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dailybail · 3 years

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How to Do Quarterly Content Planning to 10x Content Output

Content planning is easily the most unenjoyable part of the entire content production and marketing process—just ask any digital marketer.

Yet, it’s an essential component of content marketing that can’t be ignored if you want to 10x your content output.

Not only will organization help you stay on top of things, but content planning helps improve the overall quality of your content. You should regularly review your content plan and look for ways to maximize your productivity—even on a shoestring budget.

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Remember, content plays a huge role in your business growth.

As a result, you must be deliberate and proactive about the type and quality of content you publish. Planning your content will help you provide real value to your audience, remain consistent in posting, and stay ahead of your workload for the month.

This will create more time to respond and engage with your target audience: the true goal of content marketing.

Review Last Quarter’s Content Metrics

A key part of creating a quarterly content plan is to review the previous quarter’s performance metrics for your social media, mailing list, and blog pages.

Check everything from traffic on your pages to direct social media engagement to click-throughs to your website. Analyzing your content this way will help you understand what kind of content your audience is looking for and what works best.

You’ll also be able to identify what hasn’t taken off and has been a waste of your marketing budget. This will help inform your content strategy moving forward.

To make this segment of your quarterly content planning more effective, design a way of keeping track of your content’s performance each quarter. You can use a spreadsheet or any other content-management tool that you find easiest.

Set Content Goals

Before you start planning the type of content you’ll publish, it’s essential that you first decide what you want to achieve with your content.

You should set goals for your content each and every quarter.

A few business goals you can achieve with your content include:

brand awareness

customer acquisition

sales

customer retention

engagement levels

When setting your quarterly content goals, it’s a good idea to use your previous quarter’s content performance as the benchmark for your next quarter’s content goals. It’s also an excellent idea to set SMART goals as this makes your goals easy to track and measure. For example, your goal could be a 20 percent increase in organic traffic in the next quarter.

Every content marketing campaign you run must be designed to accomplish specific goals that align with your future business plans.

Define Content Campaign Metrics

One of the biggest mistakes you can make with your content is spraying and praying—publishing content and hoping it will perform. Content doesn’t perform by chance. You have to be strategic about every component of your campaign.

That’s why you must define the metrics you’ll use to gauge the performance of your campaign. Defining your content campaign metrics will help ensure that every piece of content and every campaign is data-driven, thereby increasing the chances of success.

How do you define your content campaign metrics?

Easy. Your metrics should be tied to the content goals you set for the quarter. A few examples of the metrics you can use to review the performance of your content include:

Page views: This shows the number of unique visitors seeing your content.

Time on-page: This is the amount of time visitors spend on a particular page. If your content is relevant and engaging, time spent on the page will be higher.

Bounce rate: This is the percentage of website visitors that leave without performing a relevant action.

Social media shares and engagement: This metric indicates how much people find your content useful.

SEO performance: Check factors like page ranking, backlinks acquired, and the keywords the page is ranking for as indicators of SEO performance.

Newsletter signups and engagement: How readers engage with your newsletter shows the relevance of your content.

Defining your content campaign metrics will give you the perfect way to measure the success of each piece of content and the campaign as a whole.

Evaluate Your Content’s Target Audience

One critical aspect of your content plan is understanding the audience you’re targeting. If your targeting is off, your campaign will flop.

To ensure you’re targeting the right audience, you need to conduct audience research and build personas representing your ideal customer.

A few things to note as you research your target audience include:

Demographics: These are the physical attributes that members of your target audience have in common. Examples include geographical location, gender, age, and marital status.

Psychographics: Psychographic data refers to the general psychological makeup of members of your target audience. Examples include interests, aspirations, opinions, and more.

Firmographics: This mainly applies to B2B brands as it refers to the descriptive attributes that make up a brand’s ideal customer profile (ICP). Examples include industry, location, company size, customer base, and technology stack.

Using the data you obtain, you can then build profiles of your perfect customer.

Doing this will help you design the right messaging and create personalized experiences for your audience.

Besides understanding your audience, you should also seek to understand which stage of the funnel they are in. This will help you know which stage of the funnel to put more effort into as you create content for the next quarter.

Decide What Types of Content to Create

Another important element for creating a quarterly content plan that will 10x your output is knowing what type of content to create.

Different content types include:

social media

webinars

how-to guides

blog posts

infographics

memes/GIFs

videos (live stream videos, YouTube videos, TikTok, Instagram reels, etc.)

podcasts

email newsletters and campaigns

user generated content (UGC)

long form pieces

white papers

As you well know, making decisions (even concerning the smallest details of your life) can be challenging. Thankfully, a few factors will help you decide on the content types to focus on in the next quarter. These include your:

Target audience: Create the type of content they find valuable and engaging.

Sales funnel: Make sure to create content that caters to each stage of your sales funnel.

Competitors: Study your competitors and take note of the content types that are bringing them results. You can do this by checking out Ubersuggest, a free marketing tool.

You can also review your own content to check which types of content have worked well for you.

For now, here are some of the content types you can leverage in your content marketing campaigns:

1. Blog Posts

Easy to produce with the help of the right content writers, blog posts are among the most consumed types of content. They are also the easiest to rank in search engines as they provide many opportunities for SEO optimization.

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2. e-books

E-books are a type of long-form content in PDF or HTML formats. They are a great way of showcasing your expertise, thereby helping you gain your audience’s trust. Plus, they are great for earning passive income.

3. White Papers

White papers are informational documents that go in-depth to highlight a specific topic and how your product or service can help solve said problem. Their most prominent use is to help establish you as a thought leader. They’re also great for lead generation.

4. Case Studies

Another excellent type of content you can use to gain your audience’s trust is a case study. Case studies highlight a common problem your audience faces and how one of your customers used your solution to solve that problem.

5. Video Content

Video content has grown in popularity over the past few years thanks to its highly interactive nature. It’s a great way to drive engagement and easily convey your message.

6. Infographics

Infographics are a superb visual way of presenting information in an easy-to-digest format. They’re also great for driving engagement and attracting backlinks.

Review Your Content Budget

Now that you know the types of content you’ll create, you can start reviewing your content budget. You’ll have to work out how much you’re prepared to spend on:

content strategy

content creation

content promotion

As content marketing plays a huge role in the success of your business, you should set aside a healthy portion of your marketing budget for it.

How much should you budget for your content marketing?

The answer is largely dependent on several factors—including the types of content you plan on creating, the volume of publishing, and the size of your business. However, research shows that most brands spend anywhere from $5,000 to over $50,000 on content marketing. Marketing budgets in general should be between 7-12 percent of your total revenue.

Review Content Production Workflow

With the budget sorted, you can now start getting the gears of your content creation in motion.

It’s time to review your content production workflow.

A content workflow is a series of tasks that you and your team must perform to ensure that each piece of content is perfectly crafted and created on time. It also highlights who creates which parts of your content, such as writing, recording, editing, and graphic design.

A well-designed content production workflow ensures that your content creation runs smoothly and efficiently. That’s why, as you do your quarterly content planning, you must review how well your content workflow worked. Ask yourself:

Did your content production run smoothly?

What parts of the workflow do you feel need improvement?

As you review your content production workflow, take note of the parts of the process that you can automate. For example, you could streamline aspects of the process by creating templates that ensure uniformity in the quality of the deliverables.

Create a Content Promotional Plan

Most people make a mistake when it comes to content marketing. They think the process stops after hitting the publish button. You need to realize that content marketing has two critical stages: content production and content promotion. Writing content is only half the battle.

You also need to promote it. After hitting the publish button, you must aggressively promote your content. This can be via alternative content marketing platforms—e.g., sharing your blog posts on social media, or sending your LinkedIn article to your mailing list.

A few tips to help you create an effective content promotion plan include:

Understanding the platforms your audience frequents: Do they prefer to consume content on social media, blog posts, or YouTube?

Outlining what types of campaigns you’ll run: Examples include SEO, paid social ads, google ads, and email marketing.

Defining your content promotion KPIs: Doing so will help you track the performance of your campaign.

Creating a content promotion calendar: A content promotion calendar shows you which content to promote, on which platform, and on what day.

Design your content promotion plan in such a way that the day you launch a piece of content, you’re already prepared to start promoting it. Content promotion and distribution must start immediately after you publish a piece of content.

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Quarterly Content Plan Frequently Asked Questions

How can I increase my content production?

Content creation is a big challenge for many businesses. The best way to increase your content production is to plan ahead. That’s why you need to create a quarterly content production plan.

Are there any tools that can help increase content production?

There is a myriad of tools you can use to increase your content production. Examples include spreadsheets, Trello, Frase, Workflowy, Grammarly, and many more.

How often should I review my content production plan?

Reviewing your content production plan is an essential part of running a successful content marketing campaign. That’s why you must regularly review yours. For your quarterly content plan, a monthly review is best as it gives enough time to get enough data to help you have a clear picture of how your content is performing.

What should be included in my content production plan?

Your content production plan should include everything that can help you effectively produce quality content. This includes content research, workflows, creation, and promotion.

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Quarterly Content Plan Conclusion

Content marketing plays a significant role in the success of marketing your business.

For your content marketing campaigns to succeed, you need to plan your content ahead of time. You need to create a quarterly content plan that will help you 10x your content output—both qualitatively and quantitatively.

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Content planning has many advantages it brings to your content team and business overall. From speeding up the content creation process to improving content quality, you can engage your audience in new ways and maximize your marketing budget ROI.

Go ahead and use the tips outlined above to create your quarterly content plan.

What content planning tips have you found to be most helpful?

from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/3BTzXRL via https://neilpatel.com

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dailybail · 3 years

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These Pinterest Image Sizes Get Businesses 80% More Traffic

Pinterest is a great way to get your brand noticed online.

After all, the world’s 14th largest social network boasts around 454 million active monthly users.

Brands looking to boost performance on Pinterest should be keeping Pinterest image sizes in mind.

Certain image sizes are more likely to catch the eyes of Pinterest users, and it’s important to understand how size can impact Pinterest success.

The more attention you attract, the more potential web visitors you can convert.

To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of the best Pinterest image sizes for driving website traffic.

We’ll explore how different pins and sizing can impact traffic and how to use this information to boost your own Pinterest marketing.

What Are the Best Sizes for Pinterest Images for Your Business?

You can leverage many different kinds of pins on Pinterest, from static pins to video ads. Each type of pin has a recommended aspect ratio from Pinterest itself.

Generally, vertical pins should be 1000 x 1500 pixels, or a 2:3 aspect ratio. Pinterest does not recommend images smaller than 600 x 900 pixels.

Pinterest also has specific recommended sizes from their ads manager, so be sure to check those before running any Pinterest ads.

You’ll want to use the correct image sizing so your images fit well without getting cut off.

The image below represents pins that meet the 2:3 aspect ratio Pinterest recommends.

The best Pinterest image size for your business depends on several factors, including the type and messaging in your pin images.

That means you should always test and measure pin traffic and conversions to figure out what works best.

There are plenty of tools to help with this, including the Pinterest Business Analytics Dashboard, which has a custom pin size tool within it.

There are currently eight sizes to choose from when creating pins:

Let’s explore how and why these Pinterest image sizes are used and how they work to drive traffic to your site.

Pinterest Images: Static Pins

Static pins are the most basic type of Pinterest image. They feature only one image and a few sentences that link your pin to your website.

While they may be simple, static pins are very SEO-friendly because they offer concise, relevant keywords that search engines pick up on.

They also provide clear calls to action and direct users to your website with a clickable link in the pin description.

While you might think using multiple images in one pin would be more engaging for users, if the pinner doesn’t have time to read all of your content, they might keep scrolling.

For this reason, static pins can be a great way to get instant traffic from Pinterest directly to your site.

The best Pinterest image size for static pins is 2:3 or 1000 x 1500 pixels. Anything larger than this risks being cut off in user feeds. Static pins work best with PNG or JPEG files at a maximum of 10 MB.

To create a high-performing static pin, be sure to keep your image and text short.

Pinterest users are often scrolling through their feeds quickly, so it’s important to have a clear image with relevant text.

Pinterest Images: Infographic Pins

Infographic pins are vertical Pinterest images that are uniquely visual and encourage users to click through on your content.

Vertical pins perform best on Pinterest, which makes infographics a strong contender for driving traffic.

Infographic pins are also easy to share across social media platforms, bringing in new audiences for your business.

That said, some users argue infographic pins can negatively impact your search rankings, as they become truncated in search.

How they perform for you will depend on individual factors, so there’s no harm in testing them to see how they perform for you.

The best size for a Pinterest image infographic is 1000 x 3000 with a Pinterest Pin ratio of 1:3. Infographic pins should be no larger than 600 x 2400 pixels.

Let’s look at the different types of infographic pins, and how to use them effectively.

