for each customer, based on their personal preferences, sizes and feedback.

Users provide relevant data about themselves – sizes, style preferences, favourite colours, etc. – and StitchFix analyses this data against the clothing patterns of consumers with similar tastes.

That’s not all, though.

StitchFix also has a team of more than a thousand human personal stylists who assess user profiles and provide expert stylist recommendations. Users then recieve their recommendations in the post to try for themselves and they only buy what they like.

Humans and machines, working together in harmony.

As a result, StitchFix delivers a truly personalised customer experience from the very first interaction – and the service only improves as it learns more about individual users.

#7: Grammarly’s weekly reports

Grammarly makes use of all the data it collects from its users to deliver weekly reports, providing an analysis of their writing technique. For the end user, this allows them to see how their writing has progressed since they’ve been using the app and pinpoint areas where they still need to improve.

Crucially, though, the real function of these reports is to show users how valuable the app is to them, establishing it as a vital tool for content creators, writers or people worried about silly typos in their emails. It also acts as an upselling strategy, reminding users that they’ll get even deeper insights into their writing habits and fix more problems if they upgrade to a paid account.

#8: The Venture Harbour Harbour personalisation plugin

Twice a year, the entire Venture Harbour team goes on a retreat to teach each other new skills, solve interesting problems, and build new products.

After a morning experimenting with content personalisation platforms, we realised that most content personalisation tools suck. Between GDPR limitations, annoying flicker effects and clunky user interfaces, we felt as though most of these tools had sold the sizzle well… but no sausage.

There was also no tool that simply allowed us to personalise content based on the answer to a question, without having to configure JavaScript variables, custom attributes and blah.

So, in an afternoon during our retreat, the team built one!

The WordPress Content Personalisation Plugin.

WordPress Content Personalization Plugin

Within 7 days we saw a sharp increase in engagement:

37.59% increase in average time on page
12.9% reduction in bounce rate

In addition to this, we saw an 88% increase in people clicking through to an email marketing tool, almost doubling the affiliate revenue generated from the content.

We also saw a sharp increase in rankings (resulting in a 53% increase in search traffic) within 3-4 weeks of adding this content personalisation. As this was one of the only changes we had made to this post in a long time, it’s possible that the improved engagement metrics were a contributing factor to increase rankings.

You’ll struggle to find a more simple personalisation technique that has this kind of impact.

 

#9: Starbucks’ gamified app

Starbucks’ mobile app has been so successful it was the most commonly-used platform for mobile payments until late 2019 when Apple Pay finally overtook the coffee brand.

Let’s be clear, the Starbuck’s app is not an online payment platform but it continues to dwarf the likes of Google Pay and Samsung Pay users in terms of online payments made in the US.

That’s how popular this app is.

The reason for this popularity has a lot to do with the popularity of Starbucks itself but the personalised experience the brand delivers through its mobile app is the key to its success. Customers can place orders and pick them up in-store and Starbucks has also gamified the customer experience by rewarding them with points for every purchase, which can be exchanged for freebies at a later date.

#10: Very’s weather personalisation strategy

Weather patterns impact the way people buy online and Very has responded to this by testing personalised content based on local weather patterns for users. So, if you’re sweltering in the summer heat, Very can deliver content and product recommendations for light, cool clothing options.

 

On the other hand, if you’re caught in a downpour and realise you haven’t got a suitable waterproof, Very can anticipate your needs based on the weather in your local area.

Brands have been slow to use weather data as a personalisation tool, despite it playing a huge role in a wide range of purchase decisions. This is something that needs to change and Very was an early adopter of the technique.

#11: Personalised lead generation

Marketing Automation Insider personalises the lead generation process by asking users what they need. It’s the same approach we looked at with Leadforly earlier and this is a good example of it working in the world.

Users provide information about their software needs, which refines the options the website provides as recommendations. The more info users submit, the more relevant the recommendations will be and Marketing Automation Insider allows users to get a free report sent to them by email.

It’s a great example of personalised lead generation, instead of generic content downloads.

#12: NetFlix’s content recommendations

After Amazon’s product recommendations, this may be the second-most famous example of personalisation. In terms of usability, Netflix’s content recommendations mean users don’t need to browse the platform to find something new to watch.

However, more importantly, the machine learning algorithms behind it allow Netflix to learn more about users and make compelling recommendations that will keep people using the paid streaming services. This is an important example of how content personalisation can keep subscribers paying for a service.

#13: Evergage’s personalised search results

Search functions are crucial for online retailers but Evergage doesn’t want brands to deliver generic search results. Instead, its personalisation platform allows brands to deliver individualised search results, based on the interests of each user.

Visitors who use your on-site search functionality are telling you exactly what they’re looking for, and it’s beneficial for you to help them find it quickly before they move on. Direct them to the products that they are looking for right in the search bar itself by using algorithms to surface the most relevant items for each person based on the brands, categories, price ranges, etc. they have already shown affinities for on your site. Search results that consider each person’s preferences and intent will show products that are relevant to the individual, not just to the search term, for maximum relevancy.

That makes a good case for delivering personalised search results, instead of returning the same set of results to everyone submitting the same query.

#14: easyJet’s personalised customer stories

Back in 2015, easyJet embarked on a hyper-personalised marketing campaign to celebrate its 20th anniversary. In a year when the likes of eBay and FT.com were also marking their 2oth birthday’s, easyJet’s campaign stood out above them all because it put its customers at the heart of its own celebrations.

The multi-channel campaign was centred around TV and social media ads featuring images from easyJet customers on their travels over the previous 20 years. The company later printed these images onto the side of one of its planes and compiled curated “top 20” lists and travel guides from its customers.

A lot have brands have tried to make the most of user-generated personalisation in recent years and many have failed spectacularly. However, easyJet nailed this with its anniversary campaign by aligning its business journey with the best and most memorable moments its customers have enjoyed from its services.

This campaign wasn’t really about easyJet; it was about its customers and this is what the end consumer wants to see from hyper-personalisation.

#15: Tesco’s Clubcard

Tesco’s Clubcard program has been around for so long now, it’s easy to forget it’s one of the most successful personalised marketing campaigns ever run in the UK.

The UK retailer has upped the game this year with its Clubcard Plus subscription service that promises to save customers even more money and deliver a wide range of extra benefits for £7.99 a month.

The role of Tesco’s traditional Clubcard service was to assign purchase data to its customer’s personal data: demographics, budgets, other purchases, etc. Now, the retailer is attempting to bring big spenders back into its stores and only time will tell whether it is as effective as its predecessor.

#16: Secret Escape’s website personalisation

This example was featured in a Smart Insights article back in early 2019, entitled The best examples of essential personalizations from across the web. Essentially, travel brand Secret Escapes adapts its on-site experience, depending on the keywords typed into Google Search.

As you can see, the copy and images on the site are delivered to match the purchase intent of the user.

Secret Escapes is by no means the only brand using this technique and it’s a relatively easy strategy to implement, using truncated URLs.

What’s great about this personalization is that updating content based on PPC search term is relatively easy since information about the paid search ad group and campaign is available in the referring URL query string.

This is a good example of tapping into Googe data to deliver a personalised experience that matches the unique desires of individual users.

#17: Argos’ personalised social Xmas campaign

Christmas campaigns are traditionally dominated by the like of John Lewis with their emotionally-driven storytelling ads. However, these days, the likes of Amazon, Lidl, ASDA, M&S and just about every UK retailer seems to be pumping out the same type of festive ads that collectively fail to distinguish themselves from each other.

Does your little one LOVE our Christmas ad as much as us? We’re giving you the chance to have your child appear in our TV ad this weekend! To enter, share a photo of your child with their name, age and #ReadyForTakeOff, either below or by private message! T&Cs apply: http://po.st/TVKidInTheAd

Posted by Argos on Tuesday, November 7, 2017

In 2017, Argos tried something a little different with its Christmas ad by ditching the sentiment aspect and focusing on personalisation. Here’s what eConsultancy had to say about the campaign:

It’s a decent enough ad, however, in order to build further hype and engagement Argos is also giving consumers the chance to be featured in a personalised version.

Encouraging parents on Facebook to submit pictures of their kids, it will send winners their own ad to share on social media, as well as pick a lucky three to feature in ads aired on television.

As eConsultancy points out, this campaign worked for Argos but many brands like Walkers and the National Lottery have failed miserably with similar campaigns that were hijacked by users submitting controversial content and failing to deal with this eventuality.

However, done correctly and with the right safeguards in place, these user-oriented campaigns can work wonders.

#18: DeepSky’s personalised calculator

DeepSky calls itself the “Entrepreneur’s Accounting Department,” promising to help creative business minds measure, visualise and hack their ventures to success. To boost lead generation, the company has integrated a personalised calculator in the Free Tools section of its website.

In a similar way to the Leadformly and Marketing Automation Insider examples, we looked at earlier, DeepSky’s calculator asks users questions about their business and provides a customised response based on the information they provide. The calculator is then able to provide users with an estimate on how much they should be paying on accounting per year in order to maximise business performance.

Once again, this helps DeepSky generate engaged leads but the data users submit also allows the company to score and prioritise leads, based on the value of them to the company.

#19: Care/of solving personal problems

Care/of essentially uses the same business model as StitchFix, which we looked at earlier: providing 100% personalised services for every customer. The difference is that, rather than offering up fashion advice, it aims to solve an even more personal problem.

The homepage leads with the following message on its hero section:

Take care of your energy, diet, stress, sleep… life

All users need to do is take a quick quiz and Care/of creates a plan of vitamins and supplements designed to help them feel better and boost their everyday health.

This plan changes as people progress through their initial course and their health reaches certain landmarks – all of which is logged in the mobile app. Users receive new recommendations as their journey progresses and everything is 100% personalised to their unique needs.

#20: NakedWines’ score-based recommendations

Naked Wines takes has created a personalised customer experience that revolves around wine recommendations, based on user reviews. Basically, customers rate wines they’ve tried and the site then recommends other wines to try based on their feedback.

Naked Wines isn’t a huge company and it doesn’t have the vast array of user data to work with that brands like Amazon and Netflix are built around. However, the UK retailer proves that effective personalisation can be achieved with a relatively modest amount of customer data.

#21: ModCloth’s online window shopping

Clothing retailer ModCloth understands that people sometimes want to window shop while other times they might want to buy on impulse or take their time with a more calculated purchase decision. The company also understands that the same person can choose to shop in all three ways (and many others) when the mood takes them.

So the retailer has created a website that allows users to like items, save them to lists and browse without any pressure to click the buy button (when the mood doesn’t take them).

The website is all about engagement but the soft-selling approach also allows ModCloth to build a larger dataset for each user, based on their likes and interests. This provides all the info the brand needs to target users with highly-relevant email offers, product recommendations and updates.

#22: House of Kaizen’s targeted landing pages & email strategy

In this post, agency House of Kaizen explains how it increased online ROI for Nuffield Health by delivering personalised emails based on landing page interactions.

House of Kaizen was tasked to increase click-through rates and lead generation conversion rates. We used highly tuned banners and emails that drove traffic to bespoke and optimised landing pages, where traffic was funneled through to conversion.

House of Kaizen achieved this by creating dedicated banners and bespoke emails including designs and content to power the online marketing campaign:

Emails: Custom made for each traffic segment.
Banner ads: Tuned to each affiliate network.
Relevant content strategy: Formulated to increase engagement, convert leads, complete goals, lower exit rates and reduce Cost per Lead.

By integrating multiple strategies, House of Kazen was able to achieve significant results from relatively simply personalisation across multiple channels.

#23: Graze

Healthy snack company Graze is another brand built around data-driven personalisation. Customers share their snack likes, dislikes and allergies and receive a regular subscription box full of personalized goodies. This data allows the company to deliver personalised snack recommendations comprising of around 500 products and 200 million possible combinations.

 

Graze says its algorithms use 300 million customer ratings of its products at a rate of 15,000 an hour, as well as other factors. This allows the brand to customise snack boxes are based on data straight from the consumers, along with other elements like nutrition and variety.

This is a fine example of how data-driven personalisation is one of the most effective modern business models.

#24: Unbounce’s Dynamic Text Replacement

More than an example of personalisation, this is a feature that will allow you to deliver personalised experiences. Earlier, we looked at how Secret Escapes delivered on-page experiences based on the keywords users type into Google Search and Unbounce’s Dynamic Text Replacement feature is designed to do just that.

It works by matching the copy in your PPC ads to the copy on your Unbounce landing pages, so you can deliver relevant content to users based on the same message that encouraged users to click in the first place.

#25: Henri Lloyd’s fitting recommendations

StitchFix isn’t the only online retailer that wants to find the perfect fit for every customer and Henri Lloyd ensures its users never need to worry about ill-fitting clothes – one of the biggest frustrations of buying clothes online.

