Clued-up companies rely on business intelligence (BI) in order to make informed decisions regarding their future. Yet even though businesses invest in BI, they often make mistakes resulting from a lack of knowledge about how best to implement it, and can end up losing more than they can afford. Here is a round-up of common BI mistakes encountered by businesses, and how you can avoid them.

Mistake #1: Not defining business problems

One of the biggest mistakes in BI implementation is jumping to conclusions too soon without first identifying what your business wants to accomplish. When it comes to integrating BI into business operations, there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution. Looking for a single BI tool to solve all analytics problems is one of the main reasons many BI projects fail.

You need to clearly define the business problem you’re trying to solve, and understand the specific tools required to solve those problems. Only then will you be able to select and purchase the BI tool that best suits your needs.

Mistake #2: Not getting buy-in from end users

Even the best BI tools are ineffective if they’re not properly utilized. Forcing your employees to use newly purchased BI technology without informing them or hearing their thoughts beforehand is a big mistake.

Instead of telling employees they have to use something, first focus on highlighting the benefits of the new BI system. Help employees understand why they’ll want to use it, and convince them by showing them what they stand to gain from the new BI technology.

Mistake #3: Rushing implementation

A rushed deployment of new technology is often times not a successful one. When it comes to deploying BI solutions, patience is key. If you hurry into BI implementation too quickly, your end users may not have enough time to develop the skills required to use the software effectively.

Take an incremental approach to implementing BI solutions. Make a list identifying business problems and, rather than expecting to solve every business problem all at once, try to prioritize specific outcomes you want to achieve. When you have solved the first issue, move on to the next one and so on until you have incrementally solved all the problems on the list.

Mistake #4: Insufficient training

New BI systems are complex structures that require a lot of training in order for users to make the most of them. If users lack the skills necessary to operate the software, then bottlenecks can occur. The product may be left dormant for long periods of time as users wait for experienced IT staff to resolve teething problems.

Spend wisely on providing ongoing training, so that users really understand how to use the system. Consider hosting weekly lunch sessions where a different aspect of the BI system is discussed. You could also provide online training videos that enable users to learn more about the new system at their own pace.

Mistake #5: Not making use of information and reports

BI tools are designed to analyze raw data and turn it into valuable information that can be used in business decision making. But some organizations fail to exploit the information fully – it is not shared, not analyzed, and not acted on. BI software can generate reports on various data points, identify risks, and predict trends. It’s important to leverage the information gathered and to apply it to your business’s objectives and goals.

Business intelligence software is a highly useful tool that, when used properly, can drive your business forward. Avoid these mistakes in order to make the most of your BI solutions. If you’re looking to implement BI tools to your company, contact our experienced consultants today and see how we can help.

Business intelligence (BI) involves the use of a variety of software and applications to analyze a company’s raw data, and present it in a way that’s easy to understand and enables effective business decisions to be taken. But in reality, many businesses fail to have an effective BI strategy in place, causing them to lose large sums of money. Here are five common BI mistakes you need to know, so you can take deliberate measures to avoid them.

Mistake #1: Not defining business problems

One of the biggest mistakes in BI implementation is jumping to conclusions too soon without first identifying what your business wants to accomplish. When it comes to integrating BI into business operations, there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution. Looking for a single BI tool to solve all analytics problems is one of the main reasons many BI projects fail.

You need to clearly define the business problem you’re trying to solve, and understand the specific tools required to solve those problems. Only then will you be able to select and purchase the BI tool that best suits your needs.

Mistake #2: Not getting buy-in from end users

Even the best BI tools are ineffective if they’re not properly utilized. Forcing your employees to use newly purchased BI technology without informing them or hearing their thoughts beforehand is a big mistake.

Instead of telling employees they have to use something, first focus on highlighting the benefits of the new BI system. Help employees understand why they’ll want to use it, and convince them by showing them what they stand to gain from the new BI technology.

Mistake #3: Rushing implementation

A rushed deployment of new technology is often times not a successful one. When it comes to deploying BI solutions, patience is key. If you hurry into BI implementation too quickly, your end users may not have enough time to develop the skills required to use the software effectively.

Take an incremental approach to implementing BI solutions. Make a list identifying business problems and, rather than expecting to solve every business problem all at once, try to prioritize specific outcomes you want to achieve. When you have solved the first issue, move on to the next one and so on until you have incrementally solved all the problems on the list.