First up are standard infographics which often feature text overlaid on top of a graphic or image. Although they may seem like an obvious choice, not all businesses have strong visual content that works well in this format. Business coaches, influencers, and wellness brands tend to see the most traffic with these pins.

Another option is to use a more complex and detailed image, such as one that features different colors or shapes alongside the text. For example, a retail store could create a gift guide as a long form infographic.

Finally, if you want the most pin-worthy content possible for infographics, try making them interactive. Interactive content is more eye-catching and can encourage users to share your pin, driving more traffic to your site.

Pinterest Images: Square Pins

Square pins are great for sharing images from your Instagram feed.

The best Pinterest image size for square pins is a 1:1 aspect ratio or 1000 x 1000 pixels. The maximum image file size of a square pin should be 20 MB.

Square pins allow you to share compact images that are relevant to your brand aesthetic and easy to share.

Although some people claim square pins get less engagement, other users say their likes, impressions, and clicks have improved with square pins.

Studies have shown the average user spends less than five seconds on a Pinterest page, so it’s critical your images and pin descriptions are concise and effective.

A clear title makes it easier for users to understand what they’re clicking into or scrolling past.

Square pins are easy to view on most devices, which is why they’re a great fit for social media platforms like Pinterest.

Plus, square Pinterest images work well when you need users to click through or check out your website or blog content.

To see if square pins work for you, run some tests and judge the results for yourself!

Pinterest Images: Long Pins

Long pins are typically used for blog content or articles, where users can scroll to read the entire text.

Long pins are great when you need people to click through and engage with your website content.

Long pins should use a Pinterest Pin ratio of 1:2.1 or 1000 x 2100 pixels.

If your long pin exceeds this recommended size limit, it may be cut off in user feeds.

If your long pin cannot meet this length, don’t worry! You can help users stay engaged by centering any text before the truncated portion. Once they click the image, they’ll be able to see the rest of your content.

Long pins work best for businesses that have articles or blog posts to share. For example, if you own a hairdressing or beauty salon, you could pin an article about how to take care of your hair type.

Another great use for long pins is if you’re selling products online. You could share a link with several different images that sends users through to the product page.

This allows users to see different views or angles of the product, so they can make an informed decision about what to purchase.

Pinterest Images: Carousel Pins

Carousel pins are a great way to show a lot of information in one pin.

For example, if you’re selling jewellery online and have several rings for sale from the same collection, carousel pins allow you to include up to five images per pin/item that users can scroll through.

The best Pinterest image size for carousel pins is 1000 x 2000 pixels and should be no more than three images in length. As well, carousel pins can be shown in either standard Pin Size (2:3) or Square Pins (1:1).

Carousel pins allow you to showcase multiple images with a short text description below each image. These are perfect for businesses that showcase events, recipes, tutorials or other content people want to scroll through.

These Pinterest image pins can help drive people directly to your online store, as they can see exactly what you’re selling and buying right from the pin. This is a great way to generate sales!

Outerwear brand REI found that carousel ads using Pinterest carousel pins increased their click-through-rate by 32 percent.

5 Best Practices for Pinterest Images

There are a few things to keep in mind when creating your Pinterest images so you can drive as much traffic back to your site as possible.

1. Be Descriptive

Include descriptive text on the image itself, including hashtags and relevant keywords. This is one of the most powerful ways you can increase website traffic from each pin’s click-through rate, as it helps your Pinterest page connect to search results across the internet.

This will also ensure your pins are easy to find when people search on Pinterest.

2. Include the Right Links

Next, include a link in the pin’s image description so when someone clicks it they can be taken back to your site with ease. You can also use copy to encourage them to click through again by including more text about what they will see if they do.

3. Use High-Quality Images

If you’re linking to your store, be sure to use product pins with clear, high quality images. Link the pin to a specific product with an easy-to-understand description that encourages viewers to purchase there or visit your website for more information.

Ensure your logo is displayed on every pin you create, but make sure it’s visible. Pinterest recommends avoiding the lower right corner as that area gets covered up by product icons.

4. Include Alt Text on Pins

Be sure to add alt text to all your images. This will help improve the SEO of your website and let Pinterest know what each image is about.

You can also pin images directly from your website or blog by adding a “Pin it” button on the page. By doing this, you won’t have to upload and crop each image as they will be sized automatically for Pinterest image requirements. (This also allows users to pin your images, which expands your reach.)

5. Monitor Pin Performance

Lastly, monitor all of your pin impressions to see how you can improve your content. Different pins may bring in different results, so pay attention to what you pin to track how Pinterest impacts site traffic and conversions.

Frequently Asked Questions About Pinterest Images

What are the Pinterest post dimensions?

Different kinds of Pinterest images use different sizing, but Pinterest generally recommends a 2:3 aspect ratio, or 1000 x 1500 pixels limit.

What are the most popular pins on Pinterest?

The most popular pinned content on Pinterest is DIY and craft pins, entertainment, weddings, and holidays and events.

How do I drive traffic to my website on Pinterest?

There are many ways to drive traffic to your website from Pinterest which can include keyword targeting, proper Pinterest image sizing, applying for Rich Pins, and creating strong visual content.

Is Pinterest a good source of traffic?

Pinterest is one of the leading sources of traffic for bloggers, sometimes even beating out SEO.

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Pinterest Image Size Conclusion

When well optimized, Pinterest images can grow your audience and increase web traffic to your site.

By using the right Pinterest image sizes, optimizing your content, and tracking performance with Pinterest Analytics, you can transform your Pinterest page into a high-performing marketing tool.

Don’t forget to strengthen your Pinterest image strategy with strong SEO and impressive web design, to encourage new visitors to convert.

What Pinterest images work best for your brand?

from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/3vmXCYm via https://neilpatel.com

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dailybail · 3 years

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These Tactical Black Friday Ad Campaign Tips Can Increase Your Revenue 200%

There’s no better time than the Black Friday season to boost your sales. From product launches to store-wide promotions, businesses ramp up their sales and marketing efforts during this time to match the high customer demand.

Not sure where to start? Black Friday ad campaigns are one of the quickest way to drive revenue.

Do Black Friday Ad Campaigns Make a Difference?

Don’t dismiss Black Friday as just another e-commerce trend. Shoppers still spend as much as $9 billion on Black Friday deals in a given year. You can leverage this audience interest to improve your revenue by using effective Black Friday ad campaigns.

Here’s how.

Top 8 Black Friday Ad Campaign Tips

Follow these simple yet powerful strategies to build successful Black Friday ad campaigns.

1. Make Your Sales Specials Clear

How would people buy from you if they don’t know what you’re selling?

If you’re launching a Black Friday ad campaign, make your offers clear. For example, look at this ad by First Hotels.

The first word makes it clear what the offer is about. Then, the rest of the ad copy is written in simple language to draw attention to the Black Friday ad.

Here is another example from the Clash of Clans Twitter account.

How do you make sure your Black Friday ad campaign makes your offers clear and attractive?

Add the words Black Friday in a large, eye-catchy font.

Make it easy to understand with simple ad copy like in the Clash of Clans image.

Use striking visuals, animations, and popping elements to draw attention.

2. Research Which Platforms to Run Campaigns On

The best strategies for creating a Black Friday ad campaign vary from platform to platform. Research the popular ad campaign platforms beforehand to make the most out of your time, money, and efforts.

This way, you’ll know which platforms work best for your audience and for the type of content you want to post. It’ll also help you tailor your marketing strategies to the unique features offered by the platform.

For instance, here are some points you need to consider:

Do you want your Black Friday ad campaign to be visually engaging? Then use social media platforms like Instagram. This can be great for fashion and food brands.

Do you want to hold the audience’s attention via engaging text? Then use social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn. This can be great for magazines, SEO services, and other text-focused businesses.

Do you want to create an ad campaign with both text and images? Then use social media platforms like Facebook. This can be great for most industries, from small home-based business owners to worldwide franchise businesses.

Your marketing (or ad spend) budget should also be a major consideration when deciding which platform you’ll use for your Black Friday ad campaign.

I recommend comparing the prices of all social media and advertising platforms to see how much money you would need to get similar results on different platforms.

Not all results are replicable, but this will give you a rough idea of which platform can help you take your dollar the farthest.

3. Start Early to Benefit More

Don’t wait for the last day to launch your Black Friday ad campaign. Ad campaign fees can be higher during the holiday season, so it’s best to up your marketing game early on.

Here’s why it helps:

You can launch effective ad campaigns before your competition when there’s little to no bidding for similar products and services.

You save money by buying ads when they’re relatively cheaper.

You generate audience interest which can boost sales when your offers go live.

What’s the best way to start early?

First, plan what your Black Friday ads should contain well in advance. Use audience analysis (more on that below) to refine your plan further.

Second, use words like “upcoming,” “soon,” and “stay tuned” to build excitement and interest. Audience research is essential here too. If you’ve tried A/B testing with your frequent customers before, you’ll have the data to make informed decisions about the word choice and structure.

Finally, set an early launch date. Start your Black Friday ad campaign a few days before the average business would so you can leverage the lower competition time and attract audience attention.

Many businesses typically start advertising their Black Friday deals about a week in advance. However, I recommend considering the period around the first week of November to launch your Black Friday ad campaign.

4. Cash in on Cyber Monday

“BFCM” is a trending term around the Black Friday season. It stands for Black Friday Cyber Monday and refers to the time between the two days when most e-commerce stores offer massive deals.

Here’s an example of a Black Friday Cyber Monday ad by Pololu.

This strategy works because the audience is already in a shopping mode during this season, and receiving combined ads can help increase e-commerce interest.

Here are some things to keep in mind when designing a BFCM ad:

Highlight both Black Friday and Cyber Monday in your ad copy.

Keep the ad copy clear. Don’t clutter it with too much content and colors.

Make your offers clear. Are you offering discounts, deals, free trials, etc.?

5. Understand Your Audience

You can design the best Black Friday ad, but if it isn’t tailored to your audience, it’s not going to be very useful.

Think about it: You don’t want to show a bicycle ad to someone who only travels by car.

For instance, data shows Millennials spent the most money on Black Friday deals. It might be more effective to market your products and services to this demographic if relevant to your business model.

Here are some tips that will help you understand your audience and craft a compelling ad copy:

Get hyper-specific about your target customer. What do they like and dislike? What gets their attention?

Create a buyer persona to make sure you’re looking at the complete picture. You can use HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool to do this more effectively.

Get direct customer feedback through surveys and feedback forms. Here’s a simple but effective example from QuickTapSurvey.

Experiment with different wording to see what best resonates with your audience. Switch up the pronouns from “you” to “we” and vice versa. You can also try using completely different copy to see what works well, which brings me to the next point:

Try A/B testing with graphics, images, and headlines. A/B testing will give you live feedback on whether your strategies are working or not. It’ll also help you pinpoint the areas where your Black Friday ad campaign is lacking and how to improve it.

6. Target Your Ad Campaigns

Now that you understand your audience, it’s time to make sure your Black Friday ads are targeted to them.

Social media platforms like Facebook can be helpful for this. For example, Facebook offers a wide selection of targeting and retargeting options so you can truly narrow down the customers you want to reach.

Refer to your buyer persona and create specific ad campaigns to appeal to your target buyer. This will ensure you are reaching the right people without wasting a lot of money.

7. Offer Options to Recover Abandoned Carts

Often people will visit your e-commerce store, browse through your products, maybe add a few to the cart, but leave without buying. Research shows e-commerce brands lose $18 billion in sales revenue each year because of abandoned carts.

You can offer options to recover abandoned carts. Here’s how:

Understand and Change

First, start by understanding why people are abandoning the process midway. For example, is it the shipping fees? If so, can you offer discounted or free shipping for Black Friday?

Offer Better Deals

Sometimes customers want to buy the product, but they want to check out competitor products or simply wait for a discount. As an e-commerce business owner, you can use this to your advantage by offering Black Friday discounts and exclusive deals to such customers.

For example, look at the abandoned cart recovery email below, shared by TargetBay.

Emails like this serve three primary purposes:

It reminds customers to complete the transaction if they’ve forgotten it while browsing.

It establishes a sense of trust and loyalty because you’re sending targeted offers right into their inbox.

It gives you an edge over competitors who aren’t offering such deals.

8. Don’t Forget Basic Ad Campaign Optimization

Sometimes, in a quest to create a highly effective ad copy, marketers tend to overlook the basic ad campaign optimization strategies. Don’t be one of them.

To ensure you get the best results from your Black Friday ad campaign, be mindful of the nitty-gritty details. To make this easier, keep the following checklist handy:

Budget: What’s your budget for the Black Friday ad campaign? How can you effectively distribute it across different advertising and social media platforms?

Copy: Is your copy clear and easy to understand? Double and triple-check for spelling and grammar mistakes.

