Now comes the hard part (as if leaving behind the security of your regular job wasn’t hard enough). Along with the thrills of being your own boss comes the burden of having to manage everything on your own. 

Suddenly, you’re a CEO, a designer, a social media manager, a customer service representative, and an office administrator. Throw in client meetings and chasing vendors for payments and you’re cruising toward burnout.

The good news is you don’t have to do it all on your own. With the help of technology, you can take your mind off mundane tasks and get some free time to focus on making your solopreneurial venture profitable and scalable. 

Online Tools for Solopreneurs

Here are some tools you need to make your solo journey a smooth-sailing one.

Create a Website 

First of all, you need a website to create an online presence to help prospective clients or customers find you and connect with you. 

Creating a website doesn’t have to be an expensive affair but it’s definitely one that needs thorough research and attention to detail. Start by thinking about what purpose you want it to serve and then assemble the tools you need to get it up and running.

If you find the prospect of creating a website intimidating, relax. Creating a website is an easy process when you use WebsiteBuilder. To start, answer a few questions and Domain.com’s AI-powered WebsiteBuilder will select the right layout, along with initial images and content for your site. If you’d prefer to work with a professional to create your site, Domain.com can help with that, too. 

Website Hosting

Domain.com offers powerful and reliable hosting plans ranging from your basic hosting to more complex plans for eCommerce and high-volume sites. Additionally, they offer WordPress hosting, which is among the most versatile tools offering various templates for different kinds of websites. 

Domain Name

Next, you will need to register a domain name that people can use to find your website. An ideal domain name is:

• Similar to your company name so as to strengthen your online branding.
• Short and simple enough to be memorable and easy to type.
• Indicative of your industry or nature of business.
• Creative enough to stand out from competitors.
• Readily available to use and free of trademark protections.

Consider using new domain extensions that can not only be more affordable but can also make your domain name more meaningful and contextual. For instance, you can use .store for an online store, .tech if you are a coder, programmer, or web designer, .online if you are going to take online classes, or .space if you need an online space to display your art.  

Analytics

You will also need tools to provide data that measures the success of your website in terms of the traffic it is receiving from different sources, conversions, and bounce rates. Google Analytics is a free tool that offers most services that a solopreneurial venture would need, but you can also opt for paid tools such as Ahrefs and SEMrush that can provide more complex data such as in-depth competitor analysis and backlink monitoring. 

Task Management and Communication

Being a one-person army is never easy. You need tools that can help you plan and organize your tasks, track workflows, track the amount of time spent on different jobs, and set up reminders. Fortunately, there is no dearth of online tools to help you in this department. Here are some of our favorites.

Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 offers all the tools you know and love to help you establish and run your business. Need to reinforce your brand with a professional email address that matches your domain name? Microsoft 365 has you covered. They also offer the tools you’re already familiar with, like Outlook, Word, Skype, and more. From cloud-based document management to virtual meeting software, you have everything you need to manage your business when you use Microsoft 365. 

Google Workspace

Stay on top of all your tasks with Google Workspace. Whether you need to stay in touch with your customers and clients or share documents with partners and employees, you can do it all with the tools they offer. And there’s no need to worry about confusing set up, domain verification, or toggling between Domain.com and Gmail. Google Workspace is completely integrated with your Domain.com control panel, allowing instant access so you can get down to business, fast.

Todoist

Todoist offers a host of features for different types of workers from creative professionals to freelancers to techies to business owners. It allows you to list and prioritize tasks and subtasks, segregate them into different categories, and set deadlines and reminders. You can also track your progress through productivity charts and earn points for completing tasks. 

Monday

Monday can easily be integrated with other apps such as Google, Dropbox, and Slack to set up automated workflows and help you save time. It also offers different viewing styles such as kanban, graphs, and charts so you can pick the one that you find easiest to read and understand.

FreshBooks

FreshBooks is particularly useful for freelancers as it also provides tools for managing finances, time-tracking, and setting up estimates and timelines for projects. The invoicing tool ensures that you get paid on time while its collaborative project management tool makes it easy for clients to share feedback, so you can be on the same page at all stages of the task.

Accounting and Invoicing

Managing your business accounts can be the most daunting task for solopreneurs, especially if you’re not from a finance background. Hiring a bookkeeper may not be within everyone’s budget. But there are a number of online tools, from simple to complex, that you can use to take the load off your hands and learn a thing or two about accounting. 

Wave

This free software offers simple yet useful money-management solutions, making it ideal for small solo businesses. Its best feature is easy-to-create invoices, but it also helps you visualize your cash flows and stay on top of payments. If you want to manage your credit card payments through the app, it charges you a basic fee of $3-4 per transaction.

Xero

For more complex accounting needs, especially for those pertaining to online stores, Xero offers all of the services that Wave provides along with seamless integration with other apps that can help you automate workflows. Other useful features include inventory tracking, bill payments, bank account connections, tax calculations, financial reporting, and file sharing.

Social Media

As a solopreneur, you may not have a big marketing budget, but you can harness the power of social media to build your brand, connect with your audience and even sell your products. However, managing multiple social media accounts is no mean feat. 

That’s the reason why big companies have teams dedicated purely to social media. Not only do you need to understand the platforms well, but you also need to know your audience behavior, post on multiple accounts, and have the design and writing chops to create beautiful creatives and catchy captions. Sound intimidating? It doesn’t have to be, we’ll explain below. 

Analytics Tools

The best part about using social media platforms is that you can use their native tools (Facebook Ads Manager, Instagram Insights, and Twitter Analytics) for gaining useful target audience insights, such as demographic information, learning when they’re most active, and to discover how they’re engaging with your posts. You can even estimate the reach of your ads based on the cost and the time frame of your posts. 

Social Media Management Tools

Instead of setting up multiple reminders for posting on different accounts, you can use apps such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Buffer to run multiple accounts from a single platform, schedule future posts and receive advanced analytics.

Content Creation Apps

Social media is nothing without stunning visuals, but don’t fret if designing isn’t one of your strong points. You don’t even have to enroll yourself in an online Photoshop or video-editing course (although those skills are always useful in the long run). With the help of apps such as Canva, Wordswag, and VSCO Cam, you can create beautiful content with pictures, text, and other design elements to take your social media game to the next level. 

Start Your Solopreneur Journey Today

Don’t let the burdens of being a solopreneur dissuade you from taking the journey. Armed with the right tools, hard work, and willpower, you can enrich your life with meaningful work that resonates with your passion, reap the benefits of well-deserved rewards, and live life on your own terms. 

Author Bio

Alisha is a Senior Content Marketing & Communication Specialist at Radix, the registry behind some of the most successful new domain extensions, including .STORE and .TECH. You can connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter. 

That will change as your business grows and you add more talent to your staff. As your team expands you’ll find yourself asking things like:

• Who’s working on what?
• Has anyone even started those projects you’ve been asking about for the past three weeks?
• How much has your team completed on certain tasks?

It’s tough to know the answers to these sorts of questions without tracking down your individual employees and getting a status update from each of them, right?

Wrong.

Nowadays, cloud-based tools make it possible for everyone to be on the same page. Using these productivity tools your team can align on common goals, know what other team members are working on, and hit deadlines more efficiently — no matter where in the world they’re located.