The website prompts users to enter details like height, body shape, weight, etc. so its algorithm can make personalised size recommendations throughout the experience.

#26: Vi, the digital personal trainer

Vi is a personalised digital training app designed to encourage people to get out and run more often. The app promises to help people hit their fitness targets or give them their money back. The idea is to provide feedback data from every run and build a journey of progress that motivates users to keep reaching milestones.

Vi learns from user data to set realistic goals, provide valuable tips and integrate with other apps like Google Fit, Apple HealthKit and Spotify Premium. The app also allows users to run as part of an online community and compete against each other while also rewarding users for reaching achievements – all for a one-off fee that’ll cost far less than a year’s gym membership.

#27: Adidas’ gender email segmentation

This example of personalised email marketing is brought to us by Campaign Monitor, courtesy of Adidas. As the Campaign Monitor article explains, “rather than sending a generic email to all customers with all their shoes, Adidas segments their lists based on gender. Then they can send an email highlighting hip, new men’s shoes to their male customers, and cute women’s shoes to their female customers.”

This is a simple but crucial example of personalisation for brands looking to maximise email engagement, conversion rates and customer retention.

#28: Mack Weldon combines cart abandonment and recommendation campaigns

Another tried and tested method of creating personalised customer experiences is cart abandonment campaigns. However, Mack Weldon has taken this one step further by combining abandonment campaigns with product recommendations to bring users back to their cart and tempt with similar options.

Instead of trying to convince users to complete the same action they failed to complete first time around, these campaigns aim to tempt users with fresh options and refresh their purchase intent.

#29: Monica Vinader makes it personal

In another Campaign Monitor example, Monica Vinader combines the classic name insertion technique with personalised images to include the initials of people on their email lists.

The entire email campaign is built around the principle of items made for individual customers, which makes the personalised content feel genuine. A lot of campaigns like this feel forced and you can tell many brands personalise names in emails because they think it will transform results, instead of creating campaigns that truly engage with customers on a one-to-one basis.

#30: Todoist proves its worth

Earlier, we looked at how Grammarly proves the worth of its app by sending reports to users, showing them what they’ve achieved with the tool. Todoist takes a similar approach with its email marketing efforts and this is a crucial strategy for any software platform that promises to boost productivity, business performance, fitness levels or any other performance/achievement orientated metrics.

As a productivity platform, Todoist needs to ensure its users understand the full value its software provides. In other words, what they’ll be missing out on if they don’t continue paying that monthly subscription fee.

Make 2020 a more personal year

With the examples we’ve looked at in this article, you should have all kinds of inspiration and ideas about how to create personalised customer experiences that add genuine value to engaging with your brand and buying from you on an ongoing basis. So make sure you’re not getting left behind by the brands already nailing personalisation in 2020 and make this the year you get more personal with your customers.

The post 30+ Killer Examples of Personalised Customer Experiences appeared first on Venture Harbour.

How to Own the B2B Customer Journey in 2020

With 2019 coming to a close, it’s time to start thinking about next year’s growth targets and the strategies you’ll need to place to achieve them.

For 2019, 67% of B2B marketers said their top priority was generating more sales leads, according to research (PDF) from Sagefrog Marketing Group.

However, lead generation is only step #1 of B2B business growth and, in 2020, marketers need to own the entire B2B customer journey by guiding prospects across the entire buying process.

Sure, this starts with lead generation but there’s a whole lot more work to be done.

B2B lead generation: Shifting the focus to quality, not quantity

I’ve been quite keen to emphasise that lead generation isn’t the only thing that matters in B2B marketing. However, this is where everything begins for you and your potential customers, so it is vitally important.

Just make sure you don’t plough all of your resources into lead generation without leaving enough for the latter stages of the customer journey (we’ll come to these shortly).

For 2020, the aim for B2B marketers should be prioritising the quality of leads they’re generating, instead of simply trying to maximise lead volume.

Earlier this month, Lilach Bullock published an article on Smarter Insights looking at digital marketing tactics to generate and convert more qualified leads.

She recommends using Leadformly to improve the quality of leads and delve into its built-in form analytics to maximise the number of those high-quality leads.

As successful marketers will tell you, your form is what separates your leads from non-leads. LeadFormly is a tool that helps marketers build high-converting lead capture forms. It comes with built-in analytics to help you better understand your leads and how your forms are performing. This way, it helps to eliminate the guesswork in the lead generation process.

Bullock also offers up some classic advice for B2B marketers looking to improve the quality of their leads:

Demonstrate your unique selling proposition: When your audience gains access to your lead magnet, they should be convinced why they should buy from you and not from the competitors.
Be perceived as highly valuable: It should add value to your readers beyond what the competition is offering. Don’t go for videos—they are very common. Instead, offer something like an e-book or coupons.
Provide a solution to a problem: Your audiences are always on the lookout for solutions online. If your lead magnet can meet their needs, you’ll be building an email list in no time.

Lilach Bullock is one of the UK’s most influential entrepreneur’s and a highly respected speaker in the marketing circuit, so this is one voice worth listening to.

For more insights into maximising high-quality leads, you can also take a look at our 5 Best B2B Lead Generation Strategies article where we closely examine lead generation using the following strategies:

Email marketing
Content marketing
Search marketing
Social media
Multichannel marketing

As we explain in the article, these are the five marketing strategies that consistently generate high volumes of qualified leads. This has been the case for years and these are the strategies that continue to outlive the fads and trends that come and go, to keep their place at the centre of effective lead generation strategies.

B2B lead nurturing: Guiding customers along the buying process

With leads captured, your aim is then to guide them along the buying process and the journey each customer takes along this path will be different. Your mission is to identify the unique needs and expectations of your most important target customers and group leads together who share the same interests in common.

This allows you to create separate campaigns for each group and deliver messages to address that matter most to each target audience.

The thing is, your customer needs are going to change as they progress along the buying process – they’re not going to stay the same. For example, they may start focusing on the quality of a product, service or your business and then prioritise price after they’ve drawn up a shortlist of options. Then, they might start looking at extra incentives like delivery fees, special offers, guarantees and other deal clinchers.

You need to be able to address these priorities at every stage of the consumer journey.

To do this, you need a way to deliver messages at defined stages of the buying process and this is where a solid customer relationship management (CRM) platform is so important. We use ActiveCampaign as our CRM and a key factor in choosing this platform was the excellent automation features it comes with – and I’ll explain why this is so important in a moment.

Before that, let’s quickly look at the key tasks you need to handle in your B2B lead nurturing strategy:

Lead qualification: This is where you approve or reject leads to ensure you’re only using resources on prospects that are worth it.
Lead scoring: Assigning a lead score to prospects, which allows you to prioritise leads and focus on the most valuable prospects to your business (scores will change as leads progress along the consumer journey).
Lead segmentation: Creating groups and assigning leads to them based on shared interests so you can target them with relevant ads.
List mapping: Assigning segmented lists to stages of the customer journey so you can create campaigns designed to move prospects onto further stages of the buying process.
Campaign delivery: Choosing the right channels and targeting to deliver campaigns/messages to leads at the relevant stage of the customer journey.

You can manage all of these tasks in a CRM platform like ActiveCampaign but you’re also going to need the right marketing strategies to bring everything together. For example, using Leadformly to qualify leads on your website, remarketing in Google Ads to move users along segmented lists and email marketing to ramp up your lead nurturing efforts once you capture email addresses.

If you need some help with creating and implementing these strategies, we’ve got plenty of guidance for you in the following articles:

The Complete Guide to Lead Qualification & Scoring
The Complete Guide to Lead Segmentation
5 Steps to Fixing a Leaky Marketing Funnel
7 Email Marketing Tips to Ramp Up Your Digital Marketing Efforts
15 Lead Nurturing Email Examples That Make it Look Easy
10 Advanced Remarketing Techniques to Increase Conversions

That should give you plenty of help with improving your lead nurturing efforts in 2020 and I want to quickly talk about automation, as promised once again. All of the tasks we’ve looked at in this section can be automation, either entirely or to some extent, and this is crucial to maximising your B2B results.

Without automation, you’re limited to the number of leads your team can manually handle. This means business growth is limited to the size of your sales team but automation removes this limitation, allowing you to consistently increase the volume of leads your team nurtures. And, more importantly, how many of those leads you can turn into paying customers.

This is why automation was such a key component of our choice in ActiveCampaing as our CRM. It’s automation features are as good as any on the market but you don’t have to pay the typical enterprise fees.

B2B customer retention: Maximising the value of every customer

According to Invesp, it costs five times more to capture a new customer than it does to convince an existing one to buy again. This makes sense because you’ve already done 90% of the hard work and collected enough to data to have a strong idea of what your customers’ ongoing needs are. More importantly, you’ve already invested heavily in all of the marketing strategies to get each customer on board – so you want to maximise this investment.

All of this adds up to an important priority for B2B businesses: customer retention.

This means keeping customers engaged with your brand and turning them into repeat buyers. And, once again, in order to achieve this, you need to combine a number of existing strategies into a coordination customer retention strategy:

Quality products/services: First of all, you need to make sure your products/services are good enough to keep customers on board – otherwise, this entire strategy is going to fail.
Customer service: No matter how good your products/services are, customers are going to experience problems from time to time and how you deal with these is going to be a major factor in your retention rates.
Upselling/cross-selling: Recommending related products that might interest your customers or encouraging them to commit to a more expensive purchase, longer-term commitment, etc.
Customer feedback: Show your customers that you listen to them by asking them for feedback and actually implementing changes based on the info they give you.
Rewards/loyalty schemes: Rewarding customers for their ongoing purchases makes them feel valued and encourages them to keep buying from you.
User accounts: Customisable user accounts make it easier for customers to make repeated purchases, manage their orders and explore new purchase options.
Customer reviews: You can’t please everyone or get things right all of the time but a large collection of positive customer reviews might show disgruntled customers that their unpleasant experience was a rare case and encourage them to give you another shot.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking your job is done once a customer buys from you. This is simply the first purchase in a customer journey that should span across multiple, ongoing purchases as each customers’ needs continue to evolve.

For more tips on B2B customer retention, check out our article featuring 7 B2B Email Marketing Strategies for Customer Retention.

Bringing it all together in 2020

In 2020, B2B marketers need to work on owning the entire customer journey, not only the early stages. Lead generation is the topic marketers can’t seem to get enough of but it’s not where the money really is. Generating leads cost a lot in terms of time, money and other resources, which you’re only going to get back if you own the latter stages of the customer journey and turn those B2B leads into paying customers.

The post How to Own the B2B Customer Journey in 2020 appeared first on Venture Harbour.

7 Scientific Studies That Reveal the Secrets to Max. Productivity

Productivity is a priority for every business and there’s all kinds of advice out there on how to achieve this. The problem is, most of this information comes from opinion or sales pitches and it can be difficult to find advice that’s based on solid scientific findings on workplace productivity.

So, in this article, we’re looking at seven scientific studies that reveal the secrets of maximising workplace productivity in the digital age. Each study is linked to so you can see them for yourself and we’ll be quoting from official summaries of each study so you can make your own mind up about how relevant they are to the points made in this article.

Finally, we’ll also be exploring what these studies mean for the modern digital workplace and how you can use them to boost productivity.

#1: Multitasking reduces productivity

In 2001, Joshua Rubinstein, PhD, Jeffrey Evans, PhD, and David Meyer, PhD, conducted four experiments that involved young adults switching between different tasks.

Their findings revealed that participants who switched between multiple tasks were less productive than those who focused on a single task at a time. Essentially, the process of switching itself takes time but the cognitive process of adjusting to new tasks is where productivity really suffers.

What does this study say?

In a summary of the experiments conducted by Rubinstein, Evans and Meyer, American Psychological Association explains the key findings of the study.

“Doing more than one task at a time, especially more than one complex task, takes a toll on productivity. Although that shouldn’t surprise anyone who has talked on the phone while checking E-mail or talked on a cell phone while driving, the extent of the problem might come as a shock. Psychologists who study what happens to cognition (mental processes) when people try to perform more than one task at a time have found that the mind and brain were not designed for heavy-duty multitasking. Psychologists tend to liken the job to choreography or air-traffic control, noting that in these operations, as in others, mental overload can result in catastrophe.”

How can we use this to boost productivity?

Multiple studies have reinforced the findings of Rubinstein, Evans and Meyer to leave little doubt that switching between tasks hurts productivity. In other words, multitasking simply doesn’t work but, thankfully, the solution to this problem is simple: focus on one task at a time.