Platform features: Are you using all the relevant marketing features the platform you chose has to offer? For example, are you using the right targeting tools on Facebook? Is your Instagram ad campaign visually appealing?

Platform limits: Be careful about the platform limits like word count, number of characters visible, image display, and page position. This can mess up how your ad is seen if not done right.

Black Friday Ad Campaign Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about Black Friday Ad Campaigns.

Is building a Black Friday marketing plan a good idea?

Yes, Black Friday marketing is essential. E-commerce shoppers collectively spend billions during the Black Friday season, making it one of the most lucrative times to up your marketing game.

How should I pick the keywords I target for my Black Friday tactical ad campaigns?

To pick the right keywords for your Black Friday ad campaign, you can use keyword research tools like Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, and Moz. Studying your audience’s needs and consumption habits can also help you understand which Black Friday ad keywords will and won’t resonate.

When should my Black Friday ad campaign start?

If you want to make the most out of your marketing efforts, I recommend beginning early. Start teasing and promoting your offers at the beginning of November to build curiosity and excitement. Plus, it’s cheaper than starting closer to the event.

What are the top tips for ad campaigns for Black Friday 2021?

The top tips for ad campaigns for Black Friday 2021 include audience research, using targeting and retargeting techniques, cashing in on the Cyber Monday sales, and offering abandoned cart recovery deals.

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Tactical Black Friday Ad Campaign Tips Conclusion

Black Friday can be a huge opportunity to attract customer attention, build brand awareness and boost revenue.

It may sound a little intimidating at first, considering the scale of the event, but I hope the tips above help you outline an effective Black Friday ad campaign strategy.

If you’d like to learn more about audience research and ad targeting, check out my guides to find your target audience and powerful ways to improve your Facebook targeting.

Which strategy would you like to start with to ramp up your Black Friday ad campaign efforts?

from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/3j4JXjY via https://neilpatel.com

0 notes

dailybail · 3 years

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How to Use a Business Pinterest Account For Marketing and Brand Growth

If you still think Facebook and Twitter are the be-all and end-all of social media marketing tools, think again.

Say “Hi” to your business’s new best friend: business Pinterest accounts.

Eighty percent of Pinterest pins are repins, which means this is a platform that values sharable content. The average lifespan of a pin is three months which is much longer than Facebook which averages five to six hours, and Twitter which averages at 15-20 minutes..

Since Facebook purchased Instagram, Pinterest has become the hot ticket item for business marketing.

That’s for good reason. If an increase of 30% in Pinterest accounts over the last year isn’t an indication that your business should be joining over 250 million monthly active users, I don’t know what would be.

Aside from feeding obsessions with exotic destiny vacations and gourmet food, the real strength of Pinterest is the integrated features of its business accounts. Join the businesses with Pinterest for Business accounts, and you’ll get added marketing features to promote your brand on one of the fastest growing and insanely popular social media platforms.

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Perks of Pinterest Business Accounts

If you don’t have an account already, or if your account is personal, you’re going to need to sign up for an official Pinterest for Business account to tap into the full potential of Pinterest’s marketing potency. With your business account, you get:

They Offer Different Terms of Service

The terms of service are a little bit different for a business, so be sure to read through them. The difference comes from the fact that you are using the account commercially.

You’ve still got the same Acceptable Use Policy and Pin Etiquette Policy, but there are a few guidelines for commercial use:

Don’t promote spam, “such as asking participants to comment repeatedly.”

Don’t “run a sweepstake where each pin, repin, or like represents an entry [or] ask pinners to vote with a repin or like.”

Don’t run contests, sweepstakes or promotions “too often.”

Don’t “suggest that Pinterest sponsors or endorses” your business.

They Provide Educational Marketing Materials

Pinterest doesn’t just give you the platform, they create educational marketing materials to teach you how to maximize its effectiveness for marketing your business.

They offer:

Business resources: Tools, insights, guides on best practices to help creators make the most of Pinterest

Pinterest business community: A place where creators and business can support each other

You can also check out the Pinterest Blog to stay updated on when these materials will be out and get some basic tips.

You Get Access to Pinterest Analytics

Pinterest Analytics is one of the newest and most awesome features of a Pinterest for Business account. When you verify your account, you get access to important tracking information. You’ll be able to see which strategies and content work so you can constantly improve your marketing.

Rich Pins Loaded With More Information than Average Pins

There are five different types of Rich Pins, all loaded with more information than your average pin for serious sales power. They include real-time price and stock updates, direct links to your site, and interactive map locations. There will be more details on Rich Pin strategy later.

Access to Upcoming Tools and Features

Pinterest has promised some new tools exclusively to business accounts in the future. As of right now, that includes buyable pins for e-commerce, Promoted Pins, the Pin It Button, and the Widget Builder. As new tools are being added, you can stay updated by joining the Pinterest newsletter.

Different Settings

You get to use your business name instead of the typical First + Last Name formula. This means your Pinterest account won’t have an automatic link to your Facebook account, so you should add a Facebook tab to your Pinterest home page.

How to Create Popular Pins from Your Pinterest Business Account

Your pins can get engagement for your business if you execute them right.

Pinterest has been described by the Social Media Examiner as a visual search engine. Just like when you are writing your blog articles or posting on your business Instagram account, you want your content to be searchable.

If it’s not searchable, then it won’t be found or seen.

Therefore, before you grab that mouse to start pinning, you have to understand the Pinterest culture, AKA what your followers search for, and learn how to create popular pins.

1. Create Pins in Most Popular Categories

If you know what the most popular Pinterest categories are, then you’ll have a better idea of which boards will work for your business.

Most of Pinterest users, 71.1 percent to be exact, are female. Males users only account for 14.9 percent of the audience. Pinterest posts are categorized, so if your business doesn’t have anything to do with DIY crafts, then don’t have a board dedicated to the art of glue-gunning. Pick the most relevant popular ones!

2. Use Images that Work

One quick perusal of Pinterest and it’s clear how visual a site it is. With such an emphasis on visual impact, your images are the cornerstone of any pin you share.

What makes the top Pinterest pins so popular?

3. Use Optimal Pin Size

All pins have the same width, with an unlimited length. A good size to shoot for is 736×1102 pixels for a typical pin. It’s not too big, and not too small. Canva’s Pinterest template is this size and makes sizing your images a lot easier.

4. Use Instructographics

Sometimes it’s good to take advantage of the longer length allotment. The term “instructographic” was coined by Pinterest and it is another name for infographics. These are popular because of their DIY, how-to nature, which we know is popular on Pinterest.

How to Get Your Pins Seen and Shared: Optimizing Your Pins

It’s one thing to create a fantastic pin, but it’s a whole other game to get it seen and shared. No one is going to find your pin if you don’t optimize for engagement.

Know the Best Times to Pin

The best times to pin depend on your target audience’s habits, so you should always test for your specific optimal posting times. On average, the best times to post are 2 PM – 4 PM EST and 8 PM – 1 AM EST; and, research by HubSpot says Saturday morning is THE best time to post.

Make It Easy to Pin Content from Your Sites

Add a hovering Pin It button to any image on any of your sites or your phone app through Pinterest directly. If you use WordPress, there’s a Pinterest Pin It Hover button plugin.

These simple-to-integrate buttons direct your site visitors to either check out your Pinterest account or actually pin your site’s content on their own accounts. If you don’t have these buttons, there is little chance your site will bring ANY interaction with your Pinterest account.

Connect with Your Other Social Media Platforms

You don’t want to have to start over with followers when you create a new social media account. It’s super easy to connect your Instagram, Youtube and Etsy accounts to your Pinterest for Business account.

This will help you get more followers by tapping into the ones you already have on other platforms. It also will help spread your content across platforms so more eyeballs see it. It will add relevant buttons to your Pinterest account.

To connect your social media accounts:

Go to your “Settings” in the dropdown menu

Go to the “Claim” section

Connect your accounts by hitting the “Claim” button

Share Pins in Your Newsletter

Take the difficulty out of getting people to find your pins by sending the pins straight to them! Your newsletter is the perfect place to throw in a couple of your latest pins and direct subscribers to your Pinterest account. Try this:

“Our most popular pins from this week. Head on over to our Pinterest for even more!”

SEO for Pinterest

You have to use some SEO strategy to get your pins discovered by the eyes of your target audience. Don’t worry, it doesn’t take much to optimize your pins in regard to Pinterest searches. Just follow these steps:

Step 1: Research keywords. Try a tool like Google AdWords Keyword Planner to find popular keywords related to your business and your pins.

Step 2: Add your keyword/keywords to your pin titles.

Step 3: Add your keyword/keywords to your pin descriptions.

Step 4: Add your keyword/keywords to your pin image file names.

As with any SEO you use, make sure not to sound too “keywordy.” Don’t go too crazy and add three keywords to your title and descriptions like a robot would. Optimize and still sound human by simply adding a strong keyword within the right context.

Use a Call-to-Pin

In the same way you use a call-to-action in your ad copy, a call-to-pin will significantly increase the engagement of your pins. In your pin’s description, add a little something like:

“Repin to your own inspiration board.”

Engage to Build Relationships and Gain New Followers

Now that you know what kinds of pins are popular and how to get your pins seen, the next step in Pinterest marketing is to use your pins to build relationships with followers and influencers that will grow your reach.

As we all know, more reach = more success.

Knowing what users look for when following other accounts will allow you to give them what they want and, in turn, grow your following. A little mind-reading never hurt anyone.

The University of Minnesota’s Pinterest study found that the three main factors that Pinterest users take into consideration in the should-I-follow-or-not decision-making process are:

how many accounts you are following/are following you

how many pins you have

how many boards you have

To be on top of those factors and build relationships to grow your reach, you need to:

Post Frequently

To get more Pinterest followers, you should post between 5-30 new pins every day. Make sure you are not just repinning the content of others, but also pinning your own unique pins with your own content.

Warning! Avoid a major Pinterest faux pas: don’t pin all 30 new pins within 5 minutes. Spread your pinning throughout the day.

Tip! You can schedule pins with a business account.

Engage with Followers, Reply to Comments

Just like you respond to tweets, Facebook posts, and Instagram comments, engage with your followers directly by answering their questions and responding to their comments. Go the extra mile and address them directly, using their names to really take your customer service to the next level.

Comment on Your Followers’ Pins

Engagement is a two-way street. You need to reach out to your followers’ boards as well. Leave comments on their pins so they’ll feel some love. Their followers will see your brand, too!

Follow and Engage with Popular Boards

The best way to see a successful Pinterest strategy in action is to follow and engage with popular boards. You can learn a lot from the big dogs. See what kinds of pins they pin, what kinds of boards they have, and how much engaging they do. Your goal is to get on that level!

If you are commenting on these popular pins, your brand name will be seen by the huge number of people who follow those boards.

Tip! It’s a good idea to follow popular boards because they are relevant to your industry and business as opposed to “just because” they are the most popular. If your business has literally nothing to do with wedding fashion, you can do yourself a favor and follow the boards that have a following closer to yours. Those are the people you want to connect with anyway.

Invite Others to Pin on Your Boards with Open Boards

Another cool board feature for marketing is the Open Board, which allows users to contribute their own pins. All you have to do is give them pinning access by adding their name or email. You, as the creator, of course, have full veto power, and your contributors aren’t able to change the board name or description.

This feature is great for marketing because you get your community involved in a personal way.

Invite your followers and get big authority brownie points if you can get industry experts and leaders to contribute to your boards!

Case Study: Women’s Health Magazine

Women’s Health Magazine created an open board called “Vision 21” where their followers pin their goals and visions. It promotes fan interaction and the brand at the same time! Talk about win-win.

Build Influencer Relationships

Reach a wider audience and gain more followers by reaching out to influencers in your field.

Start by following their boards, repinning their pins, and leaving engaging comments on their pins. Once you’ve dropped your name that way, you can initiate a bigger collaboration.

Ask if they will post on a board of yours, or offer to contribute to one of their boards. Offer ideas for their boards and show that you are familiar with their content when initiating collaboration, and you’ll be closer to that “yes” you’re looking for.

Case Study: Mejuri

Mejuri set themselves up for some great collaboration with their board dedicated to their community with the #thefinecrew. The Fine Crew board showcases their products worn by their community. Small influencers and brand partners are featured in Mejuri’s Instagram and Pinterest making it a great opportunity for cross-promotion.

Find Friends from Other Social Media Platforms

You know that when you create a new account with Instagram or another social media platform, they ask if you want to “Find Friends” using your phone’s contacts or Facebook friends.

Well, to save time and get a solid starting foundation of followers, Pinterest allows you to search for existing accounts.

How to Promote Your Brand Successfully: Business Pinterest Account Strategies

Integrate Rich Pins

My friends, I would like to introduce you to Rich Pins. Trust me, they have earned their name.You’ll see the big brands like Target and Wal-Mart taking advantage of Rich Pins,and, you should, too!

