7 Questions To Consider Before Selecting A Perfect Destination For Corporate Events

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A meeting planner needs to take a lot of decisions before planning an event and this includes picking an appropriate meeting venue and hotel, selecting right beverage and food, sourcing proper transportation services and hiring best speakers. However, choosing the right destination is the biggest point and with so many cities, arriving at the right destination seems a daunting task. However, consider few key points that are the checklist and decide on.

1. What is of importance to the group? Your corporate event destination should be chosen considering your attendees. What do they like, a cheaper meal option or have a desire for gourmet restaurants. Do they like walking or just wish to be shuttled. Are they concerned about mainstream attractions or want a regional destination and do they prefer traveling to long distances. Give importance to the tastes and preferences of your attendees.

2. Will the group fit into the destination? No matter how popular a city is. It is very important to know if your corporate group will find the destination a good match. Check for the destination to fulfill these:
Is there enough physical spaces
Enough hotel rooms and sufficient square footage
Is it a great center of attention even in a small city
Now that you know the group, ask for yourself, if it is okay for the group to have the corporate event.

3. How to get around? Evaluate the capabilities of your attendees, will the city offer easy access, are there non-stop flights, transportation costs to the destination. Is there light rail or mass transit or do the attendees need to spend on cabs to reach the destination. Narrow your search and check on related amenities to make it a perfect destination.

4. What is the infrastructure? Many destinations claim to offer the best fit, whether you plan a hotel for in-house meeting or consider a convention facility. Understand the spaces of meeting arranged, do the layout work for the event, and are the hotel away from the convention center and do they connect with some walkways.

5. Is there enough things to do? Find out if the destination has lots to offer, is it fun, unique and interesting, do they have amenities away from the meeting space, including culture, restaurants, entertainment and outdoor activities. Is everything located conveniently from the property and are they within walking distance? Is the city safe on foot to explore, particularly in the evening hours?

6. Is it worth spending? Comprehend the overall cost and value of holding a meeting. Is this place the right destination or is it worth going to some affordable city less attractive, but may cost less.
What is your meeting ROI to that destination? consider the meeting attendees number to decide the tier of the city and considering affordable does not mean looking for cheap alternatives.

7. Does the destination have an appeal? The destination should have something that people would love to visit. The first tier cities offer broad appeal, while the second and third tiers have allure to fair share. Thus, research a destination, know its culture and ensure it is special and unique.

5 Ways to Create More Data-Driven Content for Business

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67% of consumers say branded content drives their buying decisions. Thats why around 80% of marketing firms now invest heavily in it as part of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.

But not just any content has this kind of power. In fact, 37% say their strategies arent effective at generating qualified leads. And theyre not converting leads into actual revenues.

That takes a documented and data-driven content creation strategy.

Lets explore how to create data-driven content for business in 4 basic steps.                                   

 1) Know Who Youre Writing For

Its marketing 101. Know your customer. And yet, for many who are creating content, this integral part of developing content for business got lost in translation.

Every content piece should be written to one specific target customer. If you were trying to get more real estate clients, you wouldnt market to your buyers and sellers in the same. You cant properly connect with either one of them if you do.

The same is true with web content. Whether youre marketing plastic surgery or landscaping, its all about the customers.

The Customer Persona

Create several detailed customer personas to add to your inbound marketing toolkit. Use real customer data to help develop these whenever possible. And revise them over time as you learn more.

When writing each content piece identify which persona this specific video, blog, infographic, etc. is for.  And use the detailed persona to connect with that person.

2) Establish Your Marketing Objectives

When creating content for business, each piece needs a clear objective. Are you trying to increase brand awareness? Do you want them to make a micro-conversion to get a customer to start buying in? Are they ready to invest in your larger product or service offerings?

Set a clear KPI (key performance indicator) for the piece. Your ultimate goal is leading people through the Buyers journey until you create and keep a loyal customer. But you need to know how to get them there through data-driven content.

Measure its success based on its ability to meet its objective.

Whether youre working with a Nashville content writer or one in Mumbai, make sure theyre clear on the content marketing objective. They need to be able to build a piece around it and your target customer, using SEO and content writing best practices.