Mistake #4: Insufficient training

New BI systems are complex structures that require a lot of training in order for users to make the most of them. If users lack the skills necessary to operate the software, then bottlenecks can occur. The product may be left dormant for long periods of time as users wait for experienced IT staff to resolve teething problems.

Spend wisely on providing ongoing training, so that users really understand how to use the system. Consider hosting weekly lunch sessions where a different aspect of the BI system is discussed. You could also provide online training videos that enable users to learn more about the new system at their own pace.

Mistake #5: Not making use of information and reports

BI tools are designed to analyze raw data and turn it into valuable information that can be used in business decision making. But some organizations fail to exploit the information fully – it is not shared, not analyzed, and not acted on. BI software can generate reports on various data points, identify risks, and predict trends. It’s important to leverage the information gathered and to apply it to your business’s objectives and goals.

Business intelligence software is a highly useful tool that, when used properly, can drive your business forward. Avoid these mistakes in order to make the most of your BI solutions. If you’re looking to implement BI tools to your company, contact our experienced consultants today and see how we can help.

Email plays a huge part in the average day of the modern business person, but it’s easy to see how many of us get overloaded. The sheer number of messages we now receive through email is enough to prove a distraction from our real jobs. And for all the tips we might read on how to block out email-free periods of our day, or unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters, somehow the trash keeps coming. Even setting aside spam, much of the email we receive just isn’t the kind of thing we need to deal with right away. Outlook’s new Clutter feature, recently rolled out to all users, can help you fight your inbox nightmares.

Originally announced at Microsoft’s Exchange Conference at the start of 2014, the Clutter add-on for Outlook began rolling out last November to Office 365 business customers who had signed up for the first release. During the initial trial period for Clutter, the function was disabled by default – now that’s been changed, and as of June 15 the tool was due to be turned on by default for all Office 365 users.

At the heart of Clutter is a desire to prioritize email, and move less important messages from your inbox so that you can review and deal with them at your convenience. With only your highest priority emails waiting for you in your main inbox, the idea is that you enjoy fewer distractions and so enhance productivity in your real job – which, for most of us, isn’t email at all. Clutter is an intelligent tool, meaning it picks up hints on which emails are important to you based both on the type of the message and how you are addressed in it. It also uses the Office Graph social feature to track your prior actions both within the Outlook Web App and on Outlook clients for desktop and mobile devices.

Messages identified as lower priority are whisked away to a specific Clutter folder for you to review when you have the chance. Alternatively, you can simply choose to ignore the messages, treating the Clutter folder as another kind of junk filter, and the messages will remain conveniently out of view. In order to ensure that it doesn’t inadvertently start mis-identifying messages as low priority, Microsoft is keen to stress that Clutter won’t do anything until it is confident it has a thorough understanding of your behaviors and your email preferences – for most people this will happen within a matter of days, depending on the volume of email you receive.

You’ll receive daily and weekly notifications so you’re aware which messages Clutter is moving, and don’t miss something important – significantly, these notifications are no longer sent as emails, since replacing an inbox-cluttering message with another one would seem to somewhat detract from Clutter’s purpose. If a message is wrongly picked up as low priority and moved to your Clutter folder, you can move it back to your inbox to be dealt with sooner, and Clutter will learn from the mistake in order to improve its handling of your messages in the future. In the same way, you can choose to proactively teach Clutter about your preferences by marking specific low-priority messages as Clutter.

According to Microsoft, Clutter already shifts more than a million low-priority messages daily, and saves its users almost an hour and a half in productivity each month – figures which are expected to rise as the tool is adopted more widely. If you’ve already enabled Clutter manually, or have enabled it but later switched it off, nothing will change; if you haven’t yet taken any action at all, it will be automatically turned on for you if it hasn’t been already. If you want to disable it, you can do so from the Options page of either Outlook on the Web or the Outlook 2016 Preview, or can simply click the turn it off link at the bottom of notifications.

Clutter gives you a highly personalized email filter that knows which messages are of interest. If you want to learn more about using Office 365 in your business, give us a call.

For all the undeniable value that email brings to both personal and business users around the world, there’s something else that can’t be denied: the amount of time we waste dealing with the seemingly endless flow of unwanted and irrelevant messages that land in our inboxes. Even when a message is somehow valuable to us or our business, chances are it’s not something we need to deal with right there and then and disrupt our productive flow in the process. But no matter how many email management hacks we use to try and control email flow, the messages keep on coming. Clutter from Outlook could be the magic solution.