How to Increase Productivity.

One of the most frustrating things about working remotely is wasted time. And a big time waster across remote teams is duplication of effort — when two or more people are working on the same thing (unbeknownst to one another) because of poor planning, communication, and tracking. When that happens people get discouraged because all parties involved realize they could have been using their time more wisely.

Sharing your documents and files with one another prevents this issue from happening. With cloud-based documents and tools, files automatically sync so that one person can see what another is working on. What’s even better is that multiple people can work on these files at the same time if need be. Shared documents are a great and quick way to knock things off your to-do list.

Cloud-based productivity tools don’t stop there, though. They also offer things like video calls. Video calls help your team stay together as if they were meeting in the same room. The face-to-face interaction removes the chance of confusing tone in an email, so your team knows the importance of hitting a deadline without feeling over-managed. Set up a weekly video meeting with your team, and individuals, so everyone can stay on the same page with your business.

Make the Most of Your Time with Cloud-Based Tools.

What cloud-based productivity tools do we recommend?

At Domain.com, we’re big fans of both Google’s G Suite and Microsoft 365. You may be more familiar with one or another, but both offer intuitive, helpful solutions for working from home or remotely.

Do you identify with any of the following statements?

• I need to improve my productivity.
• I need to access files at the office, at home, and in-between.
• I sometimes do work on my laptop, but also my smartphone or tablet.
• I need an email address that my customers’ recognize.
• I need big workplace solutions at small prices.
• I need to maintain the security of my work documents while at home or elsewhere.
• I need to know what my team is working on and when.

If so, G Suite and Microsoft 365 are here to help. Let’s take a look at what they offer. 

Google’s G Suite

G Suite is perfect for those looking to increase their business credibility, build their brand, communicate effectively with employees and customers, and improve productivity.

G Suite Communication Tools

Gmail, Calendar, Hangouts, and Meet are tools designed and built to help you maintain open and effective lines of communication. These resources offer instant messaging, email (that matches your domain name for a professional look), and video chat capabilities.

G Suite Collaboration Tools

Docs, Sheets, Forms, Slides, and Sites are tools created to allow for work and collaboration from anywhere. They let you work harmoniously with your team from across the room or across the globe.

G Suite Storage Tools

Having hard copies of your documents can be nice, but it certainly isn’t convenient. G Suite offers Google Drive and Cloud so you can store, edit, and securely maintain your important information. Access and share your files instantly, from anywhere, without worrying about merging documents or attaching and downloading files.

G Suite Management Tools

You want your team to have access to the materials they need while working remotely, but how do you make sure your important business documents don’t get into the wrong hands? G Suite offers Admin, Vault, and Mobile tools to help you easily and securely control your data, devices, and users.

You can learn more about G Suite and our offerings here.

Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft 365 is a great solution for those who are building their digital identity and establishing their business online.

With Microsoft 365, you’ll receive familiar and trusted business tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and so much more. Its tools allow you to analyze your business data, protect your business information, and enable social networking and real-time communication with your teams.  

Domain.com offers various Microsoft 365 plans so you can begin with your domain name and a matching email address, and grow into the solutions you need. If you’re already an established business, we’ve got the perfect Microsoft 365 plan for you, too.  We’ll dive into what each one covers right now.

Email Essentials

This plan offers business-class email and calendar services. It includes 15 GB of Exchange Online storage and offers the familiarity of Outlook you know and trust.

You’ll receive an email address to match your domain name with this plan, and that gives you credibility and instant recognition in your customers’ inboxes. 

And don’t forget to keep the team on track and working together with the shared marketing calendar that you’ll receive in the Email Essentials plan.

Business Plus

This plan consists of the core cloud services you’ll need to run your business, including business-class email, online meeting tools, and cloud storage to edit, collaborate, and share your files. You’ll never have to worry about uploading and attaching documents again!

Our Microsoft 365 Business Plus plan provides you with 50 GB of Exchange Online storage, Microsoft Office Online (with familiar tools like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel), 1 TB of business cloud storage with OneDrive, and online meetings, IM, and video chat capabilities with Microsoft Teams.

If you’ve got a remote team, consider starting with this plan, Business Essentials, or the following plan, Business Pro. 

Business Pro

Microsoft 365 Business Pro gives you the freedom to take your office anywhere you go. Working from home, the cafe, or while traveling? Microsoft 365 has your back. 

With this plan, you’ll receive Microsoft Office for desktop, Microsoft 365 apps for mobile and tablets, and automatic syncing across all your devices. 

Put some time back in your day by automating tasks like booking appointments and meetings with Business Pro!

Learn more about Microsoft 365 and get started here.

Work Together Like You’re All Local.

The internet has changed the meaning of a typical workday. Your team members can work anywhere they want, but it’s up to you to make sure they’re not working on whatever they want. Centralized productivity tools address that issue, and make them feel like they’re working in the same room. With close collaboration and the sharing of ideas, your business gets better work from the team.

When your team is spread far and wide across the country, or the world, the tools you use are the thread that holds your business together.

Once team members can work towards the same goal, see what the rest of the team is working on, and efficiently hit all their deadlines, your business stays on the right track. Even without being in the same room, your team can come together to complete the essential tasks that grow your business.

So, are you taking advantage of that fact to get in front of your audience?

We hate to break it to you, but if you’re not, you’re at a disadvantage. 

In this post, we’ll explain how your eCommerce efforts can benefit from email marketing. We’ll provide some tips on growing and segmenting your email lists, give a few pointers on email design, and briefly discuss your email cadence.

Using Email Marketing to Support eCommerce

Are you finding that despite your best efforts you aren’t making the profits that you’d like from your website?

It’s a tough reality that many business and website owners face. And it’s understandable considering you probably don’t have a six or seven-figure marketing budget. How are you supposed to compete with the big guys?

We recommend using email marketing and adding a sign-up form on your website. According to MarketingSherpa, “More than seven in 10 (72 percent) U.S. adults indicate a preference for companies to communicate with them via email.” There’s a lot of opportunity in that number, so don’t miss out.

Why use email marketing?

Let’s consider why people are visiting your website in the first place. 

To start, they have to be interested in you, which is great. They’re visiting your site because they want to learn more about you or they want to purchase from you. By providing an email sign-up form on site you’re giving them an opportunity to stay connected with you after they leave. 

You’re also giving them an easy way to keep you top-of-mind so they can come back to your site in the future.

Oh, and did we mention that email marketing has a return of $38 for every dollar that you spend on it?

How to Use Email Marketing on Your Site

Here are two things you must do if you want to make the most of email marketing on your site.

1. Make your sign up form easily accessible.
   1. Having a sign-up form for your email list on your homepage is great. But having it available across all the pages of your website is even better. Many people arrive at websites after finding them in an online search. Oftentimes, these people aren’t taken to your home page, but land deeper within your site, like on a blog post. Don’t miss out on capturing their email addresses by only providing a sign-up form on one page of your website.
2. Communicate value.
   1. Big, blocky letters that scream, “Sign up for my list!” aren’t cutting it anymore. By providing more context and value in your call-to-action (CTA) for people to join your list, you better the chances that they’ll be interested and driven to sign up. Wouldn’t you be more inclined to sign up for a list that promised, “Discounts, deals, and insider info — for subscribers only!”?