I’m not guaranteeing that you will be rolling in a pile of Benjamins with just a couple of Rich Pins, but there is a reason they are called “Rich Pins.” They are full of valuable, traffic-generating information; and, right now, they are the best direct strategy for growing your sales in the Pinterest sphere.

Rich Pins come in 3 different flavors: recipe, article, and product, all fully loaded with their own set of valuable features that will boost your engagement and direct traffic to your site.

Perks of Rich Pins

When you apply for Rich Pins, you’ll get real-time information automatically updated on your pins and more ways to direct people to your site because your site will be linked to your Rich Pins. No hassle, no fuss. Just leads.

This example, from Urban Outfitters, shows the features of a “product” pin at work. You’ve got an official link to the store’s site, as well as updated live price and stock availability information.

“Article” pins are also valuable in that they can promote your blog posts and direct Pinterest users to your blog. Article pins come with a larger title with your brand’s logo, a description, and a call-to-action at the bottom with a direct link to your original site.

How to Integrate Rich Pins

For any of your Rich Pins to have even the potential to direct traffic to your site, you need to get them validated on the Pinterest site itself. (If you aren’t the most tech-savvy, you’ll probably want some help from your web developer…it involves meta tags.)Here’s how to do it:

Go to this page

Decide what kind of Rich Pin (product, recipe, or article) you want to apply for

Read the documentation for your Rich Pin type

Add the appropriate meta tags to your site

Validate your Rich Pins and apply to get them approved

Once your Rich Pins are approved by Pinterest, they will be out there for the entire Pinterest world to see, to repin, and to be directed to your site.

I’m not telling you that you should think about using Rich Pins because it would help your business. I’m telling you that you NEED Rich Pins if you want to keep up in the crazy social media marketing world.

The Fortune 500 companies are all using Rich Pins. Follow the big boys, and you’ll have the potential for some serious growth.

Mix Up Your Content

The rule for all social media is to mix up your content. You will lose the interest of your followers and lose your chances of gaining any new ones if your content is static and not diverse enough.

Please, whatever you do, don’t just post product photos. Do you remember that study done by The University of Minnesota? Well, the diversity of pins was the 8th most important factor when users were deciding whether to follow an account. Throw in some other boards that give your followers added value to avoid coming off as overly salesy.

Case Study: Benefit Cosmetics

The official Benefit Cosmetics Pinterest does a great job of mixing up their content without stepping outside their niche. They have boards dedicated to their latest and hottest products, like “POREfessional Fam” and “Hoola Fam,” but also have a board just for “Behind-the-scenes at Benefit.”

All of these boards relate to their cosmetic products; but, by giving “A PINK me-up for you!,” they aren’t just saying “buy our makeup,” but “see how our makeup can help you.”

Include a Direct Link to Your Site

Not all of your pins are going to make sense as Rich Pins. (Product photos, events, and articles benefit from the added information provided with Rich Pins, but not all of your content will.)

It’s all about context.

When you are pinning images to your “brand inspiration” board, you don’t need Rich Pins. Relevant quotes to your business definitely wouldn’t call for a Rich Pin.

There is one piece of information that comes with Rich Pins that your other “simpler” pins need, too: a direct link to your site.

Even your inspirational pins need a link to your site because if one quote you posted last Tuesday changed one of your followers’ lives, they likely will want to check out your brand. If you have a link to take them to your site, they don’t have to go searching for information, and you increase the chances of them finding your site.

Simply include the link in your pin description, and you’re good to go.

Put Your Most Popular Boards on Top

Over time, you’ll be able to see which boards are more popular and get more engagement. Put your best foot forward and move these boards to the top of your page so when users come to your page, they will see your best material.

Keep It Seasonal and Relevant

Another way to keep your content fresh is to piggyback off of holidays, seasons, and events. Like the Benefit Cosmetics’ss “Holiday Glam: LEAF x Benefit,” the more specific boards add more relevancy and catch attention because they make those products even more specific and create a sense of urgency. Take advantage of that!

Create a Board Just for Blog Posts

Grab all those article Rich Pins you have, and organize them into their very own board! You’ll want to put this board at the top of your page so your followers will see it first thing. This will help draw traffic to your site and make it easier for users to find your content since it’s all in one easy-to-find-board. They will thank you.

Track Your Success and Learn the Strategies that Work with Pinterest Analytics

One of the newest features on Pinterest for Business is the super helpful Pinterest Analytics. This feature is only for business accounts and allows you to see:

Which pins and boards from your profile people love most

What people like to save from your website

Who your Pinterest audience is, including their gender, location, and other interests

Which devices people use when they’re pinning your stuff

How adding the Pin It button to your website leads to referral traffic from Pinterest

Why are these statistics important to you?

Because they will help your account and your reach grow.

The information gained from your Pinterest Analytics shows you which strategies work and which ones don’t. Knowing this, you will be able to build your future Pinterest strategy based on hard facts. The strategies that work are proven because you proved them.

To get access to your Pinterest Analytics, you’re going to need to verify your website first.

There is another reason verifying your account is a good idea. It will help you gain authority and build trust. When Pinterest users see that little globe icon with a checkmark next to your website, they know you’re legit.

You can verify your website in the settings section by adding a meta tag. This will give you a verification badge, and you’ll be official. If you choose not to verify your site, you can still include a link to your site on your page, but you won’t be able to use Pinterest Analytics.

Don’t miss out on the crucial information Pinterest Analytics will give you. Verify your account!

How to Start Using Pinterest for Business to Improve Your Visibility and Promote Your Brand Right Now

I just threw a lot of information at you, I know. Don’t feel overwhelmed. The aspects of this guide are all totally necessary and can be broken down easily.

Just to quickly recap…

Your Pinterest for Business account comes with a ton of marketing power that’s completely different from a personal account. To tap into that power, you need to:

Create popular images that are:

bright

crisp

high quality

736×1102 pixels

infographics

in popular categories

Get your pins seen by:

pinning from 2 PM – 4 PM EST and 8 PM -1 AM EST

using keywords in pin titles, descriptions, and image file names

linking to your other social media platforms

adding the Pin It hover button and Pinterest widget to your sites

sending your pins in newsletters

adding a call-to-pin in your pin descriptions

Engage with followers and influencers to grow your reach by:

pinning up to 30 times per day

responding to follower comments

commenting on follower pins

following popular boards and commenting

inviting followers and influencers to pin on your boards

building influencer relationships

using “find friends” from Twitter and Facebook

Promote your brand successfully with:

Rich Pins

direct site links in descriptions

a variety of content: seasonal and relevant

your most popular boards at the top

a board dedicated just to your blog posts

Use the information from Pinterest Analytics to create a more successful future strategy

If you follow the strategies here and learn from the engagement you get, your Pinterest for Business account will continue to develop for the better, attract more of your target audience, and direct people to your site.

Happy Pinning!

Frequently Asked Questions About Business Pinterest Accounts

What is a business account on Pinterest?

A business account on Pinterest is an account that gives users special access to features like analytics, pin scheduling, and business resources.

What is the difference between a personal account and a business account on Pinterest?

A personal account on Pinterest is just for casual use. You have access to create pins, boards, and Secret boards, but with a business account, you will have access to analytics, scheduling, and other resources. You will also have different terms and policies to comply with. Pinterest for Business was made to give you insight on your Pinterest so you can actively grow.

Are business accounts on Pinterest free?

Yes, Pinterest for Business is free to access. Anyone can sign up for an account or you can convert an existing personal account into a business account.

How do I make popular Pinterest pins?

Pinterest favors vertical posts, so vertical design will help push your pins. Also, as a visual platform, strong imagery and videos are a huge plus for you. Adding text as an overlay can also give users context about your post. Instructional content and infographics are very popular on Pinterest.

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Business Pinterest Account For Marketing and Brand Growth Conclusion

Social media marketing is crucial to building brand awareness and steady relationships with customers. Pinterest is one channel that can help you do the same thing for your business. As a visual platform, it stands out because it acts like a visual search engine tailored to user interests. With the right strategy, Pinterest can improve your SEO, your customer outreach and help your business gain new fans.

How will you use a Pinterest business account to amplify your marketing?

from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/36nv6sM via https://neilpatel.com

0 notes

dailybail · 3 years

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How to Increase B2B Sales 150% During a Slow Q4

It’s Q4, and the pressure is on.

You have three months left to hit your sales targets and end the year on a high note.

The only problem?

Your sales pipeline is dry. No one is signing up for your offers, and your forecast looks bleak.

Luckily, not all hope is lost.

I’ve compiled some of my top strategies which will help you increase B2B sales and smash your Q4 targets. Not only have these tips helped grow my agency, but these are tried-and-true methods we use for our clients as well.

Let’s dive in and open the B2B sales flood gates.

10 Ways to Increase B2B Sales

Whether you’re an SME or a massive conglomerate, you can use these strategies to increase your sales and give your Q4 pipeline a kick in the direction.

1. Leverage Social Selling

Still not sold on the buying power of social media? You’re leaving money on the table.

Fifty-four percent of social media users research products on different platforms.

Seventy-one percent of users will make a purchase based on social media referrals.

Seventy-seven percent will choose a brand over a competitor after a positive social media experience.

What is social selling? It’s the process of finding and engaging with your potential customers online.

Every time you log into Instagram and reply to a DM or share an article on LinkedIn, you’re providing value and social selling. It’s a much softer approach than cold emailing and focuses more on building long-term, authentic relationships than traditional sales techniques.

How can you leverage social selling?

Position your brand as the go-to industry expert: Use content marketing to answer your prospect’s most pressing questions and lead them down your marketing funnel.

Share case studies and testimonials: Social proof is a driving factor for online purchases. Use your results to prove you’re the best and develop a deeper know, like, and trust factor with your audience.

Focus on engagement: Instead of spending all your time creating content, focus on building relationships. Reply to all your DMs, jump into conversations in LinkedIn groups, follow your ideal customers, and engage with their content.

Talk about your transformation: Businesses and people buy transformations, not features. When talking about your product or service online, focus on the result someone gets from working with you.

2. Support Your Sales Team

If there is one thing that can ruin a potential sale, it’s bad sales rep interactions.

Whether it’s someone dropping the ball and ignoring an email for weeks, or a dumpster fire cold email, it can quickly tank your brand’s rep and Q4 income goals.

How do you prevent a sales mishap?

By training your team.

People buy from people they know, like, and trust. Your sales reps need the tools to figure out how to develop a rapport and close the sale.

For a successful Q4, make sure your sales training includes:

Scripts for people to fall back on and avoid awkward silences or sounding unsure.

How to overcome common objections and communicate your brand’s results.

Strategies for finding leads and moving each one along the buyer’s journey.

Remember, the better trained your sales team, the quicker you’ll get to your 150% Q4 sales target.

3. Cash in on the Holidays

The holidays are a gold mine for increasing your B2B sales. With the right strategy in place, you can scoop up some of the disposable income people have during these months.

Here are some ideas to get the ball rolling:

Use expiring bonuses: This works well for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Each day, remove one bonus to create a sense of urgency and FOMO (fear of missing out).

Increase the price: Start with your lowest price for an offer, and slowly increase it each day.

Create an exclusive offer: Put together a new product, service, or package for the holiday season. You can add a sense of urgency by telling your audience it’s only available for the holidays.

Offer free shipping or a discount: Cash in on the psychology of free stuff to lure in more sales. Getting something for nothing is a powerful emotional trigger known as the “zero price effect” and it’s extremely hard to resist.

4. Ask Existing Clients for Referrals

Referrals are the backbone of any business.

Why?

It’s the easiest sale you can get.

Unlike a cold pitch where you have to establish trust before someone gives you a yes, referrals are warm leads. The person already trusts your brand and is ready to give you their money because the personal recommendation came from a friend, family member, or colleague.

It’s one of the reasons why influencer marketing is dominating the online space. Brands are paying for the endorsement and trust the content creator has with their audience, which has more sway than a random ad in the newspaper.

How do you get more referrals? Create a referral program.

You reward your biggest fans for doing the hard work for you: finding quality niche-specific leads that usually lead to sales.

5. Don’t Neglect Cold Calling or Emailing

Cold calling (or emailing) is not dead.

It’s very much alive and kicking and one of the best ways to increase B2B sales for Q4.

However, there is a catch.

Cold outreach is only effective if done correctly.

If you’re mass spamming everyone and anyone with no real strategy, you’re not going to see any results.

Why?

No one likes to waft through irrelevant pitches. You’ll earn brownie points by taking the time to identify a problem you can solve and presenting a solution in a format that feels tailored, not mass-produced.

6. Use Paid Ads to Increase Leads

Not using paid ads yet?

With more people online than ever before and 80.76 percent of the global population owning a smartphone, it’s time to dip your feet into this gold mine.

By honing in on the keywords your audience uses to find solutions to the problem you solve, you can increase B2B sales while you sleep.