3) Select Topics Your Customers Actually Care About

If your target customer doesnt care about the topic, you have a piece of worthless content. Being data-driven is all about minimizing the worthless and maximizing the awesome content to get the right ROI.

How do you select topics that people care about?

Browse your reviews. Identify likes, dislikes, questions, and misunderstandings. Good or bad, these are the things people care about. They make great topics.

Talk to your sales and customer care teams. Theyll have a lot to say. And you can actually make their jobs much easier by answering common questions they get.

Thats just another perk of content for business.

People today prefer to find answers online before they contact your company. Make this information available to them.

This helps all kinds of businesses get results. It doesnt matter if youve got an eCommerce site or a dental practice.

4) Analyze and Optimize

Analyze your data. Identify your winners and losers. When topics meet their objectives well, create more content like it.

Continue to listen to your customers. Optimize everything from your landing pages to your social media headlines to your meta descriptions. Everything must be optimized to get the right ROI on your inbound marketing efforts.

Creating Data-Driven Content for Business

To get results in content marketing you must utilize data to develop content that works. It should connect with a specific customer. It needs a clear and measurable objective. Only publish topics people care about.

Optimize everything.

Want to learn everything there is to know about inbound marketing? Follow our blog.

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5 Tips You Can Do at Home to Help Cure a Sinus Infection

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If you have ever suffered with a sinus infection, you know how uncomfortable they can be... and how they seem to never go away.

Your doctor might have even put you on antibiotics and the stubborn sinus infection still won't go away.

Do you want to know why it most likely won't go away? Because antibiotics don't cure the sinus infection. They just put a bandaid on it.

Research done in 1999 showed that fungus was present in the mucous of 96% of patience who had chronic sinusitis.

So if antibiotics don't cure the sinusitus most of the time, what do you do?

Well, you can try an alternative cure. Here are some options. They will help kill the fungus which is contributing to the sinusitis.

One, drink raw apple cider vinegar. I recommend using Raw apple cider vinegar as that it the only one I know works wonders... as I use it often for many things (Braggs apple cider vinegar). You can typically get it at your local health store. (Note: Do not use regular vinegar as studies have shown that white vinegar can actually be harmful to your health.)

Why does Apple Cider Vinegar cure sinus infections? It breaks down the mucous ... and cleans it all out.

One way to treat the sinus infection is to gargle with apple cider vinegar morning and night. I know it does not taste so great... and if you are just starting out, please do yourself a favor and dilute the vinegar with half water... as the taste (and smell) might be too much for you to handle at first. Keep in mind as your face twists when you drink it, that the strength of the vinegar is a good thing... it is helping to kill the infection. Believe it or not, in time, you will get used to it.

Another alternative way to treat a sinus infection is to drink the apple cider vinegar. (Now gargling with it doesn't seem like such a bad idea, eh?) The recommended dosage is 1 TBS, 2 times a day in a small glass of water. At first, this might be too strong for you, so only try 1 to 2 tsp. in a glass of water. You can mix it with honey if you'd like... or what one man prefers is to put the vinegar in a glass of apple juice or grape juice instead. He said it hides the strong taste.

However, some people like the taste of vinegar so in that case, just put it in water and drink it that way. But I know a lot of people don't like doing this.

A second option to treat sinusitis would be to eat garlic or take garlic supplements. Studies have shown garlic to be beneficial in treating sinusitis.

A third option would be to drink raw coconut oil. Use this to cook your vegetables or to drizzle over your salad. This can be purchased at your local health store.

A fourth thing you can do to help get rid of sinusitis is to stop (or at least limit your sugar and carbohydrate intake) for a while. Like most of us, fungus loves sugar and carbohydrates. It actually craves both of them... which could be why, if you have a bad sinus infection, you are craving sugar and carbohydrates. However, on the flip side, like most of us, fungus does not like not having sugar and carbohydrates, either. It will "run away" if it doesn't get them ... so at least for a while, try to eat more protein (eggs and nuts are a good source).

A fifth thing you can do is to eat broccoli. Brocolli has an anti-fungal affect and will help get rid of the sinus infection.