Designing Your Emails

Take a second to think of some well-known businesses and brands, like McDonald’s or Coca-Cola. Mickey D’s golden arches and Coke’s red colors are instantly recognizable. 

If you were to get an email from one of those businesses in a blue and gold color and written in Comic Sans, would you open it? Probably not, because that doesn’t match the idea we have of those brands and you might think they’re spam emails. 

Spam emails are a huge issue that people deal with every day, and you don’t want them to think your emails are spam, too. 

To avoid that, try doing the following:

• Use a template.
  • Consistency is key. You want your subscribers to immediately recognize your emails and know who they’ve come from. Don’t change your colors, logo, and branding on each and every email as your customers won’t know what to expect and may unsubscribe from your emails thinking they’re spam.
• Pro-tip: Make sure your website name and domain name match, too! When they see your domain name in their inbox, they’ll recognize your trusted business. 

Your key takeaway should be that the more consistency you can provide for your customers the better they’ll remember you.

What should I include in my emails?

If you’re wondering what to put in your emails to drive sales, we can help with that.

Here are some ideas that you can use to help strengthen your relationship with your email subscribers so that they’ll be more invested in you and your site.

• Coupons and offers
  • Everyone loves to feel special. Let your subscribers know that they made the right decision to let you into their inbox by giving them a special discount or coupon to use on your site.
• Expertise and know-how
  • Are you the expert in your field or about what you sell? Show off those smarts! Use your email to convey interesting, valuable information about your products or services to capture your audience’s attention and inspire trust in you.
• Images
  • Use images in your emails to help convey what words can’t. If you’re selling products and talking about them in your emails then showcase a few.
• Clear CTA
  • Use buttons in your emails to provide clear, distinct call-to-actions. Want someone to purchase a product through a link in your email? Label it “Buy Now” so there’s no confusion on their part about what you’d like for them to do.

How Frequently and When Should I Email?

Some days and times are better for sending email marketing campaigns than others. However, finding the times that are best for you involves some trial and error. 

Your audience may prefer to open emails after work hours or before they start their day. If you’re using an email marketing service, you’ll have an opportunity to review your email performance and stats, and can determine when most people are opening your emails. Use this data to inform your future email campaigns. 

When it comes to email cadence, or the frequency at which you send email newsletters, there’s one rule you need to follow: Don’t inundate your subscribers. Start slow, emailing them weekly or bi-weekly and you can increase your cadence from there. 

As you change your email cadence, keep an eye on your stats and reporting. Look for patterns in the data — do people stop opening your emails when you send more often or do they mark them as spam? Those are big indicators that you need to send less frequently. 

Email Marketing and Websites Work Together to Boost eCommerce

When it comes to business, you need to be where your customers are. Meet them in their inbox and provide them with information and links back to your site. 

Email marketing helps you build a rapport with your customers (and potential customers) and can bring them back to your site to transact. 

Do you use email marketing as part of your eCommerce strategy? What does or doesn’t work for you? We’d love to know, so comment below!

No matter what you’d like to do, creating goals is essential for both personal and professional progress. Goals help you to stay focused and ambitious to succeed, they help you stay motivated and keep your momentum going; and yet, so many people don’t set goals for themselves.

Why?

Put simply: Many goals are unhelpful from the start.

That’s no reason to shy away from setting goals for yourself. The key to setting actionable, achievable goals that you can accomplish and be proud of is to make them S.M.A.R.T.

What are smart goals?

If you’ve never seen that term before you may be wondering, “What does smart goal stand for?”

And that’s a fantastic question.

However, let’s first look at the definition for a regular old goal. Business Dictionary defines a goal as “An observable and measurable end result having one or more objectives to be achieved within a more or less fixed timeframe.”

That’s a little vague, and procrastinators the world over know there’s nothing more flexible than a “more or less fixed timeframe.” (Amirite?)

Smart goals take these wishy-washy, vague goals and turn them into actionable drivers of progress and results.

A smart goal is

• Specific – clearly defined and identified
• Measurable – quantifiable, able to be measured
• Achievable – doable and realizable
• Realistic – practical and able to be completed
• Timely – clearly defined dates and times by which they’re done

Why are smart goals effective?

When you create a smart goal and use the parameters above to define it, you’re outlining a detailed path to success. Smart goals force you to think practically and realistically, and break down your lofty ideas into achievable action plans. They encourage you to focus your efforts on using your time wisely, and that’s something just about anyone can benefit from.

What is a smart goal example?

You didn’t think we were going to leave you hanging without an example or two of smart goals, did you?

Let’s set the stage with a regular, open-ended goal (the type you’re likely used to seeing) and turn that into a smart goal.

Francesca, an entrepreneur and blogger, decides that her goal is to finally give her blog and website the refresh it’s long needed. She’s hoping that by giving her site a facelift, she’ll be able to increase the time people stay on her blog and also increase the number of purchases they’ll make through her sponsored links and ads.  

But where’s the accountability in that goal? Where’s the timeliness and measurability?

There’s nothing in a vague goal like “refresh my site and blog” that sets parameters to help you achieve it. Let’s dive into how we can turn this large, indefinite goal into smaller smart goals that are easier to achieve.    

How can we make the goal specific?

What does “website refresh” encompass?

• Updating images and logos
• Updating social media links in the footer
• Improving the checkout process
• Making contact information easy to find
• Changing blog layout

How can we make the goal measurable?

Include things in your goal that can be quantified. Here’s what we mean:

• Bad: Update images and logos on my website.
• Good: Update 5 images on my website every day and update my logo.

You can measure whether or not you achieve that goal because you’ll know whether or not you actually updated 5 images per day.

How can we make the goal achievable?

How do you make sure your goal is doable?

It’s time to revisit Francesca. What you may not know about her is that for her day job she’s an EMT and works crazy hours. Her technical know-how is limited, she’s not using a website builder to take the stress out of website creation, and she outsourced building her site to begin with.

Is updating her website doable right now? Probably not. Let’s make it doable by including an element like:

• Switch to using a website builder.
  • Website builders, like Domain.com’s, provide drag and drop elements to make edits and modifications to your site a breeze. They make a seemingly difficult task like “updating a website” very doable for those of us who don’t have a 4-year degree in computer coding and programming.

How can we make the goal realistic?

To make a goal realistic, consider setting time aside for it on a regular basis.

“Update my site” is a lofty goal for someone who is busy and doesn’t have experience with coding websites. Switching to the website builder makes Francesca’s goal more achievable, but realistically, she needs to set time aside to do it. Here’s what she could add to her goal to make it just a little smarter:

• Set aside 30 minutes per week to work on the site.

How can we make the goal timely?

Francesca thinks that by saying she’ll update her site “in the new year” she’s being timely. But a year encompasses 12 months and that’s a lot of time to push off the task of updating a site.

She can make her goal timely by giving herself concrete deadlines, like this:

• Update the contact information on my about page by the end of January.

Putting the smart goal together.

Ok, we’ve gone through all the elements of a smart goal and we’re ready to put them together to see what a smart goal looks like compared to a general goal.

Original goal: Update website in the new year.