Originally announced at Microsoft’s Exchange Conference at the start of 2014, the Clutter add-on for Outlook began rolling out last November to Office 365 business customers who had signed up for the first release. During the initial trial period for Clutter, the function was disabled by default – now that’s been changed, and as of June 15 the tool was due to be turned on by default for all Office 365 users.

At the heart of Clutter is a desire to prioritize email, and move less important messages from your inbox so that you can review and deal with them at your convenience. With only your highest priority emails waiting for you in your main inbox, the idea is that you enjoy fewer distractions and so enhance productivity in your real job – which, for most of us, isn’t email at all. Clutter is an intelligent tool, meaning it picks up hints on which emails are important to you based both on the type of the message and how you are addressed in it. It also uses the Office Graph social feature to track your prior actions both within the Outlook Web App and on Outlook clients for desktop and mobile devices.

Messages identified as lower priority are whisked away to a specific Clutter folder for you to review when you have the chance. Alternatively, you can simply choose to ignore the messages, treating the Clutter folder as another kind of junk filter, and the messages will remain conveniently out of view. In order to ensure that it doesn’t inadvertently start mis-identifying messages as low priority, Microsoft is keen to stress that Clutter won’t do anything until it is confident it has a thorough understanding of your behaviors and your email preferences – for most people this will happen within a matter of days, depending on the volume of email you receive.

You’ll receive daily and weekly notifications so you’re aware which messages Clutter is moving, and don’t miss something important – significantly, these notifications are no longer sent as emails, since replacing an inbox-cluttering message with another one would seem to somewhat detract from Clutter’s purpose. If a message is wrongly picked up as low priority and moved to your Clutter folder, you can move it back to your inbox to be dealt with sooner, and Clutter will learn from the mistake in order to improve its handling of your messages in the future. In the same way, you can choose to proactively teach Clutter about your preferences by marking specific low-priority messages as Clutter.

According to Microsoft, Clutter already shifts more than a million low-priority messages daily, and saves its users almost an hour and a half in productivity each month – figures which are expected to rise as the tool is adopted more widely. If you’ve already enabled Clutter manually, or have enabled it but later switched it off, nothing will change; if you haven’t yet taken any action at all, it will be automatically turned on for you if it hasn’t been already. If you want to disable it, you can do so from the Options page of either Outlook on the Web or the Outlook 2016 Preview, or can simply click the turn it off link at the bottom of notifications.

Clutter gives you a highly personalized email filter that knows which messages are of interest. If you want to learn more about using Office 365 in your business, give us a call.

How many emails do you receive a day? And how many are of actual value to you or your business? In an internet-driven business environment, plenty of us feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of email we receive, and the amount of productive work time it takes us to deal with it all. Even if an email is not a spam message, but something related to your job, it won’t always be something that you need to deal with right there and then, in the process distracting you from the task in hand. Despite all the email management hacks out there, the messages keep on coming – but Outlook’s Clutter feature could be about to change that.

Originally announced at Microsoft’s Exchange Conference at the start of 2014, the Clutter add-on for Outlook began rolling out last November to Office 365 business customers who had signed up for the first release. During the initial trial period for Clutter, the function was disabled by default – now that’s been changed, and as of June 15 the tool was due to be turned on by default for all Office 365 users.

At the heart of Clutter is a desire to prioritize email, and move less important messages from your inbox so that you can review and deal with them at your convenience. With only your highest priority emails waiting for you in your main inbox, the idea is that you enjoy fewer distractions and so enhance productivity in your real job – which, for most of us, isn’t email at all. Clutter is an intelligent tool, meaning it picks up hints on which emails are important to you based both on the type of the message and how you are addressed in it. It also uses the Office Graph social feature to track your prior actions both within the Outlook Web App and on Outlook clients for desktop and mobile devices.

Messages identified as lower priority are whisked away to a specific Clutter folder for you to review when you have the chance. Alternatively, you can simply choose to ignore the messages, treating the Clutter folder as another kind of junk filter, and the messages will remain conveniently out of view. In order to ensure that it doesn’t inadvertently start mis-identifying messages as low priority, Microsoft is keen to stress that Clutter won’t do anything until it is confident it has a thorough understanding of your behaviors and your email preferences – for most people this will happen within a matter of days, depending on the volume of email you receive.