This is the key design principle behind Serene, which we built to help digital workers maximise productivity. By encouraging you to set a single goal for the day and break these objectives into a series of related tasks, the app keeps you focused on the task at hand.

Businesses should adopt this working philosophy and shift away from the culture of multitasking and task overload that results in busy, yet unproductive workers.

#2: Distractions reduce productivity and increase errors

For most digital workers, distractions are merely bad news for productivity but, in some lines of work, distractions can be deadly. Some of the most telling research conducted on the dangers of distractions comes from the medical industry and there’s a large back catalogue of studies that illustrate how distractions reduce productivity and increase the risk of errors.

To name a couple:

The impact of a set of interventions to reduce interruptions and distractions to nurses during medication administration, Relihan, E., O’Brien, V., O’Hara, S., & Silke, B. (2010)
Interruptions in healthcare: Theoretical views, Grundgeiger, T., & Sanderson, P. (2009).

What do these studies say?

PSQH cites both of those studies (and more than a dozen others) in a writeup on the impact of distractions in the medical field.

“Distractions and interruptions impact the prospective memory, or the ability to remember to do something that must be deferred (Relihan, 2010). When a person forms an intention, their memory establishes a specific cue to remind them to act. If the task is interrupted and the cue is encountered later, a spontaneous process is supposed to bring the intention to mind. However, individuals are less likely to remember the intention if they are outside the context in which the cue was established (Grundgeiger & Sanderson, 2009).”

While the repercussions of distractions may be less severe for digital workers, the same principles are true in terms of distractions reducing productivity and increasing the occurrence of errors.

How can we use this to boost productivity?

Create a working culture that reduces the number of distractions workers face. Start by focusing on single tasks (as mentioned above) but create an environment where managers allow team members to complete tasks without being distracted or having new tasks added to their workflow.

Use a communication tool like Slack that allows team members to set an availability status – eg: busy when they’re working on something. Respect those statuses and encourage people to avoid sending messages when people are busy.

To help prevent distractions, we’ve also built a website and app blocking feature into Serene, which prevents access during work sessions.

#3: The average digital worker is distracted every 6 minutes

This is particularly worrying, considering what we discussed about distractions in the previous section. Research carried out by productivity software provider, RescueTime found that the average digital worker can’t go more than 6 minutes without checking their email or IM.

We’re not only being distracted by outside sources; we’ve developed this internet state self-distraction by always being “switched on” in the digital age.

What does this study say?

“When we looked at the anonymized behaviour data of 50,000+ RescueTime users, we found that the average knowledge worker “checks in” with communication tools every 6 minutes.”

(In this case, a “check in” is defined as any time you switch to a communication tool while working on another productive task.)

“All this raises a huge question: How are we expected to get focused work done when we only have a few minutes in between answering emails and messages? The short answer is we aren’t.”

“What we discovered was that 35.5% of workers check their email and IM every 3 minutes or less. While only 18.6% can go more than 20 minutes without being pulled into communication.”

40% of knowledge workers never get 30 minutes straight of focused time in a workday
17% of people can’t even get 15 minutes straight of focused time without communication
30% only get an hour a day of dedicated focused time

How can we use this to boost productivity?

First of all, use a tool like Serene to block websites and apps that keep distracting attention from where it should be. This is the easy fix. But to solve this problem for the long-term, you need to create a less intrusive working culture that encourages people to focus on their current task and ease the anxieties that are pushing them to constantly check their emails, IMs and to-do lists.

Like I said in the last point, make the most of statuses and eliminate IMs and notifications when people are working on tasks. People don’t need to know someone has added a new comment to a document they’re not due to work on until later today.

Stop emails, IMs and notifications from getting in the way of productivity.

#4: Regular breaks boost concentration

A study conducted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011 joined the list of research papers that find regular breaks boost concentration. The study finds that even brief diversions from a task can dramatically increase a person’s ability to focus on the same task for longer periods

What does this study say?

“We newly propose that the vigilance decrement occurs because the cognitive control system fails to maintain active the goal of the vigilance task over prolonged periods of time (goal habituation). Further, we hypothesized that momentarily deactivating this goal (via a switch in tasks) would prevent the activation level of the vigilance goal from ever habituating. We asked observers to perform a visual vigilance task while maintaining digits in-memory. When observers retrieved the digits at the end of the vigilance task, their vigilance performance steeply declined over time. However, when observers were asked to sporadically recollect the digits during the vigilance task, the vigilance decrement was averted. Our results present a direct challenge to the pervasive view that vigilance decrements are due to a depletion of attentional resources and provide a tractable mechanism to prevent this insidious phenomenon in everyday life.”

How can we use this to boost productivity?

Work in short bursts with regular breaks. There are various working models based around the principle of short intense working sessions broken up by regular breaks, so this isn’t a new philosophy by any means. The most famous of these is the Pomodoro technique that encourages people to work in 25-minute bursts followed by five-minute breaks and this approach nicely breaks sessions up into a total of 30 minutes.

This makes the day easy to compile into two-hour sessions, broken up by larger breaks.

Other models suggest 50-minute sessions with 20-minute breaks. It all comes down to what works for you. There are plenty of software platforms designed around Pomodoro technique and similar principles, too. We decided to take a more flexible approach with Serene by allowing you to create sessions between 20-60 minutes, followed by your choice of break length.

#5: Regular rewards boost motivation

A study from Cornell University in 2018 shows hoe regular rewords boost motivation and makes a case for instant rewards as a means of maximising workplace satisfaction.

What does this study say?

“This research compared immediate versus delayed rewards, predicting that more immediate rewards increase intrinsic motivation by creating a perceptual fusion between the activity and its goal (i.e., the reward). In support of the hypothesis, framing a reward from watching a news program as more immediate increased intrinsic motivation to watch the program, and receiving more immediate bonus increased intrinsic motivation in an experimental task.”

“The effect of reward timing was mediated by the strength of the association between an activity and a reward, and was specific to intrinsic motivation—immediacy influenced the positive experience of an activity, but not perceived outcome importance. In addition, the effect of the timing of rewards was independent of the effect of the magnitude of the rewards.”

How can we use this to boost productivity?

As the study itself explains, rewards don’t necessarily have to come in the financial sense or in terms of quantifiable perks. Breaks themselves act as a reward and implementing the short bursts strategy we looked at in the previous section means workers are always on the verge of another small reward: their next break.

This helps replicate the sense of instant reward and ongoing motivation that is constantly referred to throughout the Cornell University study – and it doesn’t cost a thing.

Of course, taking this further, the idea of bonuses throughout the year or more significant rewards for completing projects or hitting other objectives can make a big difference. You could even implement a points-based system where workers can accumulate rewards points for every task or goal completed, which creates a sense of instant reward, even though the reward itself will be received at a much later date.

#6: Shared goals boost productivity and motivation

Priyanka B.Carr and Gregory M.Walton published a study entitled Cues of working together fuel intrinsic motivation in 2014. Their findings reinforced the already-accepted idea that shared goals increase productivity and motivation within teams.

What does this study say?

ScienceDirect hosts this joint study where it lists the highlights and key findings:

A defining aspect of human society is that people work together toward common ends.
Five experiments examined cues that evoke a psychological state of working together.
As hypothesized, these cues increased intrinsic motivation as people worked alone.
Outcomes were diverse, e.g., task persistence, enjoyment and, 1–2 weeks later, choice.
These cues also increased feelings of working together but not other processes.

How can we use this to boost productivity?

The answer here lies in creating a strong team spirit based around shared goals, achievements and rewards. To make this happen, you need the right project management platform that allows you to create shared goals, as well as collaborative and individual tasks.

There are plenty of options for this, including Monday, Asana, Trello and countless other project management suites.

The problem is, this collaborative philosophy has largely contributed to the constant barrage of notifications and other distractions that can hinder productivity. So it’s crucial businesses and teams ensure individual team members are able to work on their own and distraction-free on individual tasks. There’s a time and a place for collaboration, live chat and instant messaging, but this doesn’t mean all the time.

Shared goals do not need to come at the expense of productivity.

#7: Productivity isn’t the be-all and end-all

This study conducted by the University of California, Irvine is one of the most cited in articles on the topic of productivity. It’s widely referred to as the study that reveals work-place distractions take us 23 minutes and 15 seconds to recover from.

That’s a bit of a misrepresentation of what the study actually says, which actually says interrupted work can be completed faster.

The problem is, even in cases where workloads are completed sooner, the prices paid illustrate how productivity isn’t always the be-all and end-all.

What does this study say?

“Surprisingly our results show that interrupted work is performed faster. We offer an interpretation. When people are constantly interrupted, they develop a mode of working faster (and writing less) to compensate for the time they know they will lose by being interrupted. Yet working faster with interruptions has its cost: people in the interrupted conditions experienced a higher workload, more stress, higher frustration, more time pressure, and effort. So interrupted work may be done faster, but at a price.”

How can we use this to boost productivity?

Productivity as a short-term measurement can be problematic. For example, you might be maximising productivity on a weekly basis but burning out your staff and hurting long-term productivity to more sick days, lower motivation and weaker staff retention.

As Paul Krugman says in The Age of Diminishing Expectations, “Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost everything.”

Businesses and managers need to find the right balance between maximising productivity on a daily basis while making it sustainable for the long-term. In some cases, doing less today means you’ll be able to get more done by the end of the week and this can involve something simple like surprising everyone with the afternoon off once in a while as a reward or motivation booster.

Maximising productivity doesn’t mean you have to do everything to the max, all the time.

Make 2020 more productive

Be sure to take a look at our other article on productivity to get yourself ready for the year ahead. You can find out how to make remote team management work in 2020, what the 10 most common remote work challenges are (and how to deal with them), plus a number of recommendations for the best productivity tools to help you hit more ambitious targets.

The post 7 Scientific Studies That Reveal the Secrets to Max. Productivity appeared first on Venture Harbour.

Remote Team Management: How Not to Fail in 2020

According to growth figures from the Office of National Statistics, 50% of the UK’s workforce is set to work remotely at least once per week in 2020. The rise of remote working means businesses and team managers need to adapt to having a workforce spread out across multiple locations.

This raises a number of unique challenges in terms of keeping everyone on target and maximising productivity. There are also a number of practical issues with not working face-to-face with colleagues and not being able to interact with the same items.

Despite the challenges, there are a growing number of companies that are entirely remote, proving that it can be done. In the case of Venture Harbour, we’re not entirely remote but the majority of our team is spread out across the world so we’ve experienced (and overcome) the more extreme type of challenges that come with managing remote teams.

Here’s how you can do the same in 2020.

The challenges of managing a remote team

We’ve looked at the challenges of remote working before on our blog, but we split that article into two sections: one for team managers and another for individual remote workers. In this article, we’re focusing purely on the challenges of managing remote teams and how to overcome them.

Before we get started, here’s a quick look at the key challenges you’ll face when managing a remote team:

Managing tasks & projects: Creating and assigning tasks to team members and tracking progress.
Tracking tasks: Making sure tasks are actually being completed and targets are being hit.
Maximising productivity: Ensuring team members are getting enough done, quickly enough.
Remote collaboration: Making it as easy as possible for team members to work together, wherever they are.
Language & cultural differences: Getting the best out of diversity while preventing any misunderstandings.
Building & maintaining trust: Creating a sense of trust between management and remote workers, as well as individual team members themselves.

Throughout this article, we’ll be exploring these challenges and a number of ways you can deal with them by implementing managerial techniques and using the right technology. Software plays a crucial role in making remote teams work together so we’ll also be taking a look at specific apps and tools to overcome the challenges of managing remote teams.

Overcoming the challenges of managing a remote team

Managing remote teams effectively requires a different kind of business culture than the traditional office-based environment. To overcome these unique challenges, you’re going to need to change the working culture of your business – from top to bottom – and make sure you have the right tools on our side to make facilitate this culture shift.

This will make more sense as we explore the challenges of managing a remote team in more detail.

Managing tasks & projects

The first challenge we’re looking at isn’t unique to managing remote teams but it can prove even more difficult when remote workers are involved. The good is that the solution is relatively simple and something you’re business is probably already in a good position to implement (you may already have everything you need).

How do we solve this problem?

The only difference remote working makes here is that some or all of your team members aren’t present. This makes certain things like asking people how busy they are or whether they’ve finished a certain task before assigning them something else, for example.

Apart from that, your needs as a manager are basically the same, which means you have to be able to do the following:

Create and organise tasks
Assign tasks to team members (and reassign them as needed)
Manage the workload of individual team members
Manage workloads at the project level
Get feedback from team members
View progress at both the task level and project level

Essentially, project management is broken into three key areas: individual tasks, team member workloads and projects. So what you need is a project management platform that allows you to create and manage tasks at all three of these levels. You don’t want a piece of software that great for project management but doesn’t provide the control you need over individual workloads or the ability to even view individual workloads.