Better, smart(er) goals:

• Set aside 30 minutes each week to update the contact information on my site to be completed by end of January.
• Using a website builder, dedicate 30 minutes each week to updating the images and logos on my site and to be completed by end of February.

Smart goals keep you accountable.

Smart goals don’t leave wiggle room for interpretation or procrastination. They make you think realistically about what’s achievable and what isn’t, and they’re time bound, so you can’t push your goal off until December 31^st of next year.

Looking for more inspiration to get on track next year? Here are 10 productivity tips to help you succeed.

How else do you stay on track and motivated? Let us know in the comments.

It’s ok, we’ve all been there.

Perhaps it’s time to sit down and think about how you can be more productive in accomplishing your goals. There are only so many hours in a day, and as a small business owner or entrepreneur, we’re sure you can use every single one of them if not a few more. Let’s look at some popular productivity tips, tricks, and hacks so you can make the most of the upcoming year.

Productivity tips to get more accomplished. 

Productivity is all about increasing your efficiency in getting things done. How many times have you hastily scribbled a To-Do List on the back of an old receipt only to find that most of those tasks never get done?

There could be a few issues at hand. Are you trying to tackle too much stuff in a day? A week? A month? Before reviewing popular productivity tips and tricks, make sure that you consider the time and resources you have available and how those could affect your plans. Even the most well-laid plans go awry when there isn’t the time or resources to see them through to fruition.

Keep in mind that the productivity hack that works best for someone else might not be the best one for you. Maintain an open mind and understand that you may need to try a few tactics before you find what works for you.

10 productivity tips, tricks, and hacks you need to try.

1- Write it down.

You’ve heard this before, we know. But if it hasn’t worked for you yet, consider this: You’re probably doing it wrong.

The concept of the To-Do List is simple. Think of the tasks you need to accomplish, write them down, and cross them off when done. But that didn’t help when you scrawled your list across the back of scraps of paper, did it?

When creating your To-Do List make sure you’re defining the tasks that need to get done with S.M.A.R.T. goals. These goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. By giving yourself S.M.A.R.T. goals and writing out exactly what you hope to accomplish and by when, you’re setting yourself up for success. They also help relieve some of the stress and anxiety you might feel when faced with a large task by breaking it into manageable chunks.

The act of handwriting your list instead of typing it out will help you remember what needs to be done. The reason you can more easily remember something you’ve written is because of something called the “Generation Effect.” Thinking through what needs to be done and then generating a list based on those things helps to encode the information in your brain. “Encoding is the biological process by which the things we perceive travel to our brain’s hippocampus where they’re analyzed.” And that helps us humans remember our responsibilities.

So write down what needs to get done, or risk forgetting your important tasks and brightest ideas.

2- Eat Your Frogs.

Start the list (and your day) with your largest, most cumbersome tasks. If you put off the large tasks until the end of the day, odds are good you won’t get around to accomplishing them. Humans have a tendency to procrastinate, so get to the big tasks first instead of putting them off.

Brian Tracy, an accomplished professional speaker, touches on this in his book, “Eat That Frog!” The title stems from a Mark Twain quote, “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” What he’s really telling us is that if you get your biggest, most uncomfortable tasks done first then you can have the satisfaction of knowing they’re done the rest of the day.

3- Batch and break.

Working non-stop for hours on end day in and day out is a great recipe for burnout. “Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress.”

So what can you do to avoid burnout and maintain your productivity levels? Batch and break.

Group your routine tasks together and knock them off your To-Do List one after another. These could be tasks like checking and responding to emails or returning customer phone calls. Don’t waste time you don’t have by spreading these tasks throughout the day. Lump them together and get them done at once so you can move on to your other responsibilities that require more focus and thought.

After you’ve finished a batch of tasks, take a break. By giving your brain and body a brief respite, you’re mentally preparing yourself to tackle the next thing on your list and you’re reducing your chances of getting burnt out.

4- There’s an app for that.

Need to increase your productivity but can’t stay away from your cell phone?

It’s ok, we understand the pull of technology. If you must keep your phone by you as you tackle your To-Do List, try putting it to work in your favor.

Many apps exist for the sole purpose of helping to increase your productivity levels. They range from digital list makers to project management tools to social media publishing tools.

Need some help staying focused while working on your tasks? Try an app based on the Pomodoro Technique. “The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method … [that] uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks.” Some of these apps are complex and offer additional features, or you can use something like the Bear Focus Timer, a simple app to help you concentrate and stay focused.

5- Join the cloud.

Is it distracting when you have to bounce from one program or software to another? Check your email here, write documents and blog posts there, and track inventory somewhere else entirely. While they’re not technically apps, G Suite and Microsoft Office 365 offer cloud-based solutions to help you stay on track. From a professional email address that matches your domain name to online meeting solutions, you can find what you need to take your productivity to the next level.

6- Turn off notifications.

You might think that a minute here and a minute there don’t amount to much, but they really do add up. If you must have your phone accessible while you work then turn off all non-essential notifications. By turning off the notifications, you’ll remove the temptation to check them every time you see one.

7- The Eisenhower Method

How do you decide what tasks are more important or urgent than others? If you’re struggling to determine what needs to be prioritized, try using the Eisenhower Method, designed by former U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower.

“What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

8- Learn to say “No.”

“No” is a powerful word. You may not be comfortable saying no to tasks and requests, but you’ll never get it all done if you say yes to everything.

Say no to distractions. Say no to non-urgent and unimportant requests. Say no to unnecessary meetings. Say no to preserve your sanity and leave time for your most important tasks and responsibilities.

9- Stop multitasking.

Do you think you’re good at multitasking? Research says probably not. When you think you’re “multitasking” you’re likely just switching between tasks quickly, like checking your email and attending to a webinar. Odds are good that when you’re focused on one you aren’t truly attending to the other.

David Strayer, PhD, is a professor of Cognition and Neural Science at the University of Utah; his research indicates that only 2% of the world’s population can truly multitask. These folks are called “supertaskers” and “the supertaskers are true outliers.“

10- Fuel up appropriately.

Everyone knows that sugar will give you a rush. That rush feels good as it happens, but everyone also knows that what follows is a crash.

Instead of relying on sugary food and drink to give you quick but ineffective bursts of energy, try eating a balanced, healthy diet.

The Harvard Business Review writes that “Not all foods are processed by our bodies at the same rate. Some foods, like pasta, bread, cereal and soda, release their glucose quickly, leading to a burst of energy followed by a slump. Others, like high fat meals (think cheeseburgers and BLTs) provide more sustained energy, but require our digestive system to work harder, reducing oxygen levels in the brain and making us groggy.”

Get productive and stay productive in the new year. 

We have faith that you’re going to accomplish what it is you set out to accomplish this year.

Whether you’re starting your online presence by getting a domain name and website, to taking your business to the next level, all your goals will be easier to achieve when you’re productive.

Remember, write down what you need to get done and don’t be vague about it. Batch similar tasks and take breaks after they’re complete or at regular intervals. And instead of letting technology distract you from your tasks, use it to your advantage.

What other productivity tips and tricks do you rely on? Share them with us in the comments!