You’ll receive daily and weekly notifications so you’re aware which messages Clutter is moving, and don’t miss something important – significantly, these notifications are no longer sent as emails, since replacing an inbox-cluttering message with another one would seem to somewhat detract from Clutter’s purpose. If a message is wrongly picked up as low priority and moved to your Clutter folder, you can move it back to your inbox to be dealt with sooner, and Clutter will learn from the mistake in order to improve its handling of your messages in the future. In the same way, you can choose to proactively teach Clutter about your preferences by marking specific low-priority messages as Clutter.

According to Microsoft, Clutter already shifts more than a million low-priority messages daily, and saves its users almost an hour and a half in productivity each month – figures which are expected to rise as the tool is adopted more widely. If you’ve already enabled Clutter manually, or have enabled it but later switched it off, nothing will change; if you haven’t yet taken any action at all, it will be automatically turned on for you if it hasn’t been already. If you want to disable it, you can do so from the Options page of either Outlook on the Web or the Outlook 2016 Preview, or can simply click the turn it off link at the bottom of notifications.

Clutter gives you a highly personalized email filter that knows which messages are of interest. If you want to learn more about using Office 365 in your business, give us a call.

We’re all busy. That’s why if you’re a Mac user and not familiar with your computer’s shortcuts and tips, they can be a useful advantage that will save hours of your time in the long run. For those who are not well versed in shortcuts and other handy tricks for their beloved Apple computer, here are four tips that will make using your Mac even easier.

Open Programs and Files Faster

Want a quicker way to open files and programs faster? If you’re tired of opening Finder and scrolling through the hundreds of applications and files you have stored, there is a much more efficient solution – Spotlight Search.

To use Spotlight Search, follow these steps:

1. Press Command and the space bar to launch your search.
2. Type the first few letters of the file or app you’d like to open.
3. From the drop down menu that appears, scroll down to the app or file you’re searching for and hit the enter key.

Force Quit Apps

When the pinwheel of death rears its ugly head, your application stalls and your productivity comes to a standstill. There is no better time to make use of the Force Quit shortcut. Here’s how to do it.

1. Press Command-Option-Esc to display the list of all applications that are running.
2. From here simply choose the one you’d like to quit.

Take a Screenshot

Pictures speak a thousand words, and sometimes you may need an image of your display to more thoroughly communicate a message. Here are three easy ways to take a screenshot on your Mac OS.

• Take a snapshot of your entire display – press Command-Shift-3.
• Take a screenshot of any open window – press Command-Shift-4, followed by the space bar. Then, simply click on the window you’d like an image of.
• Snap a customized image of your display – press Command-Shift-4. When the crosshairs appear, use them to drag a frame over the portion of the screen you’d like to capture.

Launch frequently used Apps, Files and Server Connections automatically

This trick allows you to save time by automatically launching a program when you log in. Follow these steps to do this:

1. Go to System Preferences
2. Choose Users & Groups
3. Select your account
4. Click on Login Items
5. Use the plus and minus signs to add or remove programs, files, folders, etc. you’d like to automatically launch upon login
6. Click Add to save

These are just a few of the dozens of shortcuts and features Mac OS has to offer. If you’d like to learn more or need other IT-related assistance, don’t hesitate to contact us.

If you’re like most people, you may not have time to search through the bowels of the Internet to find the shortcuts and tips that make it easier to use your Mac. You may think Macs are already so easy to use that you don’t even need shortcuts. But if a shortcut helps you save just five minutes a day – five days a week – that time quickly adds up. In fact, over a course of a year, that equals 21+ hours of extra productivity. These bonus hours can likely help cut the stress of hitting deadlines and attending to other priorities. That’s why we’ve gathered these four tips and tricks that will make using your Mac easier.

Open Programs and Files Faster

Want a quicker way to open files and programs faster? If you’re tired of opening Finder and scrolling through the hundreds of applications and files you have stored, there is a much more efficient solution – Spotlight Search.

To use Spotlight Search, follow these steps:

1. Press Command and the space bar to launch your search.
2. Type the first few letters of the file or app you’d like to open.
3. From the drop down menu that appears, scroll down to the app or file you’re searching for and hit the enter key.

Force Quit Apps

When the pinwheel of death rears its ugly head, your application stalls and your productivity comes to a standstill. There is no better time to make use of the Force Quit shortcut. Here’s how to do it.

1. Press Command-Option-Esc to display the list of all applications that are running.
2. From here simply choose the one you’d like to quit.