If that’s not enough to get you opening up a Google AdWords account, this will:

PPC ads yield 50 percent more conversions than organic advertising.

Google ads can increase brand awareness by 80 percent.

Paid ads have a 200 percent ROI rate.

The results are equally impressive on social media. The Content Marketing Institute found B2B paid advertising increased to 83 percent, with LinkedIn ads dominating the pack.

Of all paid distribution channels, paid social media ranked second in producing results, with SEM taking first place.

7. Create a List of Potential Clients

The best strategy for increasing B2B sales? Knowing exactly who you want to target.

Before diving into any of the other tips in this post, get clear on who you want to convert into paying customers.

It’s the foundation of your game plan. Without it, you’re only wishing for a result instead of making it happen.

How do you make a list of potential clients? Answer these questions:

How many employees does your dream client have?

How much does the business make in annual revenue?

What is the niche problem you solve?

The more specific you get here, the better chance you’ll increase your B2B sales during a slow Q4.

Once you have those answers, you can use tools like LinkedIn or Angelist to find companies that match your dream client description.

8. Develop a Strong Email Marketing Strategy

Almost every couple of years, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter goes down, and influencers, business owners, and users start spiraling.

It’s a harsh reminder that any of the apps you’ve spent hours on growing a community can vanish with a click of a button.

That’s why it’s crucial you get your followers onto a platform you can control, like email marketing. Not only will you always have access to your list (unless someone unsubscribes), but it’s profitable.

According to OptinMonster, email marketing generates $44 for every $1 spent. That’s a mindblowing 4400 percent ROI, making it one of the best ways to increase B2B sales.

Start your Q4 off strong and warm up your list with a strong email marketing strategy.

Don’t have a list? Use the next three months to grow one with email opt-ins like:

e-books

cheatsheets

checklists

industry reports

9. Prioritize Video Content

Video marketing is here, and it’s disrupting the industry, but what makes it so successful?

After all, isn’t it faster to scan a few lines of a blog post (like you’re doing right now) than sit through an entire 10-minute video?

While videos do require a bigger time commitment, customers still prefer it to text, and it has a plethora of business benefits.

Viewers retain 95 percent of a video message.

Seventy-eight percent of marketers say video content increases sales.

YouTube is the #1 platform that affects consumer behavior.

Video increases site traffic and dwell time on pages.

Online shoppers are 1.8x more likely to convert after watching a demo video.

With Instagram trying to compete with TikTok, the platform is working hard to gain market share.

The result? Instagram Reels has high engagement, and the algorithm prioritizes it above photo posts. In fact, Instagram came out and said it’s a video-sharing platform, not a photo-sharing app.

The takeaway: There’s no better time to add videos to your content marketing mix and use it to increase your B2B sales. Start a YouTube channel, develop a Reels strategy, or embed videos on your website.

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10. Use Case Studies to Increase B2B Sales

Selling to B2B is a little different from B2C.

For one, there’s usually more than one person involved in the decision process. If you want a resounding yes from everyone involved, you need to show how your product or service delivers value.

One of the most powerful marketing tools you can use to illustrate this is case studies. This piece of content is typically used near the end of the consideration and early decision stage of the buyer’s journey. It can help sway business your way when a prospect is deciding between two possible solutions.

With 81 percent of people trusting friends or family over a business, a case study helps you leverage an outsider’s perspective in your favor.

Even though you’re creating the content, it’s about how one of your customers achieved a specific result and what someone can expect from working with you.

It’s that all-important social proof we spoke about earlier, and it can go a long way in driving more B2B sales in Q4.

Frequently Asked Questions About Increasing B2B Sales

What is a B2B strategy?

A B2B strategy is a marketing strategy employed by a company that sells products or services to other businesses instead of individuals.

What are the four types of B2B marketing?

There are four types of B2B marketing: producers, resellers, governments, and institutions.

What is the B2B selling process?

The B2B selling process is a business’s steps to market and sell its services or products to another business.

What does B2B mean in sales?

B2B stands for business-to-business. It happens when a business transaction takes place between two companies. For example, one company will buy raw materials from another to make their final product.

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Increase B2B Sales Conclusion

While the world of B2B sales has changed a lot over the last 10 years, you have a whole host of new tools at your disposal. Instead of resisting social selling or the rise of video content, embrace it, and use it to increase your B2B sales for Q4.

Remember, the more proactive you are with your strategies, the bigger your competitive edge. Keep experimenting with your sales strategies and stick with the ones which give you the results you want.

Which of these strategies are you going to use to increase B2B sales in Q4?

from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/3mSnjw1 via https://neilpatel.com

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dailybail · 3 years

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How to Get Useful Data From Losing and Inconclusive A/B Tests

A/B testing is crucial to developing a robust digital marketing strategy. However, not all tests result in valuable data.

What do you do if a variation you thought would rock ends up flopping? Or what if your test results are inconclusive?

Don’t throw in the towel just yet!

There’s a ton you can do with inconclusive or losing A/B testing data. We’re going to cover how to put that information to good use—but first, let’s cover why A/B testing matters in digital marketing.

Why A/B Testing Is Crucial to Digital Marketing Success

A/B testing helps marketers understand the impact of optimization methods. For example, it can show how changing an ad headline impacts conversions or whether using questions in titles drives more traffic.

A/B testing provides hard data to back up your optimization techniques. This allows marketers to make better business decisions because they aren’t just guessing at what drives ROI. Instead, they’re making decisions based on how specific changes impact traffic, sales, and ROI.

How Do I Know If I Have a Losing or Inconclusive A/B Test?

After running an A/B test, you’ll see the results in your own data dashboard (such as Google Analytics) or in the testing tool you use.

Optimizely, a popular A/B testing platform, provides data in an experiment results page, which tracks each variation, number of visitors, how many people completed a specific action, revenue, and other metrics.

The example above shows variation number one had fewer visitors but drove 5 percent more revenue, making it a clear winner.

Other times, the numbers might be much closer. An inconclusive test might mean the numbers are less than a percent off, or neither variation got any traffic at all.

When your tests don’t have enough data or if the numbers are too close, they are considered inconclusive or statistically insignificant.

Then, use these tips to make the most of your data.

6 Ways to Leverage Data From Losing or Inconclusive A/B Testing

You’ve run your A/B tests and are excited to get the results. Then, something unexpected happens: The variation you expected to win performs worse! Or you find the variations don’t actually impact the metrics you are tracking at all.

Now what? Don’t assume your test failed. There are plenty of steps you can take to leverage that data.

Try Something Really Different

Inconclusive test results could mean your variations are too close. A/B testing can help you see if a small change (like using red versus green buttons) impacts conversions, but sometimes those tiny tweaks don’t have much impact at all.

Remember that you may need to run the test with several similar variations to see what caused the change.

Rather than getting discouraged, consider it an opportunity to try something totally different. For example, change the page layout, add a different image or take one away, or completely revamp your ad, asset, or CTA.

Analyze Different Traffic Segments

So, your A/B test came back with almost identical results. Does that mean nothing changed? Maybe not. Rather than looking at all the data, try segmenting the audience to see if different people responded differently.

For example, you might compare data for:

new versus returning customers

buyers versus prospects

specific pages visited

devices used

demographic variations

locations or languages

Overall, your test might be inconclusive. However, you might find specific segments of your audience respond better to certain formats, colors, or wording.

You can use that information to segment ads more appropriately or create more personalized ads or content.

Look Beyond Your Core Metrics

Conversions matter, but they aren’t everything. You might have hidden data in your losing test results.

For example, you might find conversions were low, but visitors clicked to view your blog or stayed on the page longer.

Sure, you may rather have sales. However, if visitors are going to read your blog it means you’ve connected with them somehow. How can you use that information to improve the buying process?

Say you run two variations of an ad. If one variation drives massive traffic, and 30 percent of visitors from that variation convert, this could mean more revenue. Obviously the winner, right?

Not necessarily. Take a glance at your “losing” ad to see if it drove less traffic but had higher conversions, for instance. If you’d only been looking at traffic and outright revenue, you might not have noticed the second ad works better statistically, if not in rough numbers.

Now, you can dig into the data to find out why it drove less traffic and use that to improve your next set of ads.

Remove Junk Data

Sometimes tests are inconclusive not because your variations were terrible or your testing was flawed, but because there’s a bunch of junk data skewing your results. Getting rid of junk data can help you see trends more clearly and drill down to find crucial trends.

Here are a few ways to clean up junk data so you can get a clearer understanding of your results:

Get rid of bot traffic.

If you have access to IP addresses, remove any from your company IP address.

Remove competitor traffic, if possible.

Also, make sure to double-check tracking tools you use, such as URL parameters, work correctly. Failure to properly track testing can skew the results. Then, verify that sign-up forms, links, and anything else that could affect your data are in working order.

Look for Biases and Get Rid of Them

Biases are external factors impacting the results of your test.

For example, suppose you wanted to survey your audience, but the link only worked on a desktop computer. In that case, you’d have a sample bias, as only people with a desktop will respond. No mobile users allowed.

The same biases can impact A/B tests. While you can’t get rid of them entirely, you can analyze data to minimize their impact.

Start by looking for factors that could have impacted your test. For example:

Did you run a promotion?

Was it during a traditionally busy or slow season in your industry?

Did a competitor’s launch impact your tests?

Then, look for ways to separate your results from those impacts. If you can’t figure out what went wrong, try rerunning the test.

Also, take a look at how your test was run. For example, did you randomize who saw which versions? Was one version mobile-optimized while the other wasn’t? While you can’t correct these issues with the current data set, you can improve your next A/B test.

Run Your A/B Tests Again

A/B testing is not a one-and-done test. The goal of A/B testing is to continuously improve your site’s performance, ads, or content. The only way to constantly improve is to continually test.

Once you’ve completed one test and determined a winner (or determined there was no winner!), it’s time to test again. Try to avoid testing multiple changes simultaneously (called multivariate testing), as this makes it hard to see which change impacted your results.

Instead, run changes one at a time. For example, you might run one A/B test to find the best headline, another to find the best image, and a third to find the best offer.

youtube

Losing and Inconclusive A/B Testing: Frequently Asked Questions

We’ve covered what to do when you have losing or inconclusive A/B testing results, but you might still have questions. Here are answers to the most commonly asked questions about A/B testing.

What is A/B testing?

A/B testing shows different visitors different versions of the same online asset, such as an ad, social media post, website banner, hero image, landing page, or CTA button. The goal is to better understand which version results in more conversions, ROI, sales, or other metrics important to your business.

What does an inconclusive A/B test mean?

It can mean several things. For example, it might mean you don’t have enough data, your test didn’t run long enough, your variations were too similar, or you need to look at the data more closely.

What is the purpose of an A/B test?

The purpose of an A/B test is to see which version of an ad, website, content, landing page, or other digital asset performs better than another. Digital marketers use A/B testing to optimize their digital marketing strategies.

Are A/B tests better than multivariate tests?

One is not better than the other because A/B and multivariate tests serve different purposes. A/B tests are used to test small changes, such as the color of a CTA button or a subheading. Meanwhile, multivariate tests compare multiple variables and provide information about how the changes interact with each other.

For example, you might use multivariate testing to see if changing the entire layout of a landing page impacts conversions and which changes impact conversion the most.

What are the best A/B testing tools?

There are a wide range of testing tools based on your needs and the platform you use. Google offers a free A/B testing tool called Google Optimize. Paid A/B tools include Optimizely, VWO, Adobe Target, and AB Tasty.

You may also be able to run A/B tests using WordPress plugins, your website platform, or marketing tools like HubSpot.

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Conclusion: Make the Most of Losing or Inconclusive A/B Testing

A/B testing is crucial to the success of your online marketing strategy. Whether you focus on SEO, social media, content marketing, or paid ads, you need A/B testing to understand which strategies drive results.

Every A/B test is valuable—whether your new variation wins, loses, or is inconclusive, there is important data in every test result. The steps above will help you better understand your A/B testing results so you can make changes with confidence.

Have you used losing or inconclusive A/B testing before? What insights have you gathered?

from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/3v6aaTO via https://neilpatel.com

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dailybail · 3 years

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10 Google Secrets You’ll Want to Know

Do you consider yourself a Google expert? Think you know all the ins and outs of the search behemoth?

If you answered yes to either of those questions, you might be in for a surprise.

Google contains myriads. The search giant constantly evolves its algorithms and offerings, from secret search functions to in-house SEO guides.

Read on to learn more about Google’s secrets.

1. Google Has Advanced Search Functions: Boolean Operators

We’re all incredibly familiar with the Google search bar, given that 84 percent of us admit to searching Google at least three times a day. However, the search engine also comes equipped with some pretty cool, advanced search functions many don’t know about. These built-tools range from a hashtag search function guides that enable users to optimize for search engine optimization (SEO) and everything in between.