5 Tips to Overcome Challenges of Working from Home

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The idea of working from home is one that is desired by many of us due to its numerous benefits which includes independence, reduced commute time and the ability to spend more time around loved ones to name a few. Working from home is an idea that is commonly associated with freelancers for example those providing translation services. It is a very common occurrence when translators receive work form a translation agency that they work from home as such projects often require individual attention with limited interaction with others. Although that is the case some companies still require their freelance workers to work from their offices for a number of reasons including the fact that the equipment used to perform certain work tasks are fixed at the place of work and on other occasions to monitor and ensure that the employee is performing set tasks in a timely manner.

In spite of the many benefits of working from home those that have had the privilege of doing so can testify that although this style of working has its challenges which can sometimes leave you demotivated and cause you to lose focus which can lead to non-completion of work.

So what can we do to overcome some of these obstacles faced when working from home? Below are 5 steps which can help you be more productive with your time.

1. Set boundaries Very often people who work from home have a computer and chair in their bedrooms or simply use their dining area as work space. In places like London where house prices and rental rates are very high many of us do not have the luxury of an extra room to use as an office. This can pose a challenge at times especially when you are tired which can lead you to give up on work and just go for a nap easily, something you wouldnt be able to do had you been working in an office environment.  To combat this it can help to create a space within your home dedicated to you doing your work only. Treat this space as you would working in an office and only include items you need for work in this space to avoid distractions.

2. Ignore house chores When working from home it is very easy to slip into doing your house chores during your working time. Things like forgetting to do your laundry the night before can lead you to use your work time to complete these tasks. The problem with that is once you begin to divert your attention away from work you tend to not be disciplined in other aspects, you find yourself tidying your room or hoovering your carpets and before you know it youve lost hours from you work time. Having a to-do list and structure your day around this will eliminate such occurrences. Try and stick to your set tasks as best you can and you sure will be more productive with your time.

3. Dedicate break times Another challenge working from home is that you tend to take more breaks than if you were working with others in a place of work. Its so easy to slip into the kitchen for a light snack here and there. Not saying dont do it but dedicating break times/kitchen times will help you focus more on the task at hand. This one is hard to strictly follow but do it consistently for a few days and your productive time will increase.

4. Find an alternate work space One thing about working from home is that you dont necessarily have to be working at your home especially for jobs that are online-based. At times working from the same place constantly can limit creativity especially for people in professions such as creative writing. The beauty of technology these days allows us to work in several places as long as you have a Wi-Fi connection and laptop. Try working from your local Starbucks or visit your local park. Another alternative is to work from your local library. Youll be amazed how much changing your work environment can be for your creative juices. Just remember to at least buy a coffee when you visit a coffee shop!

5. Dont work too late This is something that happens frequently. Often times it is a result of not managing your time accordingly. Postponing tasks is also a major negative contributor for people working too late. To conquer this ensure you stick to your daily set tasks. One tip is to conquer the tasks you do not particularly enjoy first as this will help you ease through the rest of your work load without dreading the tasks ahead. Set yourself work time and leisure time and try and stick to this as best as you can. It is sometimes inevitable that you will need to work late but if the task at hand is not necessarily urgent allow yourself to stop and switch off from work.

Working from home has its challenges but if you can discipline yourself following the above steps you will find yourself maintaining a positive work-life balance, have more time to relax and be more productive with your workload.

Have you worked from home? What are some of the challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Share with us below.

5 Tips On Building Content For Your Blog

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Building an effective content strategy for your blog is key if you want to excel in converting visitors. This goes for whether youre trying to get visitors to come back, sign up for your e-newsletter or purchase a product or service.

Content has shown to be a great tool for increasing conversion rates, but the key is first improving your click-through rates (CTR). Because if no one is clicking on your posts, then you wont be converting anyone.

So lets review what you need to do to ensure youre building content that will help you reach your business goals.

1. Pay Attention to Whats Popular

Hopefully, you already have an analytics software youre using to keep track of your content. This way, you can continue building content based on whats already proven effective.

For instance, you may see that a specific topic or word counts get higher views and interactions. If thats the case, you need to continue creating more content like that.