Take a Screenshot

Pictures speak a thousand words, and sometimes you may need an image of your display to more thoroughly communicate a message. Here are three easy ways to take a screenshot on your Mac OS.

• Take a snapshot of your entire display – press Command-Shift-3.
• Take a screenshot of any open window – press Command-Shift-4, followed by the space bar. Then, simply click on the window you’d like an image of.
• Snap a customized image of your display – press Command-Shift-4. When the crosshairs appear, use them to drag a frame over the portion of the screen you’d like to capture.

Launch frequently used Apps, Files and Server Connections automatically

This trick allows you to save time by automatically launching a program when you log in. Follow these steps to do this:

1. Go to System Preferences
2. Choose Users & Groups
3. Select your account
4. Click on Login Items
5. Use the plus and minus signs to add or remove programs, files, folders, etc. you’d like to automatically launch upon login
6. Click Add to save

These are just a few of the dozens of shortcuts and features Mac OS has to offer. If you’d like to learn more or need other IT-related assistance, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Most Mac users love the user-friendly, easy-to-navigate interface the Apple brand is known for. But did you know that using your Mac can be even easier? It’s hard to believe, but if you’ve never taken the time to get familiar with your system’s shortcuts, there are a few that are sure to save you hours of time in the long run and bring a new level of usability and ease to your beloved Mac.

Open Programs and Files Faster

Want a quicker way to open files and programs faster? If you’re tired of opening Finder and scrolling through the hundreds of applications and files you have stored, there is a much more efficient solution – Spotlight Search.

To use Spotlight Search, follow these steps:

1. Press Command and the space bar to launch your search.
2. Type the first few letters of the file or app you’d like to open.
3. From the drop down menu that appears, scroll down to the app or file you’re searching for and hit the enter key.

Force Quit Apps

When the pinwheel of death rears its ugly head, your application stalls and your productivity comes to a standstill. There is no better time to make use of the Force Quit shortcut. Here’s how to do it.

1. Press Command-Option-Esc to display the list of all applications that are running.
2. From here simply choose the one you’d like to quit.

Take a Screenshot

Pictures speak a thousand words, and sometimes you may need an image of your display to more thoroughly communicate a message. Here are three easy ways to take a screenshot on your Mac OS.

• Take a snapshot of your entire display – press Command-Shift-3.
• Take a screenshot of any open window – press Command-Shift-4, followed by the space bar. Then, simply click on the window you’d like an image of.
• Snap a customized image of your display – press Command-Shift-4. When the crosshairs appear, use them to drag a frame over the portion of the screen you’d like to capture.

Launch frequently used Apps, Files and Server Connections automatically

This trick allows you to save time by automatically launching a program when you log in. Follow these steps to do this:

1. Go to System Preferences
2. Choose Users & Groups
3. Select your account
4. Click on Login Items
5. Use the plus and minus signs to add or remove programs, files, folders, etc. you’d like to automatically launch upon login
6. Click Add to save

These are just a few of the dozens of shortcuts and features Mac OS has to offer. If you’d like to learn more or need other IT-related assistance, don’t hesitate to contact us.

The past few years have seen rapid technological advancements in the medical industry, and healthcare institutions are focusing more than ever on implementing devices that deliver cheaper, faster, and more efficient patient care. Thought leaders in the healthcare industry are pushing out new ideas and technologies that are capable of increasing patient safety and survival rates – here are the latest innovations in medical practice.

Electronic aspirin

For people who suffer from daily or chronic headaches, or excruciating facial pain, taking ordinary aspirins may no longer do the trick. Now scientists have invented a new technology that is attached to Sphenopalatine Ganglion (SPG) in order to alleviate migraines and other similar pains. The electronic aspirin is a patient-powered tool for blocking SPG signals at the first sign of a headache.

The system involves the permanent implant of a small nerve-stimulating device in the upper gum on the side of the head. The tip of the implant connects to the SPG, and when a patient feels the first signs of an imminent headache, they simply place a remote controller on their cheek, next to the implant. This triggers an electronic charge to stimulate nerve cells and block the pain-causing neurotransmitters. In tests, the end results showed clinical improvement in 68 percent of patients, who stated that they felt less pain.

Insulin patches

Diabetes self-care is a pain – literally. As well as conducting your own glucose blood tests, you also need to take daily insulin shots, which increases the risk of infection. Insulin patches are designed to deliver insulin painlessly through the skin similar to how transdermal patches like nicotine patches and muscle pain relief patches work.