Below, we break down the four most useful secret Google search functions so you can start mastering these secret tricks.

Search for Similar Google Results With Related

Adding “related:” to your search terms lets you include similar or identical topics. This can be beneficial in broadening your search but allow you to keep the results in the same thematic area.

This search feature can aid online business owners or marketers in identifying competitors. By assessing business type, content, and category, Google can show vendors offering similar products and services. This often makes research into competitor search ranking, social strategy, and other marketing functionality easier.

Searching Social Media Profiles and Mentions With Google

With over 49 percent of the global population using social media, it’s safe to say there’s an overwhelming amount of profiles to sort through.

With the social media search Google secret, you can use the @ symbol followed by the handle of an account. Google will compile results for that user, including web pages and tweets.

You can also narrow your search by typing those terms followed by the site you want to search, like Twitter. This could show you the person’s account, mentions of their account, and accounts using similar handles or owned by people with the same actual name.

This can help you isolate mentions of competitors or brands you want to explore further.

Use Google to Search for Hashtags

Much like the above @ function, you can find much more than profiles with Google search functions.

Use the # symbol to aggregate hashtag results, including the social presence associated with the words or phrases.

For example, if you search #digitalmarketing and change the search date to the past 24 hours under “Tools,” you’ll see the most recent posts across social media that discuss digital marketing.

If you want a tight lens, change the result type to verbatim using quotation marks—”#digitalmarketing”—to exclusively see the use of the hashtag.

This search functionality lets marketers see which keywords align with your brand’s message while simultaneously investigating how competitors use social media.

Google Lets You Access a Site’s Cache

From identifying how frequently your site is crawled to relaying information about a page that’s currently down, you can learn a lot from caches.

To access the saved copy of a website, simply use the cache: search command before a site’s URL.

You can view the most recent version of a site within the cache copy, so don’t expect to find a years-old draft.

Within the cached copy, you can view the full version, text-only version, or view source. You will also see the timestamp and snapshot taken by Google.

2. Google Makes Thousands of Updates Each Year

While in its infancy, Google didn’t make many updates to its algorithms annually. Now, the algorithm is updated countless times a year.

Why should you care about this (fairly open) Google secret?

Updates mean changes to how pages display in the search engine result pages (SERPs) and can impact your search visibility.

While these updates have historically ranged from removing spam to ad placement on the SERPs, there’s a significant update on the horizon impacting how marketers gather information about their intended audience.

Google plans to remove all third-party cookies from its engine. Used as a tool for tracking individual movement across the web, cookies have not only long been a marketer’s best friend but also a security threat.

While cookie removal is a massive update, tons of additional updates can impact your digital strategy in other ways.

To stay ahead of these updates, take steps to ensure that you build agile, editable sites and pages that can roll with the changes, setting you up for digital success.

3. Google Knows When Users Exit a Page [Bounce Rate]

Have you struggled to boost email sign up, increase site search traffic, or get more leads?

If you answered yes, the root cause of your problem may be your bounce rate.

Your bounce rate refers to the number of individuals who visit your landing page and leave without conducting any other interaction.

Bounce rates are important metrics because they allow you to understand audience on-page behavior.

And Google has a clear record of this behavior through Google analytics.

If you’re experiencing high bounce rates and struggling to achieve your marketing goals, don’t fret. There are several steps you can undertake to reduce your bounce rate:

Improve Content Readability

Does your content look like one big chunk?

If so, you need to break it up.

Ideally, your content should be quick and consumable. Here are a few tips for making your pages more readable:

Use images to break up the labor of reading.

Use quotes to underscore reliability and break up the text.

Use subheading.

Bold keywords.

Ask questions to engage readers.

End your landing page or content with a subheading titled conclusion.

Write Strong Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions are HTML attributes that explain what a searcher can anticipate finding on a given page. Search engines use these descriptions to determine what your page is about.

Ideally, meta descriptions should be 155 characters long. If you exceed this length, the searcher will see an ellipsis (…) at the end of the description. This can result in a higher bounce rate since your site may not have been adequately described.

To optimize your meta descriptions, try to reach that ideal character length of 155 and include relevant keywords.

Use Interactive Content

Are you looking to engage site visitors? There’s no better strategy than using interactive content.

Interactive content entices users to take action rather than simply bouncing from your site. This way, you can lead visitors to explore your site to learn more about your organization.

Examples of interactive content include infographics, e-books, lookbooks, quizzes, and checklists, all of which create and maintain engagement.

4. Google Releases Their Own SEO Guides

While some things at Google may seem hidden, Google releases its own SEO guides.

These tools vary depending on skill level and familiarity and even include a starter guide and developer guide.

These guides cover nearly everything you need to know about succeeding with SEO on Google.

5. Google Holds Secret Conferences

For the last decade, Google has hosted an event dubbed Google Camp during the summer.

Don’t let the cutesy name fool you—this isn’t a bootcamp for coders or developers.

It’s a star-studded meeting of the minds that occurs during the summer months.

Annually themed, the camp has covered humanitarian topics like global warming and education.

You can find former presidents and current starlets, fashion designers, and tech leaders attending these events.

And while admittance to this event is highly selective (not to mention expensive), attendees allegedly enjoy in-depth conversation and relaxation.

6. Google Is Loaded With Fun Easter Eggs

While Google may be the world’s most-used search engine, it is also arguably the world’s most fun search engine. Chock full of Easter eggs that range from solitaire to the functionality to create a heart-shaped graph, you can find a way to entertain yourself when taking a break from customer research. We break down our current three favorite Easter eggs below.

Animal Sounds

Whether you’re teaching your kids the nuances among varying animal sounds or simply want to have some nature-themed time, this secret feature is endlessly delightful.

To access Google’s animal sounds feature, enter the search phrase “animal sounds” into the search bar and let the fun begin.

Tic Tac Toe

If you’re in search of another distracting Google Easter egg and are craving nostalgia, you can try your hand at a classic game of X’s and O’s.

Simply enter the term tic tac toe into the search bar, and you’ll be on your way to a competitive game with Google AI.

Coin Flip

Found yourself sitting with a yes or no question that the flip of a coin can only decide?

If you don’t have a quarter on hand, don’t fret. Google has one for you. Simply enter the phrase flip a coin into the search bar, and you’ll have your answer.

7. Google Provides Directions Directly From the Search Bar

While you probably use Google Maps in your day-to-day life, you can also score directions to any location directly from the search bar. For example, simply type “directions to [destination] from [location]” into the search bar, and Google will provide step-by-step directions. You can even choose whether you’d prefer directions by car, public transit, or foot.

8. Google Enables Search Within Websites

If a website doesn’t include a search function, don’t fret. With Google, you can search a website’s content for a specific query. Simply add site:[website] to the beginning of your search, and you’ll be directed to results from that particular site rather than the entirety of the web.

9. Google Enables Search for Movies, Books, and News

While most Google users know how to conduct image and video searches, did you know you can further vary your search results by medium?

If you’re searching for a book, click the menu item entitled “More.” From here, you can select books, news, or movies and remove any other search clutter that gets in the way of your aim.

10. Define Your Number of Search Results

While we all aspire to land on Google’s first page, sometimes the information you need doesn’t land there. To view more search results, select “Settings” below the right-hand of your search bar on the results page. From here, you can adjust the number of search results that appear.

Google Secrets Frequently Asked Questions

Does Google Have Secret search functions?

Yes! While you may be using standard search queries in the search bar, Google possesses deeper functionality than meets the eye.

Does Google update its search algorithm, and should I care?

Yes, and yes. Google makes thousands of updates to its search algorithm annually. These updates can significantly impact how your site manifests on the SERPs.

How can I keep up with Google’s changing algorithm?

While the answer here is two-fold, we believe that the best offense is a good defense. While many of Google’s more extensive changes are publicized before they go into effect, some are not. By building an adaptive and agile site, you can prepare for whatever updates come your way.

Does Google Really Hold Secret Conferences?

Yes, they do. Every year, guests gather in the summer at a themed retreat focused on a humanitarian issue.

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Google Secrets: Conclusion

Regardless of whether you’re a digital marketer or a business owner, it never hurts to learn more about the search engine that drives the majority of traffic to your website.

If we’re honest, we all want more legitimate site visitors, better optimized SEO, and high-converting web pages, right?

As you learn more about Google secrets, you can use them to your advantage.

That SEO guide? We would suggest getting very familiar with its contents.

And while you may not find yourself in Southern Italy at Google Camp, you will have a much better chance at finding your site ranking on the first page of Google’s SERPs.

What Google secrets do you know?

from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/3mPDCK4 via https://neilpatel.com

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dailybail · 3 years

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Best Domain Registrar

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

Do you want to skip the read and get right to my top picks? The best domain registrar for most people is Bluehost (get a free domain with hosting).

I’ve used lots of different domain registrars over the years. With some of them, I’ve had a really great experience. It’s nothing flashy, just solid service. I was able to find and snag a domain I liked at a good price. Everything got pushed through pretty quickly with very little work on my end.

There’s also some domain registrars I will never use again.

So while it might seem like all domain registrars offer the same thing, there are important differences. Trust me.

To help you find a solution that works for you, I’ve put together a list of the seven best domain registrars. Keep reading to find in-depth reviews of each one and a short buyer’s guide to help you make sense of your choices.

Let’s get started so you can lock in a great deal on your domain as soon as possible.

#1 – Bluehost Review— The Best for Getting a Free Domain for Your New Website

If your search for a domain name registrar is part of a larger mission to launch a new website, go with Bluehost.

Bluehost is primarily a hosting company, but they also provide domain registrar services.

However, the real bonus of going with Bluehost is the free domain for one year that you get on their shared and WordPress hosting plans.

In order to get a new website online, you need hosting and a domain name. With Bluehost, you can get both with a single purchase.

Not only is this convenient—you don’t have to get hosting from one provider and a domain name from another—it’s also a really great deal.

With Bluehost, you can get everything you need for as low as $2.95 per month. As a reader of my site, you’ll get an exclusive deal:

Normally hosting isn’t that cheap. And, since Bluehost is throwing in a free domain name, that saves you another $10-15 bucks in the first year, at least.

It’s also super simple to set up and get oriented, even if you have never done anything like this before. Just select your preferred hosting plan and the next screen gives you the option to create a new domain.

Bluehost will then search to see if your preferred home on the web is available. If it is, the next step is just entering payment and contact information and you’re all set.

Plus, if you need to quickly build your site, Bluehost can help immensely there, too. They offer a wide array of site templates, their proprietary website builder, and one-click installation of WordPress.

The whole process as easy as it gets. Go from nothing to a fully-hosted, ready-to-go website on your dream domain in minutes.

On top of all this, Bluehost gives you free tools to drive traffic to your site, improve performance, and strengthen security:

Intuitive domain management dashboard

Automatic WordPress updates

Free SSL certificate

Free content delivery network (CDN)

Auto renewals

24/7 expert support

Self-service knowledge base

I really like Bluehost for new sites because it takes care of so much. Enable the free SSL certificate and CDN with one click each. You don’t have to configure any of it in order to benefit from the increased site speed and security.

With other options you might have to set these features up on your own, which can be complicated. And they might cost extra, whereas both are baked into Bluehost free of charge.

All of this comes at a really easy-to-swallow price. Both shared and WordPress hosting start at $2.95/month for a three-year term. With shared hosting, you can still get the free domain at only a one-year commitment, but the monthly price will rise to $4.95/month.

Be advised, you won’t be able to get a free domain with Bluehost’s more robust hosting options, like VPS, dedicated, or managed WordPress.

But for most people looking to make their new website a reality, those plans are likely more power and responsibility than you want to pay for.

Another thing to keep in mind is the renewal cost of your domain through Bluehost. That first year is free, but after that it will cost you—but it’s not too pricey then, either.

Top-level extensions like .com, .net, .biz, and .org renew for between $15.99 and $18.99 per year. That’s still a rock-solid price, especially if the site on your domain starts getting really popular.

#2 – Domain.com Review — The Best for People Who Hate Their Current Registrar

Domain.com has been around for a long time, holding on to perhaps the most coveted web address for domain registrars. Over the years, they have grown considerably by offering dependable service.

In that time, lots of people have transferred their sites to Domain.com to take advantage of the reputable performance. After a few decades, let’s just say that the company has domain transfers down to a science.

If you are not happy with your current domain registrar, Domain.com will help you transfer quickly.

When you decide to make the transition, it’s an easy, guided transfer. Whether you are a domain guru or a first-timer, the process is simple, and you can get step-by-step support from the company’s 24/7 customer service teams.

The end result is a smooth domain transfer with zero downtime.

Domain.com includes a lot of features that are great for people who need to transfer domains. You get DNS management tools, email forwarding, URL forwarding, and transfer lock to prevent someone else from hijacking your domain.