For example, did you know that you can link your domain to your Gmail account so that your business can take full advantage of G Suite services? Boiled down, this means that you can connect a Gmail address to your domain name, and then access it from just about anywhere in the world.

Let’s say that you have a domain called golfbropros.com and your name is Tom. With Domain.com you can easily create [email protected] as the email, and then have that linked directly to a Gmail account. If you don’t already own a domain, you can find one and complete the purchase process with Domain.com in minutes. This way, you get to keep a professional looking email and have the power of the G Suite at your fingertips as well. 

Now, getting started can be a little daunting but finding a domain name and linking it to a Gmail is easy with Domain.com. Let’s discuss the steps to take to setup a Gmail and domain, plus  everything you need to know about Gmail for business. 

Domain.com makes it easy to add G Suite for Business to your domain name.

Obtaining a domain name

Before you can have a Gmail domain name, you first must register a domain. If that step is already completed, just skip this section and move on to the G Suite section. For those of you that have yet to complete this vital process, fear not, Domain.com has made domain registration cheap and easy.  

In order to claim a domain name, it must be registered with ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a nonprofit that keeps track of available, unused domain names. Because of regulations, a domain can only be registered with ICANN through a domain registrar such as Domain.com. 

Domain registrars are afforded this privilege because: 

• They have received accreditation through ICANN
• They have built up years of experience in the world of domains
• It helps centralize and track ownership and availability of names

Purchasing a domain name

Checking for a domain name’s availability at Domain.com is simple. Type the name you wish for in the search bar and then hit the magnifying glass symbol. If available, you can then buy your domain name. If unavailable, a list of similar names with slight variations to the domain name itself or the domain extension is presented.

Once you have found that ideal domain name and confirmed its availability, you’re then required to submit the following information to Domain.com:

• The domain name and domain extension
• First and last name
• Email address
• Phone number
• Physical address
• Billing information
• Administrative contact information

After you file this information, Domain.com instantly starts the registration process, sending the request to ICANN, who then performs a WHOIS query to confirm your identity.

As a note, you should be aware that domain registration does not last forever. It is similar to renting an apartment for a few years, with the option to renew that rent annually. With Domain.com, you have the opportunity to purchase a domain name for a span of one to five years.

G Suite explained

If you weren’t already aware, Gmail for business is not merely an email service. It is powered and enhanced by the G Suite tools. These applications are what really set Gmail apart from other mail services, and are a big part of what has propelled it into the spotlight as the most popular email service to date. Utilizing the power of cloud computing, they have revolutionized the way we work, edit, share and collaborate on the internet. These apps include the following applications:

• Calendar – Cloud-based scheduling software that lets users view a teammate’s calendar, share their own schedule, set meetings, or plan for the upcoming week or month.
• Cloud – Get rid of servers and protect your data with Google’s cloud computing service.
• Docs – Google’s cloud-based answer to Microsoft Word allows documents to be worked on, edited, shared, or viewed by anyone, with permission. This gives easy visibility and workability, all the while preventing loss thanks to automatic updates and the ability to track changes.
• Drive – Google’s cloud-based data storage center for all of your files, including music, video, text, documents, pictures, or any other vital data.  
• Forms – Collect and disseminate information like never before. Start a poll, create a survey, and get answers quickly. Forms gather, tabulate, and organize responses so that analysis is made simple.
• Gmail – Google’s mailing service is intuitive, powerful, and easy to organize. Users can have storage that is either 30GB, 1TB, or Unlimited, depending upon their package and the total number of users.
• Hangout – Video conference app that takes video chat and messaging to the next level. Depending on their subscription package, anywhere from 10 to 25 users can have a video conference at any given time.
• Meet – The high-resolution, high-end version of Hangouts that can support anywhere from 50 to 100 users on a single video conference at any given time.
• Sheets – Spreadsheets are brought to the cloud. Similar to Docs, Sheets can be worked on, edited, shared, or viewed by anyone on your team.
• Slides – PowerPoint creation has never been simpler. Slides has all the tools and templates you need to put together a high-end pitch or demonstration.
  

Why should you select GSuite for your needs? 

While you may think you can just get by with the free Gmail account and Google Apps, that means you don’t have the ability to link your domain name to Gmail. On top of that, you miss out on all of the powerful tools that come with the G Suite subscription.

Your subscription includes:

• Audit reports for user activity
• BigQuery log analysis
• Gmail and Drive data loss-prevention features
• Hosted S/MIME
• Gmail third-party archiving
• Security key enforcement

How to set up Gmail with your domain

Here’s how to set up Gmail with your domain name for a personalized and professional looking email address:

1. Go to Google Apps Gmail page, click the “Get Started Button.”
2. Enter the name of your business and choose the number of employees or users.
3. Pick the company’s location.
4. Enter your email address, but know you can create a new business Gmail address
5. later.
6. You will receive a prompt that asks, “Does your business have a domain?” If, yes,
7. enter it on the screen and click “Next.”
8. Create your login information including username and password.
9. Enter your credit card information and click, “Continue.”
10. Confirm you’re not a robot, check the box, and click, “Agree and create account.”

Now that the account creation is complete, you can begin to set up your Gmail account with your domain. First, though, you need to verify your domain name.

1. Go to the Google Admin Console and hit the “Start Setup” button at the top center of the page.
2. Hit the “Verify Domain” button then hit, “Next.”
3. You will receive a message that says, “Verify your domain: Before you begin using apps and services we need to contact your domain host to verify that you own (your domain name). Your domain host can detect that sdrive-gmail-setup.net is hosted at Network Solutions.com.” Hit, “No.”
4. A drop-down list will appear. Choose, “Other” then hit “Begin Verification.”
5. The easiest way to verify a domain name is an “HTML File Upload.”
6. Download the given HTML domain verification file
7. Upload the file to your domain
8. Confirm successful upload by visiting the given HTTP:s-drive location
9. Hit “Verify”
10. Once you’ve finished, login to your Google Apps account and hit, “Users.”
11. You will see an option to add new users including a custom email address.
12. Congrats, you’re finished!

Benefits of G Suite

There are plenty of benefits that come from linking a G Suite Subscription to your Domain. They include:

• Domain-branded emails – A professional email name connected to your domain, and powered by G Suite signals to prospective customers that your business is legitimate. A stranger who knows nothing about your business trusts you infinitely more if you have a website, and an email tied to it.
• Storage – Even the 30 GB of storage provided by the basic account is a huge amount of securely stored data. For the Business and Enterprise models, you may never have to worry about storage again.
• Email marketing – G Suite allows users to create and facilitate high-level email marketing campaigns and grants you the ability to fashion up to 30 email aliases per user.
• Collaborate – G Suite cloud-based document creation uses cutting-edge technology that lets teams work together, make alterations, and share their work no matter where they are located. A team member in Dallas on their PC can participate in a Hangout with a team member in Los Angeles on their mobile device, along with another worker in New York on their tablet. These three people can access the same document, spreadsheet, or presentation simultaneously, making changes and strategizing in real-time.
• Document ownership – Thanks to archiving, it’s so simple to track changes to any file in Google Drive. You can see who made changes, when the changes took place, and what the differences were. You can access the earlier versions of the documents, or make notes about the current one. This method means that team members are kept accountable and can take ownership of any edit.  
• Outlook sync – If your company or employees require the use of Microsoft Outlook’s email service, G Suite has a simple G Suite Sync with Outlook.
• Two-step domain verification – G Suite provides extra security by allowing admins to decide if a user needs to sign in to their account with both their password and then confirm with their mobile device. This 2-step verification protects sensitive information, especially if you utilize Drive as the cloud backup.
• 24/7 support – G Suite provides dedicated 24/7 phone, email, and chat support. So if you have any questions or need help troubleshooting, call, mail, or text the Google team and get an answer instantly.
  