An insulin patch is placed on the skin, and agents in the patch help insulin to pass through the skin and into the blood vessels. It can also be used to read blood analytes through the skin without actually drawing blood. The technology utilizes an electronic device that removes top-layer skin cells to place the patient’s blood chemistry within the signal range of the patch’s biosensor. The data is transmitted data wirelessly to a remote sensor, which emits an audible alarm if glucose levels are too high.

Cancer scanner

A surgical biopsy is an effective way to identify and diagnose skin cancer. But more often than not doctors find it hard to make the right call, and patients are left with unnecessary biopsy scars and end up paying for the high cost of surgery. The cancer scanner is a handheld tool used for tissue analysis and is not used to confirm a clinical diagnosis of cancer, but rather for when a dermatologist needs additional information to make the decision to perform a biopsy.

These healthcare innovations can reduce the overall cost of medical care, and help medical experts and patients to respond to health issues quickly, as well as to take preventative measures. If you’re looking to implement technology to your healthcare business, contact us today and see how we can help.

Social media marketing has made it possible for businesses to reach targeted audiences easily, and it’s becoming a growing trend. When we talk about social media marketing, Facebook advertising is by far one of the most popular methods out there. More and more companies are starting to advertise on Facebook, and for a good reason – Facebook advertising’s new features allow for better audience targeting, giving an increased return on investment. With that in mind, here’s a rundown on how to advertise on Facebook.

1. Create a Facebook Business Page

First things first: before you can advertise on Facebook, you must have a Facebook Business Page. Log in to your Facebook account and, on the news feed page, click on Create a Page from the left column. Choose the category of your Page that best describes the nature of your business. Then fill out all your business information, including your website, hours of operation, phone number, address, and email. Finally, add creative profile and cover images to attract potential visitors.

2. Define your Facebook ads goals

Facebook offers a variety of advertisement options to choose from, depending on your business’s needs. That’s why it’s important to create goals for your ads, to make sure you’re spending your money wisely while achieving your business goals. Start by asking yourself why you’re utilizing Facebook ads in the first place; defining advertising goals and strategies will help you choose the right type of Facebook ad.

3. Choose an objective for your campaign

Now that you have a Facebook ad goal in mind, it’s time to translate those goals into objectives for your campaign. For instance, if you want to drive more visitors to your business website, your Facebook ad objective is to Send people to your website, but if you want to increase your number of social media followers you would choose the objective Promote your Page. From your Page, click on Create ads and choose an objective to get started.

4. Target your audience

This is the step where most businesses fail at Facebook advertising. You can target your ads based on location, age, gender, language, interests, and behavior. By defining the right audience group, your Facebook ads will be shown to the right people and will give a high conversion rate. After you’ve chosen your target audience, you can decide how much money you want to spend, and choose the time to run your ad.

5. Customize your ad

This process is equally as important as audience targeting. In this step you have the option to choose how your ad will look, by adding up to five images and text that will accompany them. The text is only 90 characters long, so make sure your copy portrays what the content is about, so it will encourage people to click on your ad. Then choose where you want your Facebook ad to show from four options – the news feed, mobile news feed, right column, or audience network.

6. Place your order

The last step is to click on the Place Order button to submit your ad to Facebook for review. You’ll receive an email from Facebook once your ad has been reviewed and approved and is ready to launch.

Facebook advertising requires effective planning, testing, and measuring. You need to experiment in order to find the campaign that works best for your business. If you’re interested in advertising on Facebook or through other social media platforms, drop us a line and see how we can help.

With social media being such a big part of everyday life, it likewise plays a huge role in online marketing. There are many social platforms a business can use to reach out to audiences, but the one that stands out from the crowd is Facebook. Over the past few years, Facebook advertising has seen steady growth in revenue, thanks to its specific audience targeting methods that allow business owners to lower their new customer acquisition cost significantly. If you haven’t tried Facebook ads, you’re truly missing out on one of the most powerful marketing tools out there. To that end, here’s a step-by-step guide to implement Facebook ads in your business.

1. Create a Facebook Business Page

First things first: before you can advertise on Facebook, you must have a Facebook Business Page. Log in to your Facebook account and, on the news feed page, click on Create a Page from the left column. Choose the category of your Page that best describes the nature of your business. Then fill out all your business information, including your website, hours of operation, phone number, address, and email. Finally, add creative profile and cover images to attract potential visitors.

