5 Marketing Gigs You Can Do From Home

The Daily Muse 23 hours ago

For marketing professionals, sitting in a cubicle is something like a paradox. They're creative, resourceful and observant of our surroundings — and being confined to a literal box can really cramp their capabilities.

Luckily for those who work in marketing, companies are now considering remote employees more than ever, giving marketers an opportunity to work from a coffee shop, at home or anywhere that's going to allow them to be more productive.

In fact, there are a number of opportunities out there for work-from-homers — specifically in the digital marketing world and with tech companies that are increasingly advocating for virtual work environments. So, if you’ve ever thought about taking your marketing career out of the office, take a look at these types of positions.

1. Product Marketing Manager

If you love both tech and marketing, check out Product Marketing Manager roles, where you’ll manage new product releases and the internal communications, messaging and positioning that surround them.

While many companies want their Product Marketing Managers based on-site to interact with other team members, you can have success working for start-ups that are tight on space or companies that value virtual work. For example, Santa Barbara-based cloud computing startup RightScale offers many work-from-home positions — and is currently hiring a remote Product Marketing Manager who can be based in California, Seattle or Denver.

You Should Have: Tech savvy. Product Marketing Managers typically work with software and web-based products, so a passion for and experience in this world is ideal.

2. Marketing Copywriter

Recently rated one of the best jobs in the marketing and advertising industry, copywriting is an obvious choice for a work-from-home gig. After all, the work you produce — including web copy, ebooks, sales materials, blogs and articles — says far more than the hours you clock in at an office.

It isn’t difficult to find full-time work-from-home copywriting positions for companies or marketing agencies on sites like FlexJobs; or, if you’d like to freelance, check out Freelance Writing Jobsand ProBlogger’s Job Board.

You Should Have: Awesome writing skills is a given, but you should also have a handle on SEO. Companies want writing that they know will get seen on the web.

3. Marketing Analyst

If you’re extremely detail-oriented and love crunching numbers, this is a cool opportunity to do from home. In a position that requires you to analyze data and turn it into brand or marketing strategy, a quiet, uninterrupted work environment allows you to be more productive.

These types of roles vary in both scope and experience — for example, United Health Group is hiring a Senior Marketing Research Analyst to perform high-level research and make recommendations on that data, and an e-commerce company is seeking a telecommuting SEO Analyst Assistant to perform SEO research and data entry.

You Should Have: Depends on the role, but most likely a combination of analytical skills and strategic thinking. And an understanding of SEO is a big bonus.

4. Content Strategist

If you’re currently blogging, chances are you already understand how content marketing works. So, why not use your expertise to show companies how to be successful with the same methods? As a Content Strategist, you’ll work with brands to determine what type of content they need based on their goals — then, you’ll work to develop that strategy through campaigns, projects and editorial calendars.

There are plenty of opportunities available for full-time and contract roles, but I’ve also seen people have success pitching their skills to businesses they want to work with. If you’re hired on a project basis and deliver great results, that’s a great case for hiring you full-time. Make a list of places you want to work, pitch them your idea and learn from the process.

You Should Have: Proven success with blogging or content strategy.

5. Digital Marketing Consultant

This is probably the most flexible role of all, and if you have several years of experience and proven success in digital marketing, it could be the ideal gig for you. As a bonus, consultants are generally paid well, as companies rely on their expertise to take their company to the next level.

One option is working for a digital marketing firm, which are often hired to analyze current digital marketing processes and policies, provide thought leadership, and strategize with teams on improved performance.

Or, you can strike out on your own as a freelance consultant, where you can choose exactly what types of work and clients you take on. This can be a great fit if you’re looking to carve out an industry niche for yourself. Think social media for fashion and beauty clients or brand strategy work for healthcare organizations.

You Should Have: Several years of experience, ideally deep expertise in one or two specific sets of skills.

Image courtesy of Flickr, ishane

This article originally published at The Daily Muse here

Americans Spend 23 Hours Per Week Online, Texting

BusinessNewsDaily 12 hours ago

Staying up-to-date on emails, social media and other forms of online communication can take a lot of time — more time than many people may realize. New research has found that the average user spends 23 hours every week emailing, texting, using social media and communicating online in other ways.