Set up Gmail to start talking to customers

It’s never been easier to link your domain name with a Gmail account. As discussed, the benefits to your business are endless. Start using an email that’s custom branded with your own domain name to talk to customers and potential business partners like a professional. 

Domain.com makes it easy to add G Suite for Business to your domain name.

Learn about more G Suite below, and find out how it can benefit your business.

Domain.com makes it easy to add G Suite for Business to your domain name.

The power of professional emails with Gmail for Business

You’re probably all too aware that, these days, using a personal email for your business is not always the best way to hook in customers. Similar to having your own website, a professional email address grants a person or business legitimacy, signaling to customers that you’re a real and trustworthy operation.

With Gmail domain integration, business owners can use the Gmail system for all communication from your custom domain email address. This way you get to have the best of both worlds, a professional email address that matches your domain name.

Gmail For Business

Business email aside, you likely already use the free Gmail service and apps on a regular basis for emailing or online writing purposes. While these provide plenty of horsepower for anyone who is using Gmail personally, for businesses, some of the basic features of Gmail for work are lacking or limited, especially when compared to Microsoft Office 365.

Gmail for Work is the paid version of Gmail and was designed specifically for businesses of any size. With Gmail for Work and Domain.com, you receive a package of products and cloud-based services that allow you to communicate and collaborate seamlessly from anywhere on any device. Your company is armed with an intuitive and fantastic set of Google tools meant to improve communication and optimize workflow.

Four features of Gmail for Work

At their essence, the G Suite tools can be broken down into four categories: communicate, collaborate, store, and manage.

1 – Communicate

The following G Suite applications help improve your team’s ability to act and react in real time, to share messages, or to stay in touch. They include:

• Gmail – The most obvious feature of Gmail for Work. A paid subscription via Domain.com grants you email access to your domain. Depending on the G Suite package you choose, this email address allows users to store data and messages, anywhere from 30 gigabytes to multiple terabytes.
• Google Calendar – This time-management and scheduling service lets G Suite users create and share a schedule, meeting, or pitch. With it, teams can plan out delivery schedules and due dates. They can also highlight important dates or times. Since it is cloud-based, you can share your calendar with other people at the company, allowing them to check your schedule for availability.
• Hangout – Google’s powerful video chat and messaging service lets ten users participate in a single video conference. Hangout is easy to use and far more reliable than a similar product such as Skype. For G Suite enterprise, as many as 25 people may join a low-resolution video conference.
• Meet – Recently, Google rolled out Meet, a beefier version of Hangout meant for medium to large businesses. This allows anywhere from 50 to 100 users to participate in a video conference call simultaneously. This version allows for phone dial-in, recording of the meeting, and high-resolution video.

2 – Collaborate

Gmail for Work relies upon cloud computing in order to revolutionize the way work documents can be collaborated upon, edited, shared, and viewed. Each service comes with a plethora of easy to use templates. Any changes made to the document are made in real time, and saved automatically, preventing document loss while also keeping editors accountable for who wrote what, who made a change, or who made a note. These products include:

• Docs – Docs was Google’s take on a Microsoft Word in the cloud. As a result, documents can be edited, disseminated, and altered rapidly without any fear of losing files. Documents can be shared in either edit mode or view-only mode, so only the right people can make modifications to the material. Docs also work seamlessly with Microsoft Word, allowing you to convert a word file to docs, or vice versa.
• Sheets – Google’s version of Excel, this easy to use but extremely powerful spreadsheet service lets users create charts, graphs, tables, and formulas to both enhance and simplify your spreadsheet compilation. The dozens of templates allow a person to dive in immediately no matter what device they’re using. Open, create, and change your spreadsheets from wherever you work.  
• Forms – Forms allow a person to gather and optimize information, whether big or small. You can start an office poll, gather up personal email addresses, or start a survey. Forms help you get answers as quickly and concisely as possible. With a variety of templates and options, from multiple choice to fill in the blank, your Q&As can be set up in such a way as to provide you with the best and most pertinent information. Thanks to smart organization, responses are neatly compiled for optimal analysis.
• Slides – Slides is Google’s answer to PowerPoint. This excellent tool helps you give a pitch, create a presentation, or compile a slideshow. Make impactful presentations and tell inspiring stories anywhere, anytime.
• Sites – Google’s structured Wiki and Web page creation tool lets any user with access to G Suite create simple websites.

3 – File storage

With previously unprecedented cloud storage , store lets Gmail for business users create, edit, query, and renew files from wherever.

• Drive – Drive is a cloud-based data storage center, which creates a haven for all of your data, including:
  • Sheets
  • Docs
  • Music
  • Audio
  • Video
  • Excel
  • Word
  • PowerPoint
  • Slides
  • Adobe video
  • Photoshop

• Cloud – Google’s cloud computing service, Google Cloud allows for secure and high-performance cloud services. It enables a business to go serverless and provides a host of robust data and analytics tools. Features include:
  • Virtual Computing
  • Storage  Space and Databases
  • Networking
  • Big Data
  • Data Transfer
  • API Platform and Ecosystems
  • Internet of Things
  • Cloud AI
  • Management Tools
  • Developer Tools
  • Identity and Security
  • Professional Services

4 – Manage

Smart tools make it easy and straightforward to manage and secure your users, devices, and files.

• Admin – With admin privileges you can manage your Google Admin console with a variety of topics, such as:
  • Admin roles
  • Analytics
  • Audit
  • Authentication
  • Billing and Subscriptions
  • Chrome devices
  • Communication settings
  • Company profile
  • Custom URLs
  • Data migrations
  • Domain names
  • Groups
  • Mobile Devices
  • Password strength requirement
  • Password strength monitoring
  • API Access
  • Reports
  • Services On/Off
  • Service-specific settings
  • Single sign-on
  • Support
  • Two-step verification
  • Users

• Vault – Vault allows a business to keep, manage, find, and send data to increase archival organization and eDiscovery. Vault retains:
  • Email messages
  • Chats in Hangouts
  • Drive files
  • Conversations in Hangouts
  • Recording in Hangouts
  • Groups

• Mobile –  Gmail’s mobile apps and suite features can be accessed from any smartphone or tablet, whether they are running Android or iOS.

G Suite subscription

Gmail for Work can be split into three categories and price points:

1. Basic – $5 per month per user plan that gives users 30 GB of data storage space along with various G Suite tools.
2. Business – $10 per month per user plan that gives four or fewer users 1 TB of data storage, and five or more users unlimited storage. Business comes with enhanced office suite with additional features such as audit reporting, cloud searching, eDiscovery, and access to Google Vault.
3. Enterprise – $25 per month per user plan that grants unlimited storage with premium office suite advanced tools and analytics. Enterprise allows for:
   • Audit reports for tracking user activity
   • Data loss prevention for Gmail and Drive
   • Integrated Gmail with third-party archiving
   • BigQuery log analysis
   • Security key enforcement
   • Hosted S/MIME

One of these plans should be ideal for your business, though the vast majority of companies find the sweet spot of price point and features with G Suite Business. These plans can be paid either monthly with the flexible plan, or annually with the fixed plan.