2. Research Keywords to Use in Your Content

Theres no denying it organic search is the bees knees. But only if you know how to work the search engines.

In order to do this, you need a keyword list based on your audience and business.

Its important to select keywords that are low competition and highly relevant. You can use Googles keyword planner to conduct your keyword research. Just make sure you dont keyword stuff!

3. Determine the Best Content Format for Your Audience

All users are not the same some enjoy watching short videos, while others prefer reading a long blog post. If youre not sure which type of content your audience prefers, you can experiment a little.

Try creating different versions of content to see what performs best. You can even create spin-offs of content already created. For example, making a video piece on a topic you wrote about on your blog, and vice versa.

4. Gain Traction by Posting at the Right Frequency

Now, theres such a thing as posting too much and posting too little. Either way, you go could potentially annoy your visitors. And in some cases, they may stop coming to your site altogether.

Where you post to will also be a determining factor. For instance, social media requires you to be more active than a blog. You could get away posting once per week on your blog, but not so much with social media.

On social platforms, your followers are expecting you to post at least once daily.

5. Create Valuable Content

What topics should you be covering for your audience? If youre in the health industry, you may find that covering products like Naturally Kratom would draw in traffic.

The key is to create content that will add value to the lives of your visitors.

What problems do they have that you can offer solutions to? Do you have advice and tips on how to achieve their goals? Then share it.

Building Content with a Pro Content Marketing Team

Sometimes, you need a marketing expert or two to help you with your content marketing. If thats the case, you should consider bringing aboard a knowledgeable professional to help create your strategy.

On Article City, you can build a team of content writers that produce quality pieces for your blog. Stop by today to begin putting together your freelance team!

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5 Recommendations to Save Money When You Are On Winter Holidays

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Are you a newly married couple and want to make upcoming winter holidays more special? Well, spending holidays is always a good idea especially when you recently married with your soul mate. You can either take pleasure of upcoming ski season or can desire for a sunshine break during the cold weather. Or, you might have other holiday plans too, such as going abroad to take delight of snowy escape.

The figures are rapidly increasing of those people, who want to travel around the exotic destinations that would turn their winter holidays during Christmas among the most memorable days of their life. Apart from recent economic roadblocks, the travel industry here is now enticing all travel lovers to book their exciting packages, particularly for the upcoming holiday season.

Planning for the holidays should be done three to four months before to avoid any last minute hassle. As far as the preparations are concerned, most of the people worry about the expenses that they will have to pay during the vacations. In fact, holiday spending has become a matter of concern, unlike few years back. Perhaps, people know that the value of pounds has been dropped recently especially compares to the euro. They may not be able to enjoy their holidays as they have desired for because their focus can shift on saving the money, during the winter holidays.

The travel companies are also facing the impact of national economic imbalance, particularly after Brexit. As a result, the cost of holiday packages has been on the higher level. However, it does not mean that one should not plan for holidays. According to the recent study, the level of inflation at the worldwide level has also affected the travel industry.

The rates of travel packages may go higher, but there is no need to cut short your holiday budget. Fortunately, people now have the access of Christmas loans to fund their holidays with no financial worries. But still, you can follow these few simple steps to save some cash from your own efforts:

Recommendation #1

Act early and never wait for later. When you see the cost of a travel package is somewhat less than usual, you should grab this opportunity and confirm the booking at earliest. But at the same time, it should not be done in a hurry. You should use online tool to search down and compare the affordable flights, and then analyse the accommodation rates of varied hotels and resorts. Try to finalise these expenses once you are sure that you can pay them.

Recommendation #2

Holding cash while travelling is quite risky as well as difficult. You must use your credit and debit cards to pay the expenses. If you use the card overseas, it may charge up to 3 percent or more per transaction. It means you pay than the usual rates. You should know that there are some special credit cards, which do not have any charge for cash withdrawals at overseas or in some places, they do not have foreign exchange fee.

Recommendation #3

Do not plan everything without comparing the prices of travel insurance, package for holidays or car hire. Try to bargain for rates as much as possible because it can save your money, which you can spend on the necessary expenses. Another thing that you should be aware of that sometimes companies show cheapest rates but hide the extra costs, particularly on the travel insurance. Try to refer only those sites where the actual rates are showing without any hidden charges. Alternatively, you also have the alternative of holiday loans to enjoy more with paying less.