Ideally, you want a single platform that allows you to manage everything from the same piece of software. With remote teams, you also need the ability to communicate with team members, as individuals and in groups. A lot of project management tools now include live chat and video conferencing features to make this possible. If your platform of choice doesn’t have this functionality, it’s easy to integrate with other tools like Slack and Zoom.

Just make sure you get the project management features you need.

Tracking tasks

One problem most project management platforms won’t solve for you is the inability to track tasks when you’re not in the same workspace as your team members. Sure, you can assign tasks and get notifications where they’re completed but how can you know they’re actually being worked on or what problems your remote workers are facing while they complete them.

This isn’t only a question of trust, it’s a productivity issue that prevents you from knowing the problems your team members experience and helping them to overcome them. It’s an issue that can seriously get in the way of progress at the project level.

How do we solve this problem?

To get a more real-time look at team progress, you’ll want a project management tool like Status Hero. The platform prompts team members to provide quick “check-in” details about what they’re currently working on so you can see what everyone’s up to at any given time.

Crucially, Status Hero allows team members to create “Blocked” tasks and explain what’s preventing them from completing them. This means you instantly get feedback when there’s an issue and can decide whether to address the problem now or put the task on hold until a resolution can be put in place.

You may also want to know is how long tasks are taking to complete. This helps you assign tasks to the best person for the job and identify tasks that routinely take longer than expected. At the project level, you can also see how much work really goes into hitting targets to ensure your company is charging enough to hit the target profit margins.

Toggl has this covered for you by tracking the time it takes to complete tasks, which you can use as benchmarks to maintain and improve turnaround times, as well as pinpoint issues getting int the way of productivity.

Maximising productivity

Maximising productivity is something else that works at multiple levels. First, you wan to make sure your team is maximising productivity collectively but you also want individual team members to be as productive as possible.

How do we solve this problem?

I’ve addressed the topic of maximising productivity for remote teams in a previous post, but here’s a quick summary of the best practices we covered:

Stop multitasking: Studies have found multitasking is one of the biggest productivity killers so encourage your team members to focus on a single task.
Avoid unnecessary interruptions: Separate studies have found it can take up to 23 minutes to recover concentration after becoming distracted – so allow team members to work uninterrupted where possible.
Work in short bursts: The average person can only concentrate on a single task for roughly 20 minutes before their focus starts to suffer. So encourage your team to work in short bursts with regular breaks and keep this in mind for meetings, presentations and other group tasks.
Block out distractions: Use software to block distracting apps and websites (eg: social media) during the short work sessions.
Choose the right collaboration tools: Collaboration software is crucial for remote team members to work together effectively so invest some time and effort into finding the right tools (more on this in the next section).
Talk about workspaces: Encourage team members to create a home office or dedicated workspace that allows them to concentrate on work and avoid home distractions. You may even consider helping team members fund key essentials – eg: a decent desk, chair, etc.
Switch off after work: Encourage team members to forget about work when they’re done for the day and avoid disturbing them out of hours.
Address productivity killers: Track individual and team progress, compile reports and identify productivity killers so you can address them.

To help Venture Harbour’s remote team workers achieve best practices on a daily basis, we developed our own productivity tool called Serene. The app asks users to set

a single goal for the day before I get started. This keeps me focused on a single objective throughout the day so I don’t get caught up in distractions that can wait for another day.

It then asks me to break this objective into multiple work sessions for the day and these are the individual tasks that will help me hit my target by the end of the day. Now, what’s really great about this feature is you can set timed work sessions of between 20-60 minutes. These short bursts make it easier to keep focus and take regular, short breaks after each session.

Serene also blocks distracting apps and websites during work sessions to help users concentrate on the task at hand. It can even silence team members’ phones so email notifications and other distractions don’t interrupt their attention. We designed Serene to discourage multitasking, prevent unnecessary distractions, boost focus and help team members get more done on a daily basis.

Best of all, we’re releasing Serene as a free app for macOS and you can sign up for the beta version here.

Remote collaboration

With team members spread out across locations, they can’t talk to each other freely, hand each other items, work on the same document or give each other feedback in the same ways that are so easy in the traditional office. There are hundreds of micro-interactions that remote working removes and these have a significant impact on collaboration and productivity.

The answer to this problem lies in software and maximising the potential of digital collaboration.

How do we solve this problem?

To solve the collaboration challenges that come with remote working, start by creating a list of the face-to-face interactions you need to replicate. The full list will depend on the nature of your business, how much of your workforce is remote and the individual needs of your remote workers.

This list will help you choose the right tools and, to give you an idea of what this involves, here are some of the most common collaboration features you’ll need to get from software:

Live chat: Instant messaging to enable real-time communication.
Voice & video calls: You’ll also want voice and video calls (group, as well as one-to-one) for digital meetings, idea sessions and other virtual meetups.
File sharing: Team members need to be able to share and access files.
Docs collaboration: The ability for multiple team members to work on the same document at the same time, in real-time with universal live changes.
Feedback: The ability to add notes or other types of feedback on documents for other team members.
Team calendar: For tasks and events to be scheduled and visible to everyone on the team.
Task management: A platform that allows team members to manage their tasks and collaborate.

So those are some of the most important collaborative tasks you’ll need to cover with software and there are plenty of tools on the market for these. For example, Slack provides one of the best team communication platforms available right now and Zoom will have you covered for voice and video calls.

You’ll also have more specific collaborative needs based on the kind of projects you work on. For example, we also use InVision as a collaborative tool for our designers, allowing them to create mock-ups, share and interact with them and provide feedback.

For help with choosing the best collaborative tools for your business, check out our list of tools for remote teams and people working from home.

Language & cultural differences

One of the biggest benefits of having a remote team is the ability to hire the best talent from around the world. However, this can come with challenges when you build a team of people from different language and cultural backgrounds. Language proficiency is always a factor but the bigger concern is how cultural misunderstanding can divide your team and isolate individuals.

How do we solve this problem?

I’ve worked with a lot of non-native English speakers over the years and I’ve also been in teams where I was the non-native speaker. So I’ve got experience on both sides of this issue and the communication problems it can lead to.

The worst instances I’ve seen are where non-native speakers are hired and then resented later for not having fluent language skills. Whatever hiring process you have in place, this is where you decide whether someone has the necessary language skills to join your team. If they don’t, responsibility lies with the person who decided to hire them- not the individual.

Aside from this, you also want to value people who have the patience and understanding to communicate with non-native speakers if you’re going to hire them.

Now, on the topic of cultural differences, here are some key areas to consider:

Holidays: Not everybody celebrates Christmas and there are plenty of religious events around the world unique to other cultures that may, among other things, require certain team members to take time off.
Language: Language proficiency is obviously a factor and there are distinct differences between languages irrespective of fluency that can lead to misunderstandings.
Openness: Some cultures promote openness as a positive virtue while others encourage people to keep certain thoughts (particularly negative ones) to themselves.
Agreeability: Likewise, in some cultures, there can be a reluctance to say “no,” refuse or say that something can’t be done. I’ve personally seen this in many Asian countries where people can feel compelled to take on tasks they’re not fully comfortable with or don’t have the time to take on.
Hierarchy: This is a fundamental principle in many cultures and simply being older can give someone authority in many societies.
Work ethic: The expectations placed on people in the workplace can vary a lot, too.
Workers rights: The level of workers rights in cultures has a large impact on how people conduct themselves in the workplace – for example, how many breaks a person might expect to take during the day or how many hours they want (or feel compelled) to work.
Bereavement: The practice and duration of funerals can vary a lot, as well as the wider cultural process of bereavement.
Individualism: It’s also really important to understand that someone’s cultural background doesn’t define who they are. People are still individuals and some of us a more “British” or whatever else than others. The aim is to understand cultural differences, not pigeonhole people with cultural labels.

Being aware of cultural differences is the first step of ensuring they don’t get in the way of your remote team. Your aim is to maintain a positive relationship between your team members while also getting the best out of each individual and this doesn’t always mean treating everyone the same.

These differences can be one of the biggest strengths of your team if they’re managed effectively.

Building & maintaining trust

There are obvious trust issues that can arise among remote teams when you can physically see what people are doing. In some cases, team members may have never met each other face-to-face and this can hinder the ability to develop mutual trust in a number of ways. As a team manager, your priority is being able to trust the people working for you but you also want to build that sense of comradery between team members.

How do we solve this problem?

PukkaTeam is a remote communication tool and the company knows a few things about building trust between distributed teams. In this article, it presents seven tips for building trust and I think every remote team should implement these in their own way:

Get to know each other: Here at Venture Harbour, we organise team meetups every month and getaways twice a year to build a social bond between everyone.
Be responsive and reliable: When team members are responsive and tasks are completed on time, trust typically remains high. It’s the equivalent of knowing people are there for you when you need them.
Promote transparency: Promote transparency at every level and demonstrate the benefits to team members.
Get the right collaboration tools: Be strategic in your choice of collaboration tools – which ones promote transparency, allow face-to-face video calls, make people accountable, etc.
Create shared goals: When people have shared goals, they have an invested interest in working together and covering each other’s backs.
Avoid micromanagement: Check in with team members but avoid micromanagement, as it can reduce incentive.
Lead by example: Show your team members that you’re trustworthy and willing to trust them.

The funny thing about trust is it takes a leap of faith and this means giving people enough freedom to prove their trustworthiness. It also helps to incentivise team members with shared goals, positive feedback and rewards for hitting targets and any sacrifices they have to make along the way.

Best tools for managing remote teams

We’ve already looked at a number of tools for managing remote teams in this article but let’s take a moment to comprise a list of the best productivity tools for teams. Choosing the right set of tools is crucial to bringing a team of remote workers together and these platforms should get you off to a good start.

Slack: A team communication tool to make individual and collaboration work easier.
Status Hero: Allow every team member to see what each other are currently working on to avoid interruptions and timewasting.
Trello: A simple task management tool that makes projects easier for remote teams to complete.
monday: A more advanced (and expensive) task management tool for managing larger teams and more complex projects.
Process.st: A simple checklist tool for non-tech teams.
Airtable: Imagine spreadsheet project management on steroids but with an interface so intuitive anyone can use it.
Doodle: Team scheduling for meetings, video calls and joint sessions without the hassle.
Zoom: Video conferencing, the way it should be for distributed teams.
Chrome Remote Desktop: Access your computer securely from any device and screen share with teammates for stronger collaboration.

You can find out more about these tools by reading our articles on the best productivity tools for teams and the best remote work tools for distributed teams.

Best tools for remote workers

Part of maximising team productivity is helping individual team members establish the most efficient workflow and there are also plenty of tools designed to help people maximise their own productivity. Here’s our pick of the best:

Serene: A tool that cuts out distractions, helps you stay focused and complete tasks faster.
Toggl: Keep track of how long it’s really taking you to complete tasks.
Calendar: Manage all of your calendars and events in one place, arrange meetings without dozens of emails.
Google Drive: Free file creation, sharing and collaboration for basic document types (text files, spreadsheets, presentations, etc.)
Spark: A smart email client that stops your inbox getting in the way of productivity and turns it into an asset.
Zapier: Save time on repetitive tasks and switching between apps by automating processes (eg: automatically saving Gmail attachments to Google Drive).
Daywise: Schedule notifications to stop work interrupting your free time.

You can find out more about these tools in our 10 Best Apps for Working Remotely From Home article.

Make a success of remote working in 2020

Managing a remote team successfully requires a shift in workplace practices and the changes need to come from the top. Instead of trying to annex a remote team onto an existing workforce, the change should start from within by creating a new working culture that adopts the principles of remote working.

Issues like productivity, workplace satisfaction, work-life balance and collaboration are equally as important to modern businesses as they are to individual employees – whether they’re remote or in-house.

The biggest challenge for remote team managers in 2020 is bridging the digital divide between team members across multiple locations. And the solution to this starts with implementing a collaborative workplace culture and reinforcing this with the right remote working tools to maximise team productivity.

The post Remote Team Management: How Not to Fail in 2020 appeared first on Venture Harbour.

10 Best macOS Apps for Productivity

As we discussed in our recent post looking at 10 common remote work challenges, maximising productivity is one of the biggest challenges people face – both inside and outside of the office. Workplace productivity is obviously important to any business but it’s also something that directly impacts the work-life balance of individuals.

Achieving productivity can be particularly difficult for remote workers or people working from home.

We’ve previously looked at the best apps for working from home and remote teams working from multiple locations. And, in this article, we’re taking a slightly different angle by looking at the best productivity apps for macOS specifically. Whether you’re working in the office, as part of a distributed team or a solo freelancer, these apps will help you maximise productivity and get more done during the working day.