Although the annual plan saves some money in the long run, the flexible monthly plan allows a company to add or remove accounts, and only pay for the Gmail accounts that get used. The flexible plan also gives you the ability to cancel a subscription if desired, whereas, with the annual plan, you pay for a year and get a year, whether or not you use the service.

Getting the most out of Gmail For Work

If you want to get the very most out of your Gmail for Work and Google Apps, consider the following:

• Set up your domain name to be hosted by Gmail – Doing this, you get to use Gmail for your Domain.com email inbox. You can also make custom emails for anyone who works for you or to delineate various aspects of your business such as [email protected], or [email protected]. With Domain.com you do not need to toggle between separate mail systems or names, simply integrate your email with your domain. By doing so, you no longer have to search a domain name or register individual accounts. This benefits your company by allowing for quick domain ID, 24/7 customer support, and a custom Gmail for your domain.
• Create a signature – Having a personalized signature at the bottom of your messages makes every email look more official, and ties you or your employee closer to your business in the mind of your customer.
• Utilize the labels feature – You can label and categorize your inbox in order to simplify inbox navigation, or to highlight important messages or contacts.
• Take advantage of Customer Support – Google provides round the clock customer support for paying members. If you have any questions, queries, or problems, they’re a brief call, email, or message away.
• Group email addresses – A nifty feature of Gmail for Work is that you can catalog people or departments into groups for easier messaging. By adding the entire marketing team to a group, you no longer need to find and enter every email address.

Verifying Your Domain

Before you can start rolling with Gmail for Work, you must verify and register a domain to confirm that no one else is using that domain without your expressed permission. With Domain.com, verification is simple, letting you get to work in no time at all.

To do this,  sign into your Domain.com account and add the record of Gmail for Work to your DNS records. To do this you need to:

• Have your Domain.com login info at hand. If you have forgotten, you can easily reset your password at the login section.
• Search for Domain.com’s Domain Name System settings.
• Copy that information and paste either the MX, TXT, or CNAME record of the DNS settings.
• Another option available to you is adding the meta tag or HTML file.
• This verification record does not affect your Gmail or website.
• Once you have this information, follow the Gmail Setup Wizard to verify the domain.
• If you have trouble accomplishing this, feel free to contact Google Cloud Support which comes with the G Suite subscription. You can also reach out to the team at Domain.com if you are having difficulty finding the MX, TXT, or CNAME records.  

Getting started with professional tools from G Suite and Domain.com

Gmail for Work is a powerful cloud-based tool that can help take your business capabilities to the next level. Thanks to its fantastic mailing features and real-time document collaboration, you can crush your work from anywhere at any time.

When you pick Domain.com as your hosting provider, we make it easy to add G Suite for Business to your domain name.

Now, smart businesses rely on cloud services to keep tools up to date with the latest technology, share documents with remote employees, and increase data security.

You don’t need to build your business its own server in your garage or hire an entire IT team to handle your data. There are now shared productivity tools available that make moving your business on the cloud safe and easy.

Collaborate from anywhere with the productivity tools you already love, and establish your business on Domain.com.

Keep your technology up to date

Imagine running a business with dial-up internet, floppy disks, and a CB radio. All three of your customers would still complain about your response time. When your business uses the latest technology, you become better equipped to compete with other business and satisfy your customers. It also helps your team become more productive.

Cloud-based applications automatically update on your computer, rather than waiting for you to download them again, or upload new programs from a CD. With tools like Microsoft Office 365, your team can work like the largest companies, which also helps to legitimize your business. It’s hard to imagine that an online business owner traveling to the library to update products can fulfill an order in a timely fashion. Faster tools mean you can stay on time with client meetings, customer scheduling, and product fulfilment.

Upload to the cloud to share documents around the world

As the internet changes the way customers buy from a business, it also changes the way we work. Rather than requiring face-to-face interaction for successful collaboration, tools like video meetings and online document storage mean that your remote team members can work like they’re in the office. It’s time to get your documents and projects online.

Careful organization is important. Instead of throwing all of your files into one giant folder, create a system that lets you retrieve a document without digging for it. Create folders for each department within your business, like sales or customer service, and establish best practices for naming documents. You don’t want six documents named “Important – Marketing Budget.” Then, choose your cloud-based tool and start uploading.

Make your business and customers safer online

Let’s say you like to control all of your data yourself; you like to point to that server in your garage and say, “all of my customer data is safe and sound, right there.” What if your system fails? Especially if all of your data is stored on a single computer, not a homemade server like in Silicon Valley, your data is at risk. Do you have a second computer tied into the first to serve as a backup? Or a second server in a second garage?

Cloud-based services are safer because they create backups for the backups, meaning your data can’t get copied over or destroyed by one physical accident. These cloud sharing tools also have security teams focused on protecting your data. Even if hackers target your business, they’re no longer just guessing your password (it better not be password1234), but rather facing a giant security team that’s ready to fight back.

Getting to the cloud is easier than it seems

You’re ready to get your business on the cloud, but what does that really mean? It’s as simple as choosing a tool, syncing it to your domain name, and choosing which files to upload. These tools are simple and easy to set up, with no coding or messing with data servers.

For a small business, cost is just as important as ease of use. Cloud-based tools also scale with your business, which means you can start using them at a lower price, then add tools or services as the needs of your business increase. Start with a professional email address paired with your domain, and work up to video meetings, online bookkeeping, or private social networking tools.  

A business in the cloud is safer and more reliable

Keeping your business and customer data safe, or accessing shared documents anywhere, is no longer just for dreamers. Moving your small business into the cloud means your team can keep their tools up to date with the latest technology, share documents even with remote employees, and increase the security of your data. Use a shared productivity tool like Microsoft Office 365 to help make your business safer and more efficient.

Collaborate from anywhere with the productivity tools you already love, and establish your business on Domain.com.

That wolf shirt you love to wear is pretty cool, isn’t it? Fits like a glove, too.

That said, your wolf shirt has no place in an interview or meetings with your customers and clients.  (And no, it’s not because we’re trying to cramp your style.)

In the business world, presentation matters. You wouldn’t want to lose potential high-value customers just because they didn’t take your shirt (and therefore you) seriously, would you?

The same thing holds true for email addresses.

If your customers and clients can’t physically see you to size you up, they’re going to make their assumptions and decisions based on the things they do see — like your email address. Your email address is one of the first impressions people will have of you as it has a prominent spot in their inbox. You want that email address to represent you well and show that you mean business.

A Professional Email Address Matches Your Domain Name

What do we mean by “professional email address?” A professional, business-minded email address is one that matches your domain name (i.e., [email protected] vs. [email protected]). And why is that?

Let’s take a look at the following scenario as it should shed some light on the matter. 