Recommendation #4

It may look odd for you, but it is a fact that you can save your money with your mobile too. How it can be possible? It is practical with turning off your mobile data or roaming and keeps the Wi-Fi on. Almost all the hotels allow its guests to use free Wi-Fi hotspots that you can use to make a call or to search something important. With such process, you can come back to your home with less mobile bill amount.

Recommendation #5

Many financial experts suggest travel vacationers to book only for a complete holiday package, as it is usually offered with special discount. Few travel companies can make arrangements for flight tickets in combination with accommodation at the hotel or car rental service. Paying the charges of such expenses separately would cost you more, and on the other hand, an inclusive travel package would be cheaper (100 can be saved) and it saves your time too.

As the holiday season is marching closer, you would like to spend it at such a destination where you have a chance to accumulate some of the best memories of your life. If you follow these simple suggestions, you definitely have a pleasure of British winter without any cash crunch.

5 Real Estate Advertising Tools That Can Help You Sell Your Home

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If youre thinking new tech hasnt quite reached the real estate industry, think again. From drones to social media, there are plenty of fresh and modern ways to help sell your home fast.

Our recent advances in technology have given us the tools to advertise directly to our consumers. So, whether youre a homeowner or agent, you have what you need at your fingertips.

Here are five real estate advertising tools that can help you sell your home faster than you could have just a few years ago.

1. Professional Photos

Buyers are using laptops and mobile devices to view available homes more than ever. Want to get them past the screen and through your door?

Make sure your listing includes high-quality professional photos of almost every room. That means iPhone snapshots wont cut it.

Studies show that listings with professional photos sell quicker and for more money than listings without.

But if youre dealing with a highly competitive market, consider going above and beyond professional photography. Read on for more ways to set your listing apart from the crowd.

2. Drone Photography

Since nine out of ten home buyers use the internet as a primary research tool, eye-catching content is essential.

High-quality professional photos are important but its becoming more and more common to see. Drone photography is a new way to get your listing to stand out.

Marketing a real estate property isnt easy. Drone photography can provide your listing with beautiful, dramatic, sweeping shots of your property.

It can also be the best way to showcase the surrounding landscape and layout. Both of which are effective selling points and deserve to be a part of your advertising strategy.

3. 3D Immersive Video Tours

Are you a tech nerd? Well, get ready for this. If professional photos and drones arent enough for you, consider a 3D immersive video tour of your home.

The Bigger Equity site says we are currently in a sellers market. But that doesnt mean you cant get creative with your real estate advertising strategies.

Virtual tours have provided the kind of exposure we used to only dream about. With a 3D immersive video tour, anyone in the world can tour your property for as long as they want. From wherever they want.

The investor in China has the opportunity to tour your home without flying back and forth. The military wife moving cross-country gets a better chance at picking the right house for her family, without any inconvenience.

Great pictures and videos are essential, but buyers need to find your listing first. Heres where to get eyes on your property.

4. Social Media

Ever thought to post your listing on Facebook, Twitter, or even Pinterest? These sites are the perfect place to share your amazing photos and video.

Many agents are encouraging their sellers to share their listing with their friends. And to get friends and family to share your listing with their networks.

Social media isnt just a place to waste the hours away. Its a great selling tool that you should be taking advantage of.

5. Dont Forget Real Estate Advertising Basics

You cant go wrong with these real estate advertising tools as they have stood the test of time.

Make sure your home is listed on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) site. Complete with a full description and professional photos. This is the first place many buyers and agents will be looking for available homes.

Also, post your home on all the major real estate sites. Here is a list to get you started:

Zillow
Trulia
Redfin
Homes.com
Curbed
Hotpads
ZipRealty
Auction.com

Finally, print good old-fashioned flyers, pamphlets, and postcards to hand out at open houses. Include your best photos and major selling points.

When youre selling your home, make sure to use real estate advertising tools to help speed up the process.

Check out our blog for more advice on real estate and marketing tips.

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