2. Define your Facebook ads goals

Facebook offers a variety of advertisement options to choose from, depending on your business’s needs. That’s why it’s important to create goals for your ads, to make sure you’re spending your money wisely while achieving your business goals. Start by asking yourself why you’re utilizing Facebook ads in the first place; defining advertising goals and strategies will help you choose the right type of Facebook ad.

3. Choose an objective for your campaign

Now that you have a Facebook ad goal in mind, it’s time to translate those goals into objectives for your campaign. For instance, if you want to drive more visitors to your business website, your Facebook ad objective is to Send people to your website, but if you want to increase your number of social media followers you would choose the objective Promote your Page. From your Page, click on Create ads and choose an objective to get started.

4. Target your audience

This is the step where most businesses fail at Facebook advertising. You can target your ads based on location, age, gender, language, interests, and behavior. By defining the right audience group, your Facebook ads will be shown to the right people and will give a high conversion rate. After you’ve chosen your target audience, you can decide how much money you want to spend, and choose the time to run your ad.

5. Customize your ad

This process is equally as important as audience targeting. In this step you have the option to choose how your ad will look, by adding up to five images and text that will accompany them. The text is only 90 characters long, so make sure your copy portrays what the content is about, so it will encourage people to click on your ad. Then choose where you want your Facebook ad to show from four options – the news feed, mobile news feed, right column, or audience network.

6. Place your order

The last step is to click on the Place Order button to submit your ad to Facebook for review. You’ll receive an email from Facebook once your ad has been reviewed and approved and is ready to launch.

Facebook advertising requires effective planning, testing, and measuring. You need to experiment in order to find the campaign that works best for your business. If you’re interested in advertising on Facebook or through other social media platforms, drop us a line and see how we can help.

When it comes to using social media advertising to reach out to targeted audiences, Facebook is by far one of the most efficient platforms out there. The numbers speak clearly – advertising on Facebook has grown over 680% since 2010. More and more companies are jumping on the bandwagon, moving their budgets away from traditional advertising methods and increasing their social spending. If Facebook advertising isn’t in your marketing arsenal, you’re missing out on one of the most powerful tools available. Here’s all you need to know about setting up a Facebook ad campaign.

1. Create a Facebook Business Page

First things first: before you can advertise on Facebook, you must have a Facebook Business Page. Log in to your Facebook account and, on the news feed page, click on Create a Page from the left column. Choose the category of your Page that best describes the nature of your business. Then fill out all your business information, including your website, hours of operation, phone number, address, and email. Finally, add creative profile and cover images to attract potential visitors.

2. Define your Facebook ads goals

Facebook offers a variety of advertisement options to choose from, depending on your business’s needs. That’s why it’s important to create goals for your ads, to make sure you’re spending your money wisely while achieving your business goals. Start by asking yourself why you’re utilizing Facebook ads in the first place; defining advertising goals and strategies will help you choose the right type of Facebook ad.

3. Choose an objective for your campaign

Now that you have a Facebook ad goal in mind, it’s time to translate those goals into objectives for your campaign. For instance, if you want to drive more visitors to your business website, your Facebook ad objective is to Send people to your website, but if you want to increase your number of social media followers you would choose the objective Promote your Page. From your Page, click on Create ads and choose an objective to get started.

4. Target your audience

This is the step where most businesses fail at Facebook advertising. You can target your ads based on location, age, gender, language, interests, and behavior. By defining the right audience group, your Facebook ads will be shown to the right people and will give a high conversion rate. After you’ve chosen your target audience, you can decide how much money you want to spend, and choose the time to run your ad.

5. Customize your ad

This process is equally as important as audience targeting. In this step you have the option to choose how your ad will look, by adding up to five images and text that will accompany them. The text is only 90 characters long, so make sure your copy portrays what the content is about, so it will encourage people to click on your ad. Then choose where you want your Facebook ad to show from four options – the news feed, mobile news feed, right column, or audience network.

6. Place your order

The last step is to click on the Place Order button to submit your ad to Facebook for review. You’ll receive an email from Facebook once your ad has been reviewed and approved and is ready to launch.

Facebook advertising requires effective planning, testing, and measuring. You need to experiment in order to find the campaign that works best for your business. If you’re interested in advertising on Facebook or through other social media platforms, drop us a line and see how we can help.