These are all important, as you may have to point your DNS to a new IP address, update DNS records, or ensure that emails from all your domains are making it to the inbox you expect.

One of the reasons people transfer their domain to Domain.com is the pricing.

You get access to a massive selection of TLDs. The introductory pricing is phenomenal, and so is the renewal pricing, depending on the TLD you pick.

One thing that doesn’t come free is WHOIS privacy protection, which is an add-on service with Domain.com.

The upside is that you also get malware scanning and blacklist monitoring as part of the WHOIS Privacy + Protection service. This will keep your site (and visitors) safer and ensure that your web address hasn’t been flagged as spam and wound up on a blacklist.

You also have to pay for SSL certificates, which Bluehost includes for free. The good news is that the prices are extremely low, starting at $3 per month for basic domain validation.

And, if you need a higher validation SSL certificate for an ecommerce website, Domain.com offers them for as low as $22.50 per year. That is exceptionally low, as such SSL certificates may be $100 per year. Sometimes they cost even more than that.

The ecommerce SSL from Domain.com comes with a $1.75 million warranty that shields your customers, were your site ever to get compromised. It’s not a cut-rate SSL certificate, even though the price is phenomenal.

One thing to be aware of when considering Domain.com is popularity. Here me out. The company has been around forever and has the best domain name you could ever want as a registrar.

Everyone finds Domain.com, including people aren’t familiar with renewing domains and introductory pricing. This is where being so well-known is kind of a double-edged sword—Domain.com gets a lot of business from people who are surprised by renewal rates, upsells, and other things that virtually all domain registrars do.

You may see some negative reviews, but I’d take those with a shovel-full of salt. The market is full of great domain registrars. There’s no way Domain.com would remain popular if the one-star reviews were an accurate depiction.

The best thing you can do is to read the fine print and be aware of what you are signing up for—with Domain.com or any popular registrar. There is simply no reason to stay with a vendor you don’t like.

Transfer your site to Domain.com today. You can get all of the services you need to establish your business’s online identity, including email, hosting, security, and a website builder.

Take care of everything through a single provider, and stop paying too much for it.

Get in touch with Domain.com today. Make the switch from a domain registrar you can’t stand to one that stands by you.

#3 – Namecheap — The Best Domain Names for $1 or Less

Looking for the absolute lowest cost to register your domain? Namecheap is the way to snag your site’s real estate for dirt cheap.

The company offers some of the best prices on popular domain extensions. You’ll find .com domain names for less than $10 per year.

If you are looking for a newer domain extension, the price drops even lower. That’s where the real savings happen.

You can find plenty of domains that start at just 99 cents for the first year and boatloads more that are no more than $6 per year.

If you’re willing to think outside the box, you can get a memorable, short domain for next to nothing. With all the new TLDs available, you may actually find a URL that works better than a .com.

I like the example Namecheap gives: instead of helpme.com, you could just go with help.me. It’s shorter, easy to remember, and still preserves the keywords you want to use in the domain.

In fact, there’s a lot about going with Namecheap as your domain registrar that will save you money in the long term.

WHOIS privacy is free forever with your domain. That saves around $15 per year compared to registrars who charge for it.

You also get email forwarding, which lets you set up professional email addresses with your domain name. Receive all your messages in your current inbox or set up another free Gmail to handle it. Your call, it won’t cost anything either way.

Namecheap also includes free DNS management and security tools. From time to time you will need these to update records and keep your site secure. When you do, the tools are right there, for free. Some providers won’t offer this or will make you pay extra.

And if you are unsure about DNS records or how to get your site set up, you can reach out to Namecheap 24/7.

One might think that rock-bottom prices would mean shoddy customer service, but the reverse is true. Most users report that Namecheap is extremely reliable. The relatively few people who report issues speak highly of the customer service reps they talked to.

Another reason I like Namecheap is the huge selection of TLDs and the excellent search tool to help you find the right one.

The search tool has a Beast Mode that lets you search up to 5,000 keywords at once. Plus, Namecheap includes

Free privacy protection

Domain name security

24/7 live chat support

Extensive knowledge base

Full DNS access

Free PositiveSSL certificate for one year

As I’ve been saying, the prices are about as good as you are likely to find anywhere, especially if you can catch a deal on a domain you want (even with the top domain extensions like .com and .net).

Sure, you can get deals on domains through other registrars, but I recommend Namecheap because renewal pricing stays low.

It’s not like you get a cheap domain and pay down the road once you’ve invested your energy into building your site and brand. A one-year renewal of a .com is $12.98, which is lower than the promotional pricing you’ll find with other vendors

Even if you go for one of the $0.99 TLDs, the renewal price is still good for most of your options. Yes, there are some pricey renewals for certain domains, but plenty of them are $9 or less to renew.

If you are paying way too much for your domain right now, consider transferring to Namecheap. When you switch, Namecheap will carry over unused time from your previous registrar if possible. It’s a nice bonus on top of all the other great savings.

Explore Namecheap’s fantastic selection of domain names and get one for the lowest possible cost.

#4 – Porkbun Review — The Best Renewal Pricing on the Market

What good is a cherry domain name if you can’t keep it? We’ve all heard the horror stories of losing prime URL real estate on expiration. You spend the time brainstorming ideas, find an available domain, and buy it only to have all your hard work (and domain authority) wiped away after a year.

There are two options for avoiding this—buy a domain for as long as possible upfront or find a registrar with affordable, predictable renewal pricing.

For the latter, I recommend Porkbun.

They offer a killer combination of some of the best first-year price deals on new, trending, and alternative extensions as well as the best renewal rates nearly across the board. They beat the market on renewal pricing for over 200 domain extensions.

Look, it’s going to be ridiculously hard to find an available .com for your keywords at this point in the game. Unless you’ve gone the startup route of naming your company a cheeky misspelling of a real word, .com URLs are rare to find. Even if you do, you’re going to have to pay out the nose for it.

But you don’t need a .com or even a .net to have a memorable, easy-to-type web address. Think about the array of extensions that roll off the tongue and make sense for the purpose of your site, the industry you inhabit, or the type of people you want to visit.

Here are a few examples and the excellent rates you can find on Porkbun for them:

.shop: $2.04 for the first year, $26.85 renewal

.store: $2.55 for the first year, $41.69 renewal

.tech: $2.55 for the first year, $36.54 renewal

.help: $7.77 for the first year, $21.09 renewal

.reviews: $8.22 for the first year, $16.97 renewal

That’s just a sampling. And guess what? Each of those promotional first-year prices and renewal rates are the best available for the extension, sometimes by a good few dollars.

Heck, take a look at their renewal pricing on .com extensions against some of the big names:

You can expect similar renewal savings on any extension you buy from Porkbun.

Plus, their great pricing doesn’t limit them from offering extras and options you’d expect from a good domain registrar. Every domain purchase comes with free WHOIS privacy, URL forwarding, and an SSL certificate.

You can even eschew the rock-bottom first-year pricing in favor of locking down a URL for up to a decade. Even then, you’re still getting some of the best rates in the biz. For example, a .shop extension can be secured for ten years for just $228.93. That’s even better than their renewal pricing rate, which itself beats many of Porkbun’s competitors.

So, if you’re not afraid of going with a non-.com extension, Porkbun offers you an unbeatable combination of domain options to choose from, fantastic initial pricing, and some of the best renewal rates you’ll find.

Find your site’s best home on the web through Porkbun today.

#5 – Network Solutions Review — The Best for Long-Term Domain Registration

Network Solutions offers the full range of services a company needs to establish and maintain a professional presence online. That doesn’t separate the company from other domain registrars like Namecheap and Domain.com, but I’ll tell you what does.

You can register your domain for a century with Network Solutions. I’m not kidding. If you want, the company will let you sign up for 100 years.

Let your great-grandkids worry about the renewal.

I understand that option is not for everyone, but Network Solutions also offers 20-year registrations. This is twice as long as you can get with other vendors.

Every day, hundreds if not thousands of domains fail to get renewed. For companies with a brand or identity tied to their domain, this is a nightmare. Best case scenario, they are able to buy their domain out of redemption, which can be like $200 or more.

But if their registration is expired for long enough, they might lose their domain altogether. This is bad news, especially if they have sunk a ton of time and energy into building their site and online presence.

So if you are looking for a long-term domain registration to avoid these type of headaches and hassles altogether, Network Solutions offers you peace of mind like no one else.

One potential downside to Network Solutions is that there is not much more than your domain included. Whereas other vendors throw in domain forwarding, SSL certificates, and such, Network Solutions does not.

Every feature and capability you could ever want is available, you just have to purchase them a la carte.

But these sorts of features are less important if you are focused on locking down a domain for as long as possible. And this is where Network Solutions really shines.

It’s $13.99/year for the 20-year registration. Sure, that price is maybe a little higher than some of the introductory prices you will find elsewhere. But it’s extremely affordable compared to other renewal prices, which may jump to the $15-$20 range or higher, depending on the domain.

With a 100-year registration, the savings are even greater. Lock in the best price of $9.99/year for a century. You get entry level pricing basically forever.

It’s a higher upfront cost, for sure, but you never have to worry about renewing the domain.

For those looking for long-term domain registration, there are plenty of good options, but nothing compared to Network Solutions. Get started with them today and use coupon code NEILPATEL to get 25% off.

#6 – NameSilo Review — The Best for Buying Domains by the Dozen

NameSilo is my top pick for people who need a lot of domains at once.

Along with Namecheap, NameSilo has some of the best prices on domain names out there. This is obviously important if you are buying domains in bulk.

If you order more than 50 domains, NameSilo will cut the price. If you order more than 100, the price drops even further. Need 500? 1,000? 2,500? The price keeps going lower at every tier.

The bulk pricing discounts through NameSilo can give the edge to resellers or provide a huge discount to buyers who need a whole bunch of domains to secure their online presence.

Since WHOIS privacy is free forever with every purchase, you’re also saving $10-15 per year per site compared to a domain registrar who charges for it. With dozens or hundreds of sites, this adds up quickly.

NameSilo has a massive selection of TLDs. You’re never going to run out of options.

The incredibly rich search tools make it easy to find similar domains with different TLDs. Or you can search based on batches of keywords (up to 5,000), which can yield results of available domains you might not have thought about otherwise.

The bulk domain search is useful, too. You can simply check off the domains you want, filtering your search by TLD or extension category.

Another nice perk is that you can earn money off parked domains. This is not always the case, but with NameSilo, you get to keep all the ad revenue.

If you have a lot of domains, this is a big deal. With other providers, you might only get a cut of what your parked domain earns. Or, you might get nothing. NameSilo doesn’t get in your way.

Every domain you register through NameSilo comes with:

Free privacy protection for life

DNS management tools

Email and domain forwarding

Domain defender protection

Domain lock

Domain portfolio management

24/7 customer support

These features are really important at scale. With email forwarding and portfolio management, it’s a lot easier to keep track of all your domains.

Let’s talk about those low prices on domains:

As you can see, the price starts low, stays low (the red with strikethrough is renewal), and gets cheaper the more you get. I couldn’t fit the entire chart in a nice screenshot, but the bulk pricing for .com drops all the way to $7.29 for 5,000+ domains.

At such volume, that’s a serious discount.

One of the few things you don’t get with NameSilo are SSL certificates. Those cost extra, and the price is fairly high. I wouldn’t worry about that too much as it’s fairly easy to get a free SSL certificate.

A final benefit I have to mention is that NameSilo will add a year onto your coverage if you transfer your domain. Instead of losing out on the time you already paid for with your old registrar (which is usually the case), you get to keep it.

It’s just another way that NameSilo helps you save money.

Choose NameSilo for the massive selection of TLD’s, the fantastic search tools, great prices, and discounts for bulk purchases.

Get the best deal on the most domains with NameSilo today.

#7 – Google Domains Review — The Best Free Security and Privacy Features

Google Domains is as powerful and easy to use as you would expect from one of the world’s most recognizable companies.

The prices for domains are very competitive, starting at $9/year, but it’s everything that comes with that low price that sets Google apart.

You get privacy protection for free, for all your domains, forever. Instead of putting contact information for your or your company on the WHOIS database (where it will no doubt be spammed relentlessly), Google Domains will let you keep that information masked.

You also get a comprehensive selection of tools for DNS management, and you can enable DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) with a single click. DNSSEC protects your domain from spoofing, cache poison attacks, and other common threats.

Google 2-Step Verification is also included with every purchase, which adds an additional layer of protection to your accounts. Even if an attacker got a hold of your password, they’d still be locked out of your account unless they got a hold of your mobile device or security key.

None of these features would be worth much if they were too hard to enable or maintain. Google Domains makes it as simple as possible.

If you have experience with Chrome, Gmail, or any Google product you’re going to be fine.

The interface and navigation scheme will be very familiar. It’s really easy to find your way around, even if domain management is not your forte.