Best productivity apps for macOS

Before we start looking at individual apps, here’s a quick summary of what we’ll be covering in this article. To avoid repetition, I’ve chosen ten apps that all serve a different purpose, rather than ten project management apps, for example, that all basically do the same thing.

The idea is that you can use all ten of these apps and they’ll all help you boost productivity by solving different problems. So here’s a quick look at the tool I’ll be talking about in this article:

Serene: Cut out distractions, stay focused on the task at hand and get things done faster.
Calendar: Manage all of your calendars and events in one place, arrange meetings without dozens of emails.
Trello: A simple task management tool that makes projects easier for remote teams to complete.
Taskade: A project management tool that helps collaborative teams work together on tasks.
Teamweek: Free project planning for small teams with an affordable option for multiple teams.
Toggl: Time tasks, get things done faster, track team productivity and make sure you’re charging enough for the time it takes to complete projects.
Dameware Remote Everywhere: Advanced remote access that allows technicians to access any registered device from any location.
Slack: Team communication, the way it should be for remote workers.
Notion: Keep all your docs databases, tasks, and project resources in one place.
Spark: A distraction-free, collaborative email experience to keep teams focused and help them complete tasks quicker.

Naturally, all of these apps are available on macOS and some of them are available on other platforms, too. I’ve created this list with freelance and remote workers in mind, those who need to work with a team or other team members in another location. So, while most of these tools will help you increase your personal productivity, there’s also a heavy emphasis on boosting productivity as a collective part of a team.

#1: Serene

Free

Serene is a free app for macOS designed for remote workers and teams. You define a single goal for each day, which can be broken down into multiple tasks, and block out distractions. Numerous studies show that multitasking kills productivity and Serene gives you all the tools you need to stay on track with the task at hand. As the team behind Serene says, “Multi-tasking is a myth. Single-tasking is a superpower.”

Key features




Website blocker: Block websites that distract you, such as social media and news websites.
App blocker: You can also block apps that take your attention away from work – social apps, your email app and anything else getting in the way.
Distraction-free sessions: Work in 20-60 minute sessions with regular breaks to maximise productivity.
Session timer: Shows you how much time you have left to complete tasks, giving you a motivation boost towards the end of each session.
To-do lists: Manage tasks and make sure everything gets done by the right team member.
Day planner: Define your goal for the day, set your tasks and get stuff done.
Focus music: Play background music to help you keep your focus.
Phone silencer: Automatically put your phone on silent mobile while working to avoid unnecessary distractions.

Once you set your goal for the day, you create your lists of sessions to get there and choose how long to set for each session. Then you click “Go Serene” and the app will start your sessions while automatically blocking distractions while each session runs.

There’s also a browser extension that blocks distracting websites and displays a reminder of what you should be doing if you try to access them.

Serene is a relatively new app (still in the beta stage) but you can request an invitation to try it out here.

#2: Calendar



Free version available, paid versions from $10/mo

While Google Calendar is a great free digital calendar, it doesn’t provide some of the advanced features remote workers typically need. A more feature-rich alternative is the aptly named Calendar, which connects all of your calendars into a single interface.

Key features




One calendar: Calendar integrates with all of your calendars (Google Calendar, Outlook, etc.) to keep everything in one place.
Synced events: Create events in Calendar or create them in your other calendar apps – they’ll always be synced.
Easy scheduling: Schedule team meetings without the usual email back and forths.
Analytics: Calendar provides analytics reports to help you boost productivity.
Meeting transcriptions: Automatic transcripts of your meetings.

Aside from integrating all of your calendar apps, Calendar’s star feature is the way it handles meetings. Instead of arranging video chats or other meetings with dizzying emails between multiple team members, Calendar allows anyone to choose and book meeting times during your availability hours while ensuring there are no conflicts with existing meetings or tasks.

#3: Trello (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android & web)
Free version, Business Class version $9.99/mo per user

Trello is a simple, easy-to-use project management app for collaborative teams. The platform is based on the Kanban board philosophy, a visual layout that originates from Japan, which you can see below. Essentially, tasks are added and organised on “to-do,” “going” and “done” satuses, which helps teams keep track of progress. Tasks can be grouped into boards (the entire view above) and cards, which can contain multiple tasks in themselves. Individual tasks can be assigned to groups or team members with deadlines and checklists.

Key features

Project management: Trello is a simple, easy-to-use project management app for collaborative teams.
To-do lists: Create to-do lists, add due dates, assign them to people and manage tasks as they’re completed.
Trello boards: Dashboards where you can create and manage lists of cards containing tasks and to-do lists.
Work with anyone: Invite anyone from around the world to help you make things happen.
Instant messaging: Talk to team members in real-time to discuss tasks.

Trello’s instant messaging makes it easy for teams to communicate and collaborate from anywhere and team members can join for free, although they’ll be limited to one board. Prices remain affordable on every paid package, though.

#4: Taskade

Free version, paid versions from $7/mo

Taskade is a project management and collaboration tool for small teams. It takes the to-do list concept turns it into a visual platform for tracking the progress of tasks and projects. While Trello is limited to Kanban board view, Taskade allows you to toggle multiple views in one click so you can see exactly how things are coming along.

Key features

Project management: Project and task management features with multiple views for team members to keep track of progress.
Live collaboration: Edit projects in real-time and communicate via live chat.
Team calendar: Keep track of tasks across multiple teams and workspaces.
Team roadmap: Plan and manage projects by visually assigning tasks and setting deadlines.

Taskade also gives you live messaging and video calls for better collaboration between remote team members. While the team roadmap system makes it easy to assign tasks to team members and manage team projects.

The other key feature Taskade provides is a team calendar where tasks assigned to each team member appear for everyone to see. This is important in terms of managing schedules, assigning tasks and keeping track of workloads.

#5: Teamweek

Free version, Premium version $8/mo per user

Teamweek is a relatively simple project management tool that provides a global view of the tasks team members are working on. Essentially, it’s very similar to the team calendar feature in Taskade but it provides more visual information and the drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to rearrange tasks.

Key features

Task management: Break tasks down into smaller sub-tasks, then check each item off the list after it’s complete.
Projects view: Keep track of projects with an overview of progress.
Teams view: Keep track of how team members are getting on by viewing individual workflows.
Timeline sharing: Keep your clients informed by sharing the project roadmap with them.

There are two different views available with Teamweek. First, you can view schedules at the project level to see what everyone’s up to specific projects. Then you have the teams view, which allows you to view the entire schedule for teams, regardless of which projects they’re currently working on.

As I say, Teamweek is a very simple tool but it’s great at what it does. It’s also free for up to five users and highly-affordable for larger teams.

#6: Toggl



Premium version $18/mo per user

Toggl is a time tracking app that runs in the background to track how long you’re spending on tasks. The tool was originally designed to help freelancers keep track of how much time they were really spending on projects to make sure they invoice correctly and hit their profit targets. However, the app has expanded into a tool for collaborative teams over the years. Its data visualisations help you compare profits against time spent on tasks and labour costs so you can see which projects and clients are most profitable.

Key features




Time tracking: See how much time you (or others) are taking to get things done.
Boost profits: Check you’re charging enough for the time it takes to complete projects.
Reports: See how productive you’re being and how profitable your time with Toggl reports.
Cross-platform: Toggl’s wonderfully designed apps work across just about every operating system and online so you can access it wherever you need, whenever you need it.

You can also see how much time team members are spending on individual tasks to monitor productivity and see if anyone’s taking on too much/too little work. Toggl offers excellent cross-platform support meaning team members on every device/OS can access and use the app. It’s a relatively straightforward app without any real learning curve and its excellent interface means team members can either download the app or log in to the website and start Toggling.

#7: Dameware Remote Everywhere

Prices start from £290, one-off fee

Dameware Remote Everywhere is a fully-featured IT support tool that allows technicians to access any machine registered to your account remotely. So, if you run into any technical issues, support can access your machines – no matter where you are – and get things back in order for you.

Key features

Secure remote control: Give technicians access to team members’ devices from anywhere.
Remote IT support: Provide support to remote workers anywhere and allow remote technicians to do their job from anywhere.
Mobile remote support: Technicians can provide support using their iOS and Android devices.
Access sleeping and ‘off’ devices: Gain access to devices remotely, even when they’re sleeping or turned off.

Perhaps you’re having technical issues with a piece of software you need to use or there’s a problem with one of your accounts. You may have simply forgotten your access details or could be having problems specific to your device. Dameware Remote Anywhere makes your devices accessible to support teams so they can jump in and get things sorted for you.

Prices start from a one-off £290 fee but that’s not as expensive as it sounds when you compare it to the ongoing cost of subscription-based software.

#8: Slack
Free version, paid options from £5.25/mo per user

Slack is a massaging platform designed for teams and it’s the ideal communication tools for remote workers. Instant messaging is organised into channels, which team members can join and leave, as needed, so nobody receives messages or notifications irrelevant to them. Team members can also chat outside of main topics in separate threads which prevents these messages from interfering with the most project-centric conversations.

Key features




Instant messaging: Live communication between every team member for seamless collaboration.
Statuses: Users can set availability statuses to focus on individual tasks as needed.
File sharing: Drag-and-drop file sharing for PDFs, images, videos and other common files types.
Voice & video calls: Voice and video calls directly from within Slack.
Screen sharing: Allows team members to show their work to others in real-time for stronger collaboration.

Now, the key things to understand about Slack as a remote worker is the pricing policy. You can use Slack for free, which allows you to create a single workspace for small teams while paid versions start from £5.25/month per active user. Ideally, your business (or the company you work for) will pay for a team version of Slack to provide everyone with a fully-collaborative workspace. However, the free version of Slack means small teams within a business can use the tool between themselves to improve their workflow. This can improve collaboration within office environments but the real benefit of Slack is for remote workers who need to collaborate with team members in other locations – one of the most common problems cited by remote workers.

#9: Notion

Free version, paid versions from $4/mo

Notion calls itself your team’s long-term memory and it acts as a kind of collaborative alternative to Evernote. Notion also calls itself “the missing half of Slack” which it integrates with perfectly to create a single location for all the resources important to your team – for example, important documentation, guidelines, etc.

Multitude’s aim is to replace a multitude of separate productivity apps with a single platform.

Key features

Notes & Docs: Create and share documents, notes and media files.
Team Wiki: Create a central knowledge base of essential info and guidelines for all team members.
Project management: Highly customizable Kanban boards and calendars that adapt to your work.
Files sharing: Designed for focused writing, easy editing, and rich media
Live collaboration: Work on tasks together in real-time.

So, instead of using Google Docs and Evernote, you can use Notion to basically achieve the same thing. Likewise, you can also use its task and project management features in place of tools like Trello. Then, you have the spreadsheets and databases which aim to replace the likes of Excel and Google Sheets.

If you’re tired of using a dozen different productivity tools, Notion aims to provide a single platform that replaces half a dozen separate apps. I’m not saying Notion is necessarily as good as all of those individual apps combined but you gain convenience by not having to switch between different apps and you could well save some money while you’re at it.

#10: Spark (Mac, iOS, Android)



Free version, $6.39/mo (per user) for Premium

Spark is an intelligent email client that prevents your inbox from being a productivity killer and turns it into an asset. Its Smart Inbox automatically categorises your emails from every account assigned to it, allowing you to filter out the emails that don’t matter and prioritise the ones that do.

You can also snooze specific emails for later, assign emails to team members, chat with team members, share drafts, set reminders for follow-ups and schedule emails to send them later.

Key features




Smart inbox: Clean up your inbox, find any email with “Smart Search” and snooze emails that don’t need your attention right now.
Smart notifications: Only receive notifications for the emails that really matter.
Assign emails: Assign emails to team members so the right person is always managing tasks.
Team email: Private team comments, shared drafts, template replies and instant chat for collaborative teams.
Send emails later: Schedule emails to send them when people are most likely to read them.
Reminders: Get reminders to follow up on important emails at the right time.

With Spark, multiple team members can even work on the same email at the same time while communicating via instant messaging on the platform. This means there are no more emails to clients, saying “I’ve CC’d James and he’ll explain that technical issue we talked about earlier”. All the key details can be included in emails by the right person without any confusion or inaccuracy.

Don’t let the tools get in your way

In the digital age, it seems like the number of apps we need to use to get the day’s work done is constantly increasing. The problem with this is, the more apps you bring into your workflow, the more potential there is for complexity, poor experiences or a lack of integration to get in the way of productivity.

This is why it’s so important to choose the right software, tools that enable you to achieve more without adding unnecessary barriers in the way of progress.