Look Professional, Establish Credibility, Support Your Digital Identity

Arya spent the last 2 years getting her fencing teacher’s license so she can open her own studio. She’s got an email sign-up form on her website (take note: that’s a really good idea all around) and has been working on growing her list of potential clients. She’s ready to email them and let them know that her studio, Winterfell Fencing, is finally open! But instead of getting an email address to match her domain name, she sends it from the account she’s had since grade school, [email protected].

Now, I don’t know about you, but if I saw an email address like that in my inbox, I’d steer clear from clicking on it because it looks spammy. I like my personal information staying personal, and am in no rush to click on an email that looks like it might be carrying a virus.  

But what if she had emailed from [email protected]? I’d recognize her email address and trust it because I’m familiar with her website, winterfellfencing.com. Her professional email address matches her domain name and helps reinforce her business and professional identity. There’s no sending her email to spam this time around because I know exactly who sent it and I trust her business.

via GIPHY

Is it really all about appearances?

There’s more to life and business than appearances, right? We think so, too.

Having a professional email address that matches your domain name isn’t just for looks — it’s also to provide you with the productivity tools you need today to prepare and plan for future growth.

Productivity tools that come with your professional email address

When you purchase a professional email address, you’re also getting access to a host of tools to help you organize, streamline, and get more done efficiently.

What are these tools exactly? They range from cloud storage and file sharing to team calendars and even customer invoicing and estimating tools.

Here at Domain.com we offer two different professional email products. Maybe you’ve heard of them … Google’s G Suite (it’s Gmail for business) and Microsoft’s Office 365 (O365)?

Let’s take a look at the specific tools each of them offers.

G Suite: Where your domain meets the power of Gmail. Enjoy the benefits of having a business email address with 30 GB of storage, shared calendars, multiple communication tools, and more.

Office 365: Adding your domain to Office 365 provides an all-in-one productivity solution for your business. You’ll experience cloud-based access to the suite of Office 365 tools, including Word, Excel, Outlook, and more.

With automatic updates and cloud storage for your files, you can collaborate on projects with your team from across the room or across the globe, without worrying about losing files or needing to update any applications. You’ll even be able to stay on track with the included bookkeeping and appointment tools.

Since you’re likely familiar with Microsoft or Gmail already, there shouldn’t be much of a learning curve when getting started. And connecting your domain name to a professional email address is a breeze. For example, if you have a custom domain name with us and choose Office 365 as your email tool of choice, the first step would be to log in to your account. From your domain dashboard, select the domain name you want your email to match, and on the next page, click the Office 365 tab to the left of the page. Follow the prompts, and you’re good to go! Learn more about connecting professional email to your Domain.com account here.

Reinforce the connection between your website and email with a professional email address

Stranger danger is a real thing, especially online. You don’t want your customers ignoring your emails, and they don’t want potential spam landing in their inbox. Match your email address to your domain name to present yourself as a professional, stand out among the competition, and help customers decide that you’re the right business to work with. Save your personal email address (and your wolf shirt) for the weekend. 

What should the team work on today?

It’s a simple question that often leads to the confounding answer: It depends, what needs to get done?

Whether your team is in-house or scattered throughout the globe, you can stay on the same page, and know what everyone is working on by using a central marketing calendar.

By using a centralized calendar, you can keep tabs on current or upcoming campaigns, track the right goals, and prioritize work to meet the right deadlines.

Then every morning after you open up your business, you’ll know what tasks need to be crossed off your list first, and what everyone else on the team is crossing off theirs.

What Is a Marketing Calendar?

A marketing calendar gives your entire team a view of what’s happening and when, just like a schedule. 

The goal of using a centralized calendar is to keep track of how and when your business interacts with customers and what messaging is being used. A marketing calendar can record when new email marketing campaigns launch, a new banner ad is released, or a new product is unveiled to customers.

It also works to track changes that can affect your business, like if you’ve had to close your physical location and move everything online.

But remember, a central calendar only works when your entire organization can see it. 

If everyone knows what’s happening, from your front-of-store cashiers to your warehouse staff, your business benefits. Ideas come from anywhere, and even little increases in efficiency, like a cashier preparing for a rush after the launch of a new product, can make your business better.

Cloud-based Marketing Calendars Work for Remote Teams.

Are you in need of a cloud-based calendar to help your team work efficiently and effectively, from anywhere?

While there are many options out there, we recommend using the calendaring tools provided in G Suite or Microsoft Office 365 — both are wonderful business solutions.

G Suite offers tools you likely know and use already — a professional email address, online document creation and sharing, and more. If you use Gmail, you know how user-friendly Google’s products are, and their calendar feature is no exception.

Microsoft Office 365 is an incredibly well-trusted name in business, and for good reason. Office 365 offers all of the familiar, reliable tools you know and trust (like Excel, Word, and PowerPoint) that you can access and use with your team online. Their calendar tool is sure to help you stay on track and get more done.

Now that you know what tools to use, let’s figure out how to make the most of your marketing calendar.

List All of Your Team’s Current Tasks.

The first step to creating your central marketing calendar is for you, and your employees, to list all current and upcoming projects.

Knowing what everyone is working on helps to keep your team from duplicating their efforts. This insight also increases collaboration, as one team member that finishes early can pitch in to help another complete their project.

Nobody wants to repeat work, but seeing that a team member is currently blocked helps the rest of your organization come together and work on other important issues.

Make sure your team lists any roadblocks when noting their current projects. For example, if one team member is waiting for the release of a new product before designing an email, you can see that on the calendar and then provide mock ups of the product to help them succeed.

Line Up Your Marketing Deadlines.

Once you have all of your tasks listed, it’s time to prioritize. You can’t work on a year’s worth of projects at the same time, so a calendar helps put it all into perspective. You might be able to track projects and campaigns in your head if they’re simple, but for multiple deadlines a calendar is a must.

Set a deadline for every campaign or task, and then align your deadlines on the calendar for the whole team to see. Better yet, create and track your S.M.A.R.T. goals on your calendar.

As an example, if you’re about to release a new project, you’ll want to create a series of emails that go out a week before the release, a few days before the release, and again the day the product is released. That means your team needs to hit their email design deadline at least a week ahead of the launch date.

If you have everything properly recorded and tracked in your calendar, those deadlines should be easier for everyone to meet.

Team of One? You Still Need a Marketing Calendar.

When you’re the only one responsible for your marketing, without a team to back you up or worry about, you need a calendar even more.

Without carefully keeping track of your tasks, you could open up your business on the morning of a new product launch never having emailed a single customer about it. Talk about a lackluster product kick-off. 

Instead, hold yourself accountable just as you would hold your team accountable, tracking your current campaigns, tasks, and deadlines on a single calendar. This also lets you visually keep tabs on what is happening when, so you can manage your time more effectively and stay ahead with your marketing. Time management is vital, so you still have time for the day-to-day operation of your business.

Using a Shared Calendar Promotes Working Together.

What needs to get done to help your team succeed and your business grow?

With a central marketing calendar, the answer is easy to find. No matter if your team is in-house, remote, or currently a team of one, tracking your current marketing campaigns, tasks, and goals helps to get things done.

Build a calendar, foster collaboration, and carry your business to success.

We’ve got the tools that can help.