That number represents nearly 14% of the total time in a week. All that time is taking a toll on users, a new eMarketer report found. However, 54% of survey respondents said they have tried to decrease their reliance on technology in the past year in favor of more in-person contact. That number is only set to grow, with 62% of web users in the United States saying they hope to be able to decrease tech usage in the coming year so they can communicate face-to-face.

Despite those efforts, over the past year, users have increased the time they have spent usingsocial networks, emailing, watching online videos, playing online games and reading or writing blogs. Additionally, time spent each day on online radio, newspapers and magazines has remained constant over the past year.

Email is the biggest time consumer, researchers found. Respondents said they spend nearly eight hours per week checking emails. They also said they spend nearly seven hours per week on Facebook and five hours per week on YouTube. Moreover, users spend nearly the same amount of time each week on Google+ and Twitter.

Users are checking those platforms with varying frequency, though, the eMarketer report found. More than 75% of users checked email, texts, Facebook and Instagram at least one time a day. Other new platforms are growing in popularity as well.

"Photo-focused sites, particularly suited to mobile, seem to be especially popular," the eMarketerreport said. "Instagram saw 70% of users logging in daily, and the relatively new Snapchat was just behind, with 67% of its users logging in daily."

Two-thirds of users also said they check YouTube once per day, while nearly 60% check Google+ daily. Just 40% of LinkedIn users check the site daily, but nearly half check it several times a week.

"Even as web users report a desire to disconnect, and discussion circulates about Facebook users decreasing time spent, it remains to be seen whether social users will follow through on that promise to log off, or perhaps simply translate their time spent on social to the sites that best suit their communication needs," the eMarketer report said.

Image via iStockphoto, Tsuji

This article originally published at BusinessNewsDaily here

5 Words to Use in Every Business Meeting

BusinessNewsDaily Jun 22, 2013

Forget presentations, handshakes and power suits: You should focus on what you're saying if you want to make a big impact in a business meeting.

New research has found that employees who used the words "yeah," "give," "start," "meeting" and "discuss" ended up with more accepted proposals in meetings.

In the study, Cynthia Rudin a professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management and MIT student Been Kim examined data from meetings and the impact of certain words during those meetings. The research is particularly important considering that 11 million meetings take place every day, Rudin and Kim said.

"The study of meetings is important, yet challenging, because it requires an understanding of many social signals and complex interpersonal dynamics," says Rudin. "While there has been a lot of academic work done on meetings, our research is unique in that it is one of the first studies to use a data-driven approach to meeting analysis. There are many published lists of persuasive words, but they weren't created from a data-driven perspective. We wanted to prove which words are more persuasive using predictive modeling and hypothesis tests."

The specific words were found to be persuasive for a number of reasons. For example, the word "yeah" is believed to show acceptance and agreement of a point of view.

Moreover, "the word 'meeting' is used in suggestions about what not to discuss," Rudin explains. "For instance, someone might say, 'Maybe this is something for the next meeting,' as a way of gently moving the topic onward without causing offense. That suggestion was almost always accepted."

The researchers also found that workers must be particularly careful about paying compliments at a meeting, because compliments that follow negative assessments are seen as disingenuous.

"This is a bit counterintuitive because it would seem natural to compliment someone to make up for something negative you said about their idea," Rudin says. "However, that almost never happens."

Additionally, the researchers provided insight into the decision-making process of meetings by looking at words that signal a decision is imminent. Rudin and Kim said that when workers give suggestions, information, acceptances, rejections or information requests, a decision is expected.

"This would be useful when listening to a previously recorded meeting and you want to fast-forward to the key decision," Rudin said. "Or, it might help managers be more efficient if they could be automatically alerted to join a meeting when a decision is about to be made."

Photo via iStockphoto, BrianAJackson

This article originally published at BusinessNewsDaily here

3 Ways 3D Printing Will Improve Your Business

BusinessNewsDaily Jun 27, 2013

By adding efficiency and innovation to the prototyping process — transforming the way businesses manufacture and distribute goods, and creating a whole new market for custom products — 3D printers have the potential to revolutionize the way you do business.