The good news is productivity apps are a big thing in business software right now and there are plenty of tools on the market to help you overcome issues getting in the way of your workflow. At the same time, integration between apps is constantly improving and the average user experience is getting better all the time.

This means that, with some smart software choices, you can easily build a toolkit that breaks down productivity barriers and enables you to achieve more in a shorter time-frame. Hopefully, this article will help you get there and you can get more tips by checking out the other productivity articles on our blog.

The post 10 Best macOS Apps for Productivity appeared first on Venture Harbour.

10 Common Remote Work Challenges (+ Solutions)

Studies have found remote workers are more productive, healthier and enjoy a more positive work-life balance. The benefits for workers and businesses alike are driving a workplace revolution – one that’s projected to see 50% of the UK workforce working remotely to some extent by 2020.

A lot of studies have been conducted on remote working in recent years, listing the benefits for all involved. Remote workers have been found to take fewer days off sick, stay motivated for longer, stay in their jobs for longer and prioritise their freedom over wage increases (saving on travel costs and other expenses helps in this regard, too).

Remote working sounds like the business revolution we all need but it’s not something you can simply switch to and hope for the best. As with anything, there are downsides to remote working and a number of challenges to overcome, as well. Thankfully, there are working strategies and tools every business can use to overcome these issues and enjoy the full benefits remote working has to offer.

To demonstrate this in this article, we’re looking at 10 remote work challenges and how to overcome them.

The challenges of remote working

Despite all the perks remote workers enjoy, there are a number of challenges that arise from working out of the office. According to Buffer’s 2019 State of Remote Work report, the most common problem remote workers have is unplugging after work – an issue 22% of respondents said they experience.

Loneliness is the second most common problem (19%) while collaboration (17%), distractions at home (10%), time zones (8%) and staying motivated (8%) are all issues that affect remote workers and the companies they work for.

Meanwhile, a separate study conducted by Hubstaff finds the biggest challenges for businesses with remote teams include communication, scheduling, tracking performance and language/cultural barriers. Another challenge it mentions is building and maintaining trust between remote team members – an issue cited in multiple other reports, including this piece published by Workana.

What are we looking at in this article?

In this article, we’re going to look at ten of the most common remote work challenges and solutions to overcome them. These are based on the challenges we’ve experienced here at Venture Harbour, my own experiences as a remote worker and the challenges listed in numerous studies on remote working.

We’ll break these challenges into two categories: challenges for remote teams and challenges for individual remote workers.

Challenges for remote teams:

Managing projects
Remote collaboration
Tracking tasks and productivity
Working from different locations, time zones, etc.
Dealing with language and cultural differences
Building/maintaining trust

Challenges for remote workers:

Maximising productivity
Overcoming distractions
Staying motivated
Unplugging after work

I’ll also be providing solutions to these problems, based on methods we’ve used here at Venture Harbour and scientific studies related to remote working and productivity.

Remote work challenges for teams

First, we’re starting with the most common remote work challenges for teams. These are the issues remote teams often experience in terms of working together effectively from different locations and the challenges team managers trying to get the best out of everyone.

#1: Managing projects

Starting right at the top, the biggest challenge with remote working is managing projects when your team is spread out across multiple locations. Whether it’s a mix of in-house and remote staff or an entire team of remote workers, managers are responsible for making sure deadlines are met and targets are hit.

Without having a physical presence, communication is more difficult and keeping track of individual tasks is problematic, especially for complex projects and large teams.

How to solve this problem

Thankfully, there are tools for just about every challenge a remote team manager could experience. Above all, you’re going to need some project management software to assign tasks and keep track of progress. There are plenty of options available for this and I’ve talked about monday.com as a great option in a couple of articles before:

10 Best Productivity Tools for Teams
10 Best Remote Work Tools for Distributed Teams

The great thing about monday.com is that it gives you multiple project views to keep track of progress while its task management system is great. Tasks can be assigned/reassigned and team members can set progress statuses for everyone to see.

If you need something more advanced than monday.com, Asana is about as good as it gets in terms of an all-in-one team management platform. It offers a greater depth of team management features, such as advanced permissions and dedicated pages for teams, and the ability to communicate at the task, project and team level.

Honestly, either platform is a great choice and there are plenty of other options on the market like Trello designed for teams with less demanding needs.

That takes care of the software – now all you need to do is make sure you’ve got the right management in place.

#2: Remote collaboration

The most common challenge remote teams report in studies is collaborating from different locations. How can a team of designers work on the same project when they’re spread out across the country or world, for example? When team members are in the same office, they can interact with documents, items, projects and each other without any real limitations.

However, remote teams are highly limited and even interacting with the same document poses challenges.

The good is that, much like project management software, there are countless collaboration tools designed for all kinds of tasks and teams that will help you break down those remote co-working barriers.

How to solve this problem

The first thing you need for remote collaboration is an effective communication channel. Email simply doesn’t cut it for remote team communications. You need something instant, responsive and flexible.

Slack has established itself as the go-to communication platform for remote teams – and for good reason. It provides all the basic features you need – instant messaging, availability statuses, notifications, file sharing, group chats, etc. – into an easy-to-use interface that new team members can join with a quick email signup.

In many ways, Slack is the simplest collaboration tool your team and this is credit to how good a job it does of simplifying communications essentials.

For basic document collaboration, Google Drive will have you covered and things start to get a little more niche from here, depending on what you need. For those design teams we mentioned earlier, tools like InVision make collaborative prototyping possible for remote teams.

Our design team uses InVision to create and mockups, provide feedback and test interactive demos without any specialist design software. It also helps bridge the gap between our designers and developers by providing the CSS styles and dimensions of any element with a single click.

Another great collaborative tool is the team version of Spark, which allows multiple team members to collaborate on emails at the same time. If you’ve used Google Docs to work on documents simultaneously, you’ll get how Spark for teams works.

When an email needs input from another team member or anyone is unsure about specific information that needs including, Spark’s collaborative email features mean the correct information always comes from the source – no misunderstandings.

This gives you an idea of how niche collaborative tools can be. Whatever collaborative challenges your team faces, there’s almost certainly more than one software option to help you overcome them.

#3: Tracking tasks and productivity

Now we’re getting into some of the more complex problems of managing remote teams. To hit big targets, you’ve got to make sure all the smaller tasks are getting completed in a timely manner. Keeping track of the progress multiple remote workers are making on a daily basis can be a daunting prospect.

How can you keep track of progress on individual tasks while also keeping a keen eye on project-wide progress? Well, the project management tools we looked at earlier will help you do that in a reactionary sense. In other words, they’ll show you when team members have started tasks and finished them, but you only get this information after these interactions take place.

They don’t really give you live feedback or tell you how productive team members are being while they work on tasks.

How to solve this problem

To get a more real-time look at team progress, you’ll want a project management tool like Status Hero. The platform prompts team members to provide quick “check-in” details about what they’re currently working on so you can see what everyone’s up to at any given time.

Team members can see what everyone else is currently working on, what they got up to yesterday, their availability status and any “blockers” that are getting in the way of completing tasks. This means no interruptions when people are working on something important and a reduction in pointless messages like “Are you available now?” or “Have you started [task] yet?”.

In terms of maximising productivity, the first thing you want to know is how long tasks are taking. Toggl has this covered for you by tracking the time it takes to complete tasks, which you can use as benchmarks to maintain and improve turnaround times, as well as pinpoint issues getting int the way of productivity.

You can also discover which tasks individual team members are most time-efficient with, allowing you to assign tasks to the most suitable person.

RescueTime is another productivity tool that helps you (and individual team members) see where time is being wasted. The software tracks the amount of time spent in apps, revealing how many munites are lost to Twitter or other apps that often kill productivity. It can also do the same for specific websites insides browser apps to reveal which pages are holding up progress.

#4: Working from different locations, time zones, etc.

One of the greatest freedoms remote working gives businesses is the ability to hire talent from around the world. The downside is, much of this talent can be working in different time zones, which can put your team out of sync. In some cases, parts of your team could be snoozing while other parts are trying to get things done on the other side of the world.

Add this to the freedom remote working gives your team members (maybe they have to or prefer to work in the evenings, for example) and there are no guarantees everyone is going to be switched on when you need them.

How to solve this problem

The best way to solve this problem is to have a few guidelines in place for your team members. Now, you don’t want to start infringing on the freedoms remote working has to offer but there needs to be some kind fo balance if productivity is going to be achieved.

Ideally, you want the key members of your team to have a fairly regular schedule. It doesn’t necessarily matter when they choose to work, as long as they’re consistent so you generally know when they’re next going to be available. Whether they decide to work specific hours every week or schedule availability time for the week ahead, you generally want to know who is going to be available (and when) on a weekly basis.

In terms of the tools to make this happen, you’re going to want an integrated calendar for teams that pulls everyone’s schedules into a single place. There are plenty of options available and my personal favourite is Calendar, which also allows team members to set availability times.

With the team version of Calendar, managers can see what team members have got coming up and schedule tasks/meetings according to availability – without any of that awful email back-and-forth organisation headache. Even group meetings and collaboration sessions can be set at times suitable for everyone in a matter of clicks.

For more immediate availability statuses (when you need something doing now), this is where platforms like Slack and Status Hero prove their worth, once again. With Slack, you can always see who’s available right now and Status Hero gives you greater context by showing you what team members are doing at any given time.

This allows team managers to decide whether that task is too important to interrupt.

#5: Dealing with language and cultural differences

When you’ve got a remote team of workers from around the world, you’re also likely going to have a rich mix of language and cultural backgrounds coming together on projects. The most obvious result of this is varying levels of English proficiency (or other languages) but there are more subtle cultural differences that also need to be understood.

For example, I’ve worked with a number people in Japan and Korea where workplace expectations are wildly different from the UK. People are expected to work long hours, contradicting seniors is frowned upon and, in Japan especially, raising complaints is generally discouraged.

I’m generalising, to some extent, but these social conventions are real and they can make certain aspects of collaboration uncomfortable – for example, correcting someone older or considered as a senior. (On the other hand, the work ethic I’ve seen from professionals in Japan and Korea is something to behold.)

By having a cultural understanding of the people on your team, you’ll be in a position to recognise which aspects of remote working are more difficult for certain members and help them overcome them.

Not all cultural differences are quite so nuanced. Differences in religious beliefs can be more obvious and it’s imperative that these are respected, including religious holidays that may require time off or participation (eg: Ramadan). Where things can get tricky is social/political principles, especially if you’ve got team members in countries where human rights, animal rights or anything else are observed in a different way.

How to solve this problem

Let’s start with the language aspect first. Above all, everyone needs to understand that language ability is never something someone should be criticised for or made to feel inadequate about. Whoever makes the call to hire team members is ultimately responsible for deciding whether they have the required language skills before bringing them on-board.

Native speakers need to be aware that misunderstandings will happen and take whatever possible steps to make them less likely/severe. Patience is crucial and speaking clearly, in simple English, will make it easier for non-native speakers to understand.

When it comes to important info, send details to non-native speakers via email. When you talk, people only get one chance to understand everything but they can read text at their own pace, read it multiple times if necessary and use a dictionary for any words they’re not familiar with.

The most important thing is for non-native speakers to know they can ask about anything that’s unclear to them without it being held against them.

Now, cultural differences are more complex and they can affect remote teams in two key ways:

Some cultural differences can impact the way your team works together.
Others can potentially cause misunderstandings, offence or disagreements.

For example, you’ll often find the level of openness people are comfortable with varies greatly around the world. I’ve already mentioned that complaining is typically frowned upon in Japan and I’ve also experienced a reluctance to say “no” in many other parts of Asia.

The good news is, with a relatively basic understanding of workplace culture, you can anticipate these differences and avoid problems. Practically speaking, it’s no different from hiring someone who’s worked in an office their entire life and training them for remote working – it’s all about adapting work practices.

The more challenging cultural differences to manage are the ones that have the potential to cause offence. A rogue generalisation about religion, for example, or having a strict vegan working with someone from a country with a less-than-spectacular animal rights record.

To avoid potential issues, you may choose to encourage open dialogue about culture, religion, politics, etc. and promote tolerance and understanding across all topics – kind of a there’s no right or wrong philosophy. If that doesn’t work, you may have to discourage all sweeping statements about these topics and keep conversations on more professional subjects.

#6: Building/maintaining trust

There are obvious trust issues that can arise among remote teams when you can physically see what people are doing. In some cases, team members may have never met each other face-to-face and this has all kinds of subconscious effects on trust between them.

We’ve already looked at a number of tools that can help deal with some of these issues – for example, Status Hero helping team managers understand what team members are working on and project management tools that track progress.

However, the are a number of other steps you can take to build and maintain trust across your entire team.

How to solve this problem

PukkaTeam is a remote communication tool and the company knows a few things about building trust between distributed teams. In this article, it presents seven tips for building trust and I think every remote team should implement these in their own way:

Get to know each other: Here at Venture Harbour, we organise team meetups every month and getaways twice a year to build a social bond between everyone.
Be responsive and reliable: When team members are responsive and tasks are completed on time, trust typically remains high. It’s the equivalent of knowing people are there for you when you need them.
Promote transparency: Promote transparency at every level and demonstrate the benefits to team members.
Get the right collaboration tools: Be strategic in your choice of collaboration tools – which ones promote transparency, allow face-to-face video calls, make people accountable, etc.
Create shared goals: When people have shared goals, they have an invested interest in working together and covering each other’s backs.
Avoid micromanagement: Check in with team members but avoid micromanagement, as it can reduce incentive.
Lead by example: Show your team members that you’re trustworthy and willing to trust them.

The funny thing about trust is it takes a leap of faith and this means giving people enough freedom to prove their trustworthiness. It also helps to incentivise team members with shared goals, positive feedback and rewards for hitting targets and any sacrifices they have to make along the way.

Remote work challenges for individual team members

People working from home or on the move face their own unique set of challenges when it comes to getting things done and fitting work into their personal lives.

These issues obviously impact the individual but they also have an effect on the team they’re a part of, too.

#7: Maximising productivity

I can say from personal experience that poor productivity is the worst thing for remote workers and also one of the most difficult challenges to overcome.

The longer it takes to complete tasks, the more they eat into your personal life and the less effective you become as a team member.

If you’re am unproductive remote worker, things quickly start to fall apart and working from home (or anywhere else) feels more like a curse than a perk.

How to solve this problem

Productivity isn’t only an issue for remote workers and there’s a lot of scientific research going into this topic these days. There are also plenty of tools designed to help businesses, teams and individuals maximise productivity.

So let’s take a scientific approach to solving this problem. Here are some key findings from studies that look into the most common productivity killers:

Multitasking reduces productivity by up to 40% [source]
Humans lose focus on a single task after 5-20 minutes [source, PDF]
It takes up to 23 minutes to regain focus after being distracted [source]

So, based on those scientific findings, here’s a simple three-step plan to maximising productivity:

Avoid multitasking: Set a single goal for each day and focus on achieving that target.
Work in short bursts: To keep focus at a higher level and increase motivation with multiple short deadlines.
Remove distractions: Stop unnecessary distractions from killing your productivity.

If you’re anything like me, though, actually implementing that three-step plan is surprisingly difficult. You have to reprogramme your mind and develop new working habits, otherwise you’ll instinctively revert to multitasking and other bad habits.

Thankfully, there’s an app for that.

I’m not particularly good at self-discipline but I am good at responding to gentle encouragement and Serene prompts me to set a single goal for the day before I get started. This keeps me focused on a single objective throughout the day so I don’t get caught up in distractions that can wait for another day.

It then asks me to break this objective into multiple work sessions for the day and these are the individual tasks that will help me hit my target by the end of the day. Now, what’s really great about this feature is you can set timed work sessions of between 20-60 minutes. These short bursts make it easier to keep focus and take regular, short breaks after each session.

Something I’ve also found by using this app is that the timer showing me how much of the session adds this kind of pressure for me to get the task done in time. As soon as the session has passed the half-way margin, I get this burst of incentive to make sure I complete everything before the timer hits zero.

So, now, I’m working harder to meet multiple deadlines throughout the day, instead of just plodding my way through tasks. But I’m also taking more breaks and getting more done throughout the day and I feel validated enough by this that I now instinctively ignore anything that might distract from the task at hand.

#8: Overcoming distractions

Distractions are another productivity killer that can turn remote working into a nightmare and compromise team progress. Distractions at home were the fourth most common problem reports in Buffer’s 2019 State of Remote Working report and I understand this problem very well.

Some will argue that working from home isn’t technically remote working but, as someone who spent years working remotely around the world and now predominantly works from home, I can say this problem is equally common for me in both scenarios.

If anything, there are more distractions at home than in a hotel room.

How to solve this problem

When I was travelling year-round, my best solution to overcoming distractions was working in cafes. Luckily, most of my time travelling and working were spent in Asia and there are some great cafe cultures over there. Vietnam and South Korea are particularly great for working in cafes. There’s free WiFi everywhere and you can spend hours in a cafe nursing a single drink without seeming like a freeloader (even if it is the case).

Also, the coffee rocks in both countries.

The problem is cafes also come with their own distractions but they were always the better alternative to hotel rooms. I still find the odd two-hour sessions in a cafe helpful for breaking up the day but I’m now in a position to enjoy my home office.

A workspace that helps you focus is the best way to block out distractions – something minimal, tidy and practical. Ideally, this should be a separate room dedicated to work and nothing else. This isn’t somewhere you work and then later sleep or occasionally play guitar.

This is where you come to get stuff done and the place you leave when the day’s target has been hit.

That takes care of the real-world distractions but you also have the digital distractions to take care of. You know, those quick Twitter checks that turn into an unscheduled break or email notifications that grab your attention and bring progress to a halt.

Good news: there’s an app for that, too.

In fact, it’s the same app I talked about in the previous section, Serene, which also comes with a website and app blocking feature that allows you to create a list of rogue distraction apps or specific web pages. These are automatically blocked during wor sessions and Serene will also silence your phone to stop those pesky notifications coming through.

Another app I use is Daywise, which allows you to schedule notifications, essentially blocking them during unwanted times. More on this app later.

#9: Staying motivated

Staying motivated is another common challenge reported by remote workers and I think this essentially comes down to being unsupervised. Without the presence of supervisors and team members, there’s less pressure to get things done and you can also miss out on that group satisfaction of hitting targets as a team.

Personally, loneliness is the only problem listed in the Buffer report that I don’t experience as a remote worker but I can imagine how this might also contribute to a lack of motivation.

How to solve this problem

If you’re working as part of a remote team, it’s important to talk about motivation with team leaders and colleagues. There’s no shame in some of us having more natural motivation than others. What counts is doing everything you can, collectively, to maximise motivation for everyone.

I’ll be the first to admit that my natural motivation is probably weaker than average. If it’s not, then it certainly feels like it when I see how well other remote workers I now appear to naturally maintain levels of motivation.

I’ve always envied that.

What I will say, though, is the key to overcoming this is finding out what motivates you. If this isn’t naturally installed into you, there are ways to artificially inject some motivation – you just need to find out what works for you.

As I said earlier, I respond well to gentle forms of encouragement such as setting short deadlines. I’m not particularly proud to admit it but by creating short work sessions in Serene and seeing that countdown timer, I find myself remotivated every time I look at the clock to see how much time is left (or isn’t).

I’m not a particularly competitive person when I’m put up against other people. However, I would say I’m competitive against myself and I can’t stand it when I perform worse at something than I know I should. If it took me 20 minutes to do something yesterday, I’ll be kicking myself if it takes any longer than that to do the same thing today.

I think it’s the same feeling I get if I fail to complete a task within a time period I’ve set for myself. I think this is why the timer in Serene works so well for me.

#10: Unplugging after work

For me, this is the worst of all the challenges associated with remote working. There’s not much point in working this way if you can’t switch off after the day is done and it’s impossible to maintain productivity if you never feel like you get a genuine break.

How to solve this problem

The best way to switch off after work is by getting everything done that you set out to do before the day is over. This is why productivity is so important because it’s you instinctively know that you deserve to switch off when you’ve ticked everything off the day’s list.

With this in mind, you can see why it’s so important that you set achievable targets for each day and routinely hit those targets. Otherwise, you constantly feel like you’ve never done enough and it’s hard to switch off when you’re not working.

This is another reason it helps to have statuses on apps like Slack and Status Hero so people can see when you are/aren’t available. Making your availability hours known to everyone is important, too. Make people aware that you’re available for work-related issues at specific times and, equally important, make it clear that you’re not available outside of those times.

Finally, I mentioned an app called Daywise earlier and now is the time to explain about it in a little more detail. Sadly, it’s only available for Android and I wish I could suggest an alternative for iOS but I’m not aware of one that allows you to schedule notifications in quite the same way.

Basically, you set the times that you’re happy to receive notifications and they’ll come in as normal during this schedule. Outside of those times, Daywise will prevent notifications from showing and collect them in the background for later.

You’ll then get a list of notifications when you’re scheduled time arrives, which you can view in chronological order. Best of all, you can set different schedules for different apps. This means you can use Daywise to block notifications that might distract you while you’re working and then block work-related apps from eating into your personal time.

No more after-hours emails interrupting your dinner.

Make remote working work for you

Remote working brings a lot of potential benefits to the table but you’re never going to get to a point where you can enjoy these unless you achieve a level of productivity and discipline that helps achieve a work-life balance. There’s not much point in working remotely if your job starts eating into your personal life and vice versa.

That divide needs to remain in place and this can be challenging if you work from home or remote locations. We’ve looked at ten of the most common remote work challenges in this article and solutions to overcome them.

Now, the rest is up to you.

The post 10 Common Remote Work Challenges (+ Solutions) appeared first on Venture Harbour.

10 Best Apps for Working Remotely From Home

With remote working sharply on the rise (50% of the entire UK workforce is expected to work remotely at some capacity by 2020), more people are getting the day’s tasks done at home.  According to Buffer’s 2019 State of Remote Report, despite having the freedom to work from anywhere, the vast majority of remote workers (84%) still prefer to get things done from home.

With this in mind, it’s important to consider the challenges of getting tasks done from the comfort of your own home – as well as any implications this might have on the rest of your home life. One of the key supposed benefits of remote working is achieving a better work-life balance and another one is that it boosts productivity.

This is all great, in theory, but reality shows us that achieving these benefits doesn’t come automatically. The same report from Buffer also lists the most common struggles remote workers say they encounter.

It’s telling that the most common problem cited is struggling to unplug after work and I can say this is something I definitely have problems with. However, I can also say this is directly linked to productivity when tasks take longer and then start eating into my personal time.

Communication and collaboration is an obvious barrier when you’re working in a different location to your teammates, but this is one area where we have an abundance of apps at our disposal. More challenging is the issue of distractions at home and this is something else I have to be really disciplined with.

I can also understand motivation being a problem when you remove all the gentle nudges of having superiors, teammates and that sense of being at work.

These are challenges we’re addressing in this article and all of the apps we’re looking at today will help you overcome these.

Top 10 apps for remote working at home

We’ve previously looked at the best productivity tools for teams, apps for distributed teams around the world and automation tools for small businesses. However, the focus of this article is the individual remote worker who calls their home their office. You work from home (or you want to work from home) and you need to maximise productivity so you can achieve that work-life balance everyone keeps telling you about.

Therefore, many of the tools I’m recommending here are free and the paid ones all come with a free version or offer reasonably-priced options. I’m not here to recommend expensive business-grade tools that your company should be paying. There are tools you can use to improve your own workflow, impress your bosses and turn remote working into a truly life-changing move.

Here’s a quick summary of the tools we’ll be looking at in more detail:

Serene: A tool that cuts out distractions, helps you stay focused and complete tasks faster.
Slack: Team communication, the way it should be for remote workers.
Zoom: Video and voice calls for groups and one-to-one.
Toggl: Keep track of how long it’s really taking you to complete tasks.
Google Drive: Document creation, cloud storage, file sharing and collaboration.
Calendar: Manage all of your calendars and events in one place, arrange meetings without dozens of emails.
Spark: A smart email client that stops your inbox getting in the way of productivity and turns it into an asset.
Chrome Remote Desktop: Access your computer securely from any device and screen share with teammates for stronger collaboration.
Zapier: Save time on repetitive tasks and switching between apps by automating processes (eg: automatically saving Gmail attachments to Google Drive).
Daywise: Schedule notifications to stop work interrupting your free time.

As you can see, each of these tools fulfils a different role so I’m not recommending 10 different apps that basically all do the same thing. Each of these recommendations will increase your productivity and I fully expect you’ll be using eight or more of these after reading this article (or similar alternatives to each individual tool).

So let’s get started.

#1: Serene (Mac)

Free

Serene is a free app for Mac that helps you achieve maximum productivity every day. There are two key principles behind the app, both of which are backed by a series of scientific studies. First, Serene encourages you to set a single daily goal and stay focused on achieving that throughout the day. This is based on studies that show multitasking drastically reduces productivity while others point ongoing distractions and/or multitasking can even damage your brain.

The second key role Serene plays is blocking access to distracting websites and apps during work sessions while also silencing your phone. Separate studies find it takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back on track after being distracted. This gives you an idea of how much time those email notifications can cost you throughout the day.