Prototyping

Many businesses start with one great idea for a product. But turning that idea into something tangible takes a lot of time and money — at least that was the case before the age of 3D printing.

Now, small and midsize businesses (SMBs) can create innovative products more quickly and affordably with the use of an in-house 3D printer.

"Traditionally, SMBs have outsourced their designs to service bureaus to get a prototype," said Bruce Bradshaw, director of marketing at 3D printing provider Stratasys. "While this allowed them to get a single prototype, they were constrained by the budget associated with the cost of outsourcing and by only using one or two parts during the design cycle."

But Bradshaw said 3D printers are changing all that by allowing businesses to keep creating prototypes until they're completely satisfied with the quality of the design. This shift in the process allows companies to create better products more quickly.

Speeding up the time it takes to get products to market is a huge deal for companies whose success hinges on constantly churning out new products.

Fishman Acoustics, a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of acoustic amplifiers for guitar makers around the world, is the perfect example of such a company.

Before Fishman started using a modern, in-house 3D printer, its prototypes were just brittle pieces of plastic that were difficult to market to clients. This equated to a lot of lost opportunities.

Now, the company uses one of Stratasys' Objet desktop 3D printers to create prototypes nearly as well-made as its finished products. These prototypes allow Fishman to demonstrate these products to its clients, test the functionality of its products and speed up the overall manufacturing process.

Manufacturing

Companies may not yet be able to manufacture all of their own products at the click of a button, but such a reality isn't as far-fetched as it may seem.

Stratasys' recent acquisition of MakerBot, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based producer of desktop 3D printers, could mean that even established industry players like Stratasys are coming to terms with the reality that 3D printing will soon be in the hands of even the smallest of businesses.

"Looking out 15 years, SMBs will likely use 3D printers as a way to eliminate the production line and its associated heavy investment in capital equipment to more effectively compete with larger manufacturers in their industries," said Bradshaw.

But not everyone thinks this process will take that long. Roger Chang, CEO of Pirate 3D, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup that recently raised over $1 million on Kickstarter, believes that businesses will only have to wait a few more months before they start riling up their larger competitors.

Pirate 3D's Buccaneer desktop 3D printer — touted as the most user-friendly consumer 3D printer ever created — is due out in December. At $347, the Buccaneer is by far the cheapest 3D printer on the market, which Chang believes is good for both his business and small businesses.

"Small businesses can buy a bunch of Buccaneers and have their own micro-factory set up," said Chang. "A 3D printer gives one the means of production that used to require multimillion-dollar factories. Now, anyone can simply invent a product and start producing it without having to go through expensive tooling and setup costs."

But not every business will need its own Buccaneer micro-factory to get finished products into the hands of consumers. If consumers have their own desktop 3D printers, they can simply print the finished products at home.

"Why bother with expensive manufacturing of your goods when you can just distribute the digital file instead?" Chang said.

Custom Products

Many 3D printers can now print objects with high-quality materials, like stainless steel, sterling silver, ceramics and a variety of plastics. This means that popular consumer products like jewelry, sunglasses and cellphone cases can be produced and customized with 3D-printing technology.

Instead of guessing what consumers want to buy, businesses can just let the customers tell them what to make.

"Take, for example, a sunglass company," said Bradshaw. "In the future, you will be able to design your own glasses online with all of the custom aesthetics and features you want. The sunglass manufacturer will print these directly from the 3D printer, including the lens and frames, with your specifications."

And this application of 3D printing extends beyond the world of fashionable accessories. Some businesses require custom-designed products, like Mackenzie's Chocolates, a confectioner in Santa Cruz, Calif., known for its array of molded chocolates. Mackenzie's uses a 3D printer to create these custom molds.

Brazil-based Tecnologia Humana 3D and Japan-based Fasotec are two more companies using custom 3D printing to bolster business. Both work with obstetricians, printing tiny models of babies in utero as keepsakes for expecting parents.

Image courtesy of Matt Westervelt