Key features




Website blocker: Block websites that distract you, such as social media and news websites.
App blocker: You can also block apps that take your attention away from work – social apps, your email app and anything else getting in the way.
Distraction-free sessions: Work in 20-60 minute sessions with regular breaks to maximise productivity.
Session timer: Shows you how much time you have left to complete tasks, giving you a motivation boost towards the end of each session.
To-do lists: Manage tasks and make sure everything gets done by the right team member.
Day planner: Define your goal for the day, set your tasks and get stuff done.
Focus music: Play background music to help you keep your focus.
Phone silencer: Automatically put your phone on silent mobile while working to avoid unnecessary distractions.

Serene asks you to set a daily goal, which can be broken up into multiple work sessions or tasks – as long as they all contribute to the day’s end goal. These sessions run for 20-60 minutes, another feature based on studies that show the human brain tens to start losing focus on a task after 20 minutes.

This concept is so well established there’s an entire productivity method developed around it, called the Pomodoro Technique (essentially, working in 25-minute bursts).

During sessions, you can access site or apps on your block list and Seren with automatically silence your phone so notifications don’t distract you from the task at hand.

A countdown timer gives you a constant reminder of how much time remains for each session. However, the best thing I find about this feature is it keeps me motivated to work at a solid pace and get the task done before the countdown hits zero. This makes a huge difference compared to thinking about the working day as a 6-8 hour stint where you naturally step off the gas between breaks.

Serene divides your day up into a series of short work sessions and regular breaks, giving you maximum focus while working and enough breaks to keep your mind fresh throughout the day.

Serene is still in the beta stage of development but you can request an invitation to try it out here.

#2: Slack (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android & web)
Free version, paid options from £5.25/mo per user

Slack is a massaging platform designed for teams and it’s the ideal communication tools for remote workers. Instant messaging is organised into channels, which team members can join and leave, as needed, so nobody receives messages or notifications irrelevant to them. Team members can also chat outside of main topics in separate threads which prevents these messages from interfering with the most project-centric conversations.

Key features

Instant messaging: Live communication between every team member for seamless collaboration.
Statuses: Users can set availability statuses to focus on individual tasks as needed.
File sharing: Drag-and-drop file sharing for PDFs, images, videos and other common files types.
Voice & video calls: Voice and video calls directly from within Slack.
Screen sharing: Allows team members to show their work to others in real-time for stronger collaboration.

Now, the key things to understand about Slack as a remote worker is the pricing policy. You can use Slack for free, which allows you to create a single workspace for small teams while paid versions start from £5.25/month per active user. Ideally, your business (or the company you work for) will pay for a team version of Slack to provide everyone with a fully-collaborative workspace.

However, the free version of Slack means small teams within a business can use the tool between themselves to improve their workflow. This can improve collaboration within office environments but the real benefit of Slack is for remote workers who need to collaborate with team members in other locations – one of the most common problems cited by remote workers.

#3: Zoom (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android & web)



Free version available, paid versions from £11.99/mo per host

Zoom offers a full suite of video conferencing and communication tools for businesses. That said the standout product for us (and the majority of other remote teams I’m in contact with) is Zoom Meetings & Chat, which offers video and voice calls for serious teams.

Key features




Video meetings: Remote teams can run video meetings and one-to-one video calls.
Voice calls: You can also run group or one-to-one voice calls when face-to-face meetings aren’t necessary.
Webinars: You can also use Zoom to host webinars.
Messaging: Team members can send messages using Zoom.
File sharing: Share files during and outside of video/voice chats for collaboration between members.

Group video meetings and voice calls are made easy with Zoom. Once again, there’s a free version of Zoom, which will be enough for a large chunk of smaller teams. Crucially, paid versions only require hosts to pay a monthly fee rather than everyone who attends meetings. A host is someone who invites people team members to join meetings but up to 100 participants can join and you (or your company) will only need to upgrade to a paid version if meetings last longer than 40 minutes.

#4: Chrome Remote Desktop (iOS, Android, Chrome extension)
Free

Chrome Remote Desktop allows you to access your computer securely from your phone, tablet or another computer. Essentially, this means you can access your machine from anywhere, at any time without worrying about any security risks. You can access your computer by typing in an access URL into a web browser or download the mobile app for iOS and Andriod.

There’s also a Chrome extension available that gives you faster access to your office/home computer from portable devices.

Key features




Remote Access: Access your computer anywhere, anytime from your mobile, tablet or another computer.
Remote Support: Allow team members to access your computer from their location to provide support/collaborate.
Screen share: You can also use the Remote Support feature to share your screen with team members for greater collaboration

The other key function of Chrome Remote Desktop is to connect your device with fellow teammates. This means you can provide access to your computer and receive remote support, allowing colleagues to see your screen and control your computer – perfect for getting technical issues resolved.

However, you can also use this feature in reverse to access your teammates’ computers and provide support or collaborate. You can simply use the feature to screen share, allowing everyone to see the same screen and collaborate more effectively.

#5: Toggl (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Chrome, Firefox)



PLans start from $9/month per user

Toggl is a time tracking app that shows you how much time you’re really spending on tasks. The software was designed for remote workers from the very beginning with the idea of helping freelancers make sure they were billing accurately for projects and getting paid for the amount of time spent on projects.

If you’re a remote freelancer, this alone makes Toggl a worthy investment and its reports will also help you quote more accurately on future projects.

Key features




Time tracking: See how much time you (or others) are taking to get things done.
Boost profits: Check you’re charging enough for the time it takes to complete projects.
Reports: See how productive you’re being and how profitable your time with Toggl reports.
Cross-platform: Toggl’s wonderfully designed apps work across just about every operating system and online so you can access it wherever you need, whenever you need it.

If you’re a remote company worker (ie: not sending out invoices) then Toggl can still help you boost productivity by pinpointing tasks that are taking longer than they should. It will also improve project planning by tracking how long individual and collective tasks really take to complete. Likewise, you can also use it to track the amount of time productivity issues are costing you.

Toggle also has team plans designed for businesses, starting from $18/month per user.

#6: Spark (Mac, iOS, Android)



Free version, $6.39/mo (per user) for Premium

Emails are one of the most notorious productivity killers and I’ve already mentioned the bane of email notifications in this article. Luckily, there are ways to tame email interruptions and turn your inbox into an asset, not a hindrance.

Spark is an intelligent email client that automatically collects and categorises your emails from every account. It also allows you to prioritise the emails that matter most and filter out the ones that don’t – or snooze them until later.

Key features




Smart inbox: Clean up your inbox, find any email with “Smart Search” and snooze emails that don’t need your attention right now.
Smart notifications: Only receive notifications for the emails that really matter.
Assign emails: Assign emails to team members so the right person is always managing tasks.
Team email: Private team comments, shared drafts, template replies and instant chat for collaborative teams.
Send emails later: Schedule emails to send them when people are most likely to read them.
Reminders: Get reminders to follow up on important emails at the right time.

Spark also packs a bunch of collaboration tools, allowing team members to work on the same email remotely, in real-time. This means everyone who needs to provide information in an email can do so themselves with 100% accuracy – no delays and no misunderstandings.

The free version of Spark will be more than enough for individual remote workers and for very small teams as well. Paid versions start from $6.39/mo per user, bringing increasingly advanced collaboration features.

#7: Google Drive (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android & web)



Free

Google Drive is the no-frills cloud alternative to Microsoft Office but it’s far more useful for remote workers than its MS rival. The reason I say this is because the file sharing and collaboration features in Google Drive work so much better than they do in Microsoft Drive.

Another big issue for me is that I find the MS apps (Word, Excel, etc.) regularly crash on Mac. I don’t get any of these problems with Google Drive and the only real downside is you really need to be online to use Google Drive and Google Docs.

Key features




Documents: Word documents, spreadsheets, presentations and all of the essential docs we take for granted these days – for free.
Cloud storage: The cloud element of Google Drive is what makes it so useful for remote teams, allowing them to create, upload, share and collaborate on files.
Collaboration: Real-time collaboration on Google Docs files works without any real lag getting in the way and this is where it really outshines Microsoft Drive.

Google Drive allows you and other team members to work on the same text document or spreadsheet in real-time. There’s no noticeable lag and all participants can see changes being in made, as they happen, while comments can also be left for specific lines or cells within each document.

For most individual remote workers, the free version of Google Drive should be more than enough. If you need larger cloud storage than the default 15GB space provided for free, then you can upgrade your storage plan without paying up for G Suite, which is essentially Google Drive for businesses.

That said, G Suite plans start from £8.28/mo per user so we’re still talking about a highly affordable platform, even for businesses. 

#8: Calendar (iOS, Android, web app)



Free version available, paid versions from $10/month

While Google Calendar is a great free digital calendar, it doesn’t provide some of the advanced features remote workers typically need. A more feature-rich alternative is the aptly named Calendar, which connects all of your calendars into a single interface.

Key features




One calendar: Calendar integrates with all of your calendars (Google Calendar, Outlook, etc.) to keep everything in one place.
Synced events: Create events in Calendar or create them in your other calendar apps – they’ll always be synced.
Easy scheduling: Schedule team meetings without the usual email back and forths.
Analytics: Calendar provides analytics reports to help you boost productivity.
Meeting transcriptions: Automatic transcripts of your meetings.

Aside from integrating all of your calendar apps, Calendar’s star feature is the way it handles meetings. Instead of arranging video chats or other meetings with dizzying emails between multiple team members, Calendar allows anyone to choose and book meeting times during your availability hours while ensuring there are no conflicts with existing meetings or tasks.

#9: Zapier (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android & web)



Free for 100 tasks/mo, $19.99/mo for 750 tasks

Zapier is a simple automation tool that will save you endless amounts of time on repetitive tasks. Instead of constantly switching between different apps to complete basic functions (eg: manually uploading files to Google Drive), you can create Zaps to automate these tasks for you.

Essentially, Zapier sends data between apps like Gmail and Google Drive so email attachments are automatically uploaded for remote access, for example. Or, you can automatically add new Toggl time entries to a Google Sheets spreadsheet for accurate timesheets without the manual workload.

Key features




Integrate apps: Link your favourite apps so they can share data, allowing you to spend less time switching between apps.
Automate tasks: Automate repetitive tasks between apps.
Zaps: Browse Zapier’s library of pre-built automation workflows for your favourite apps.
Custom automations: Build your own automations if you can’t find them in Zapier’s library of “Zaps”.

Automation is the most important tool for maximising productivity and Zapier is the easiest introduction you’ll get into this crucial, but sometimes complex, technology. Despite being incredibly simple, it’s amazing how much time you can save with Zapier and also how addictive creating/discovering new automations becomes.

Time is money, after all.

#10: Daywise (Android)

We’ve already looked at how Serene can block distractions while your working but the biggest concern remote workers cite in Buffer’s study is switching off after work. I can relate to how difficult switching off can be and how important it is. For me, the best way to do this is to unplug from all work-related apps and Daywise allows me to do this by scheduling autoamtions for specific apps.

Essentially, this allows me to turn notifications off after 6pm and keep them off until I start work again the following morning. This, combined with Serene, means I’m able to block notifications form killing my productivity and disturbing my private life.

Key features




Schedule notifications: You decide when to receive/not receive notifications for individual apps. 
Batch scheduling: Select batches of apps to schedule, instead of setting times one app at a time.
Inbox: Notifications are collecting in Daywise’s inbox for access in one place.
VIPs: Choose contacts that can contact you at any time, even if the app they’re using is blocked.
Phone usage reports: Learn how much time you’re spending on your phone and which apps are eating up most of your time.

Daywise puts you back in control of phone notifications and prevents them from getting in the way of work while also preventing work from getting in the way of life. The only downside I can think of is that the app is only available on Andriod phones.

It all comes down to productivity

I’ve been working remotely for almost a decade now and I can confidently say, all of the benefits associated with it require you to do one thing: maximise productivity. Once you do this, everything starts falling into place and you start to realise the full benefits of working remotely.

You get more done, feel better about your work and have more time call your own. The knock-on effects of this are greater happiness, reduced stress and stronger relationships with the people who matter most to you.

This doesn’t happen automatically, though. With the wrong approach, remote working can eat into your personal life, increase stress and hinder your relationships in ways a regular office job never would – and I’m saying this from experience, too.

Again, it all comes down to productivity.

These tools will give the advantage you need in terms of getting more done, faster. This will enable you to develop healthy working habits (eg: switching off after work) because you can afford to, knowing that you’ve already done enough today. Like I say, maximise productivity and everything good about working remotely will fall into place.

The post 10 Best Apps for Working Remotely From Home appeared first on Venture Harbour.