Even if you don’t use Google products on the regular, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the minimal learning curve. Plus, the online knowledge base is extensive and organized really well.

Google Domains has a good selection of TLDs, more than 300 in fact. Virtually any popular TLD is available and quite a few of the newer ones as well.

Unsurprisingly, Google makes it really easy to search for the domain you want. What can I say—Google knows search. You can quickly discover which popular TLDs are available for your desired keywords, as well as a host of less common TLDs.

Including the privacy and security features I’ve listed, Google Domains includes:

Free privacy protection (unlike Domain.com and Bluehost)

Native integration with Google services

Domain management sharing

Cloud DNS

DNS exporting

24/7 customer support

Email forwarding

You can get a business email from Google if you want, but you don’t have to because of email forwarding. So, if you don’t need the collaborative tools included with G Suite or Workspace, just use a personal Gmail account with email forwarding.

Google Domains will give you up to 100 aliases for free, so you can receive email at plenty of different professional looking email addresses.

As I said, you can definitely find good deals through Google Domains:

These are great prices, plus you can register for up to 10 years through Google. There are no hidden charges and all of the great features I just listed come standard with your registration fee.

There are no bulk pricing options, so it’s not for people who want to purchase a lot of domains. But for the small business owner who wants to keep their information private, this is a really cost-effective solution.

You get well-built tools that don’t take a ton of technical skill to use. Connect your site with confidence to other Google and third-party services, like your email, online store, or business databases.

Improve security, take advantage of Google’s best-in-class IT infrastructure, and save money doing it. Start using Google Domains today.

What I Looked at to Find the Best Domain Registrar

Finding a good domain registrar is a task I’m very familiar with.

I don’t always pick the same one, because certain domain registrars are better to use in different situations.

Let’s go through your options.

There are basically three ways to get a domain name:

Use a domain registrar

Get a domain name bundled with hosting

Buy a domain name through a reseller

Domain registrars handle the tech side of assigning IP addresses to domain names and reserving domain names as well.

Popular domain registrars include Domain.com and Namecheap. Both of these sites make it incredibly easy to find and purchase an available domain name.

In order to get your site online, however, you need to get web hosting in addition to a domain name.

Some great web hosting providers, like Bluehost, offer domain names bundled with hosting. In fact, Bluehost includes a free domain name for the first year when you sign up for hosting.

If you already have a web host you like, I recommend using a domain registrar.

But if you don’t currently have web hosting for your site or you aren’t thrilled by the quality of your current hosting situation, I’d go with Bluehost.

The third option, domain resellers, are exactly what they sound like. They resell domain names in partnership with domain registrars, but resellers typically charge extra so they can make money, too. Also, they usually don’t have dedicated support.

For these reasons, I don’t recommend buying through a reseller.

All of the recommendations on my list are domain registrars, with the exception of Bluehost.

How do you decide which of these good options will be the best for you?

Let’s walk through the criteria I use when evaluating my domain registration options.

Note: Once you buy a domain name, you won’t be able to transfer for 60 days. Picking a good option the first time is really important.

Registration Period and Renewal Rates

Most domain registrars offer promotional pricing for your initial contract term. Some limit your initial contract term to one or two years, while others may give you five to 10 years.

So if you’re looking to save money, your best bet is opting for the longest registration period available. Max out the discount for as long as possible.

This is also a great way to ensure no one else can buy it, since you don’t have to remember to renew it every year.

Of the domain registrars that I’ve reviewed in this post, Namecheap, NameSilo, and Google Domains will each allow you to purchase a domain for the full 10-year term at checkout. Domain.com maxes out at five years. There aren’t any tricky rebate policies with any of them, though, which is why I like these registrars the best.

With Bluehost, you get a free domain for the first year when you sign up for hosting and the renewal rate is usually only a few dollars more.

For Bluehost and the domain registrars, both the promotional and renewal prices will vary according to the top level domain (TLD) you choose. See the table from Bluehost below:

As you can see, the price changes a lot depending on the TLD (.com, .org, .net, etc.). Another name for TLD is domain extension, so you might see that term, too. They are the same thing.

Let’s talk a little bit more about these TLDs and how to choose a registrar that will make your hunt for the perfect domain as easy (and as affordable) as possible

Domain Extensions and Search Tools

I really like it when a domain registrar makes it easy for you to take advantage of all the different domain extensions available. Basically, you are looking at two things:

How many different TLDs do they offer?

How easy is it to search for domain names?

Every domain registrar on my list offers the familiar TLDs like .com, but some offer a larger selection of alternative TLDs. There are hundreds of new TLDs, like .online, .blog, and even .ninja.

This is great for people starting new sites because, as you can imagine, most of the desirable domain names are already taken for the .com extension.

A great place to check for a bargain deal on one of the newer TLDs is Namecheap. They run promotional pricing for domains as low as $0.99/year:

That’s a steal right there.

With new TLDs, you want to pick something that’s going to age well and makes sense with your business. Just keep searching until you find one that works.

Be aware that not all domain registrars offer the same selection of TLDs. As a random example, Bluehost doesn’t offer .theater, but Google Domains does. NameSilo offers both .theater and .theatre, whereas Google doesn’t have the British spelling.

Speaking of searching for an available domain name, some companies make it really easy. You can use this search tool from Bluehost to check if the domain you want is available:

If the name you want isn’t available, Bluehost and others will offer suggestions for slightly different names or alternative TLDs that are available. This can help you find something much quicker than having to search each name individually.

Namecheap and NameSilo let you search up to 5,000 keywords at once. This is incredibly helpful when you are trying to brainstorm an effective domain name.

Here are some strategies you can use if your domain name is unavailable. If you are having trouble, I recommend Namecheap and NameSilo, as they offer the best search tools and largest variety of TLDs.

Domain Transfers

If you want to change domain registrars in the future, you have to do a domain transfer. Some registrars make this free and easy, while others charge for it.

Make sure you read through your registrar’s transfer policy before making any final decisions. It’s important to choose a company you can count on, even when you’re transferring to a different service.

Otherwise, the transfer can cause unwanted downtime or accessibility issues for your website.

All of the domain registrars I’ve picked have guided transfer processes designed to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Namecheap, for example, has a process that you can follow that results in zero downtime. On top of that, you get to carry over any remaining time from your previous registration to Namecheap.

That’s not typical. Usually you just lose whatever time you had remaining from your old registrar.

NameSilo is another good option for domain transfers, as they will add a full year to your expiration date when you transfer.

WHOIS Privacy

Domain name registration involves providing your personal details to the domain registrar. However, doing so means your information is now part of the public record.

But the good news is it doesn’t have to be, thanks to WHOIS privacy.

This is a privacy service that masks private information, like your email, address, phone number from the public record. This way, it’s not accessible to scammers, hackers, or anyone looking for your information online.

Some registrars charge for this service, while others offer it for free. Bluehost, for example, charges $15/year for domain privacy and protection. Domain.com charges for it, as well.

With Google Domains, NameSilo, and Namecheap, WHOIS privacy is free forever.

I always recommend you use it, unless you’re registering your domain with your company’s address, phone number, etc. This information is already public so it won’t hurt to have it attached to your domain.

Number of Domains

It’s common for large and small companies alike to buy multiple domain names, including:

Common misspellings of their original name

Various domain extensions

Semantically similar domain names

Why? To make sure no one else can buy a similar name or intentional misspelling to steal their traffic. It also ensures your website is easy to find, even if someone doesn’t know how to spell it or what extension you’re using.

And while a multiple domain strategy is great for growing your business, it’s rarely necessary if you’re just starting out.

If you’re interested in buying 50+ domains, NameSilo is your best option. You get competitive pricing on domains and free WHOIS privacy forever (which saves money on every site).

You can also wield NameSilo’s powerful bulk domain search, which lets you find and buy as many domains as you need:

Another nice aspect of NameSilo is that you earn 100% of the profits from parked domains. These are sites you own that are directed to your main site and, usually, they have advertising that brings in a little revenue.

Normally, hosts or registrars take some of the advertising earnings from parked domains. NameSilo doesn’t.

Namecheap also offers a bulk domain search and good prices, so it might be another good option for people who need a lot of domain names.

If you just need one site, Bluehost offers one domain name free for the first year. So, this is an excellent option if you need a single domain name and web hosting for a new website

Domain Management

Domain names may feel like a “set it and forget it” type of thing. But in reality, they require ongoing management including renewals, security, and accessibility.

The good news is that there is not a ton of work that goes into domain management, especially if you only have one site. If you have a bunch of domains under your control, the management features become a lot more important.

Different domain registrars may handle domain management differently, so it’s crucial to understand how things work with the company you choose.

For example, most registrars offer auto renew services, meaning you don’t have to manually renew your domain registration every year. It’s important to get the auto renewal set up properly, because if your domain expires, it might cost you a lot to get it back.

With Domain.com, your website will be replaced by a parked domain and the email will stop working if you do not renew on time. From there, you’ll have 30 days to renew your domain for the normal price.

If you don’t renew during that time, someone else can snatch up your domain. And even if no one purchases it, you will still have to purchase the domain out of redemption, which costs around $100 on Domain.com.

I know that sounds bad, but it’s about half as much as buying your name out of redemption on Namecheap.

So you want to stay on top of domain management. In addition to autorenewals, some of the key management features to look out for include:

Email: Having email accounts @yourdomainname.com looks professional and serves as the place where you receive information about your domain. Some registrars a few free email accounts, whereas others only provide email forwarding.

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): This is an extra layer of protection that makes sure someone can’t hack your account with a stolen username/password. The second factor of authentication could be a text message sent to a trusted device that only you own.

Domain lock: Sometimes called “Transfer lock,” this feature prevents anyone from transferring your domain.

DNS management tools: Domain name system (DNS) records are stored in databases called nameservers and tell web browsers where to find websites. You may have to update DNS records from time to time. It’s not difficult, so long as your domain registrar provides easy DNS tools.

Namecheap provides a free email account for the first two months and a DNS management tool that’s free forever. You can use Namecheap’s free DNS even if you use a different domain registrar.

Domain.com, NameSilo, and Google Domains offer free email forwarding, so you can keep using your current accounts to manage your new domain. All three of these registrars also offer free DNS management tools.

If you sign up for hosting and get a free domain name through Bluehost, you can add email services for a low rate and manage your DNS free forever.

Summary

At the end of the day, the registrar you choose doesn’t really matter, so long as you go with one of my recommendations:

Bluehost – Best for new WordPress sites

Domain.com – Best for people who hate their current registrar

Namecheap – Best domain names for $1 or less

Porkbun – Best renewal pricing on the market

Network Solutions – Best for long-term registrations

NameSilo – Best for buying domains by the dozen

Google Domains – Best free security and privacy features

What’s important is getting the domain name and extension you want at a reasonable price with the protection and security you need.

With that said, Domain.com is great for most users and Bluehost offers a free domain for the first year if you need web hosting services as well.

However, both charge extra for privacy protection.

On the other hand, NameSilo, Google Domains, and Namecheap offer this protection for free.

NameSilo is excellent if you need hundreds of domains. Google Domains makes sense if you’re comfortable with the Google interface (and sharing more info with Google). And Namecheap is the most affordable registrar for .com domains.

But, there may not be a registrar that beats Porkbun on TLD variety and both promo and renewal pricing.

So, regardless of what you need, your new domain name is just a few clicks away.

Which domain registrars have you tried in the past? And how was your experience?

from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/35Wv7WM via https://neilpatel.com

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dailybail · 3 years

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The Best Website Builders (In-Depth Review)

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

I’ve been building websites for years. It’s way easier now than it used to be. You can go simple or take your site to the next level–no programming or design experience necessary.

There are a handful of popular options that will get you to where you want to go. However, the best website builders have different strengths and limitations.

I use WordPress because I can do exactly what I want and support millions of visitors to my blog each month. It might work for you, but some of my other top picks could work better, depending on what you are trying to do.

Here are the five best website builders you can start using today. I’ve included in-depth reviews to help you get a sense of why each product is so good.

Take control and manage every detail of your site. Or, use my number one pick to have the website build itself. Your call.

#1 – Wix Review — The Best for General Use

Wix is a really easy website builder that can help you create just what you want. Start with one of its many, many templates and customize from there.

You don’t need any web design experience to put together a sharp website, whether your goal is a blog, company page, or online store. Wix is a real Swiss Army knife solution and it’s easy for anyone to use, to boot.

In fact, it’s so easy that you can sit back and let Wix build your site for you. If you don’t feel like dragging and dropping site elements into place, simply answer a few questions and Wix’s Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) will whip up what you need in just a couple clicks.

Wix really goes the extra mile to enable anyone to build an effective website and offers a lot of extras to help them gain traffic.

Most of the Wix paid plans give you $300 in free digital ad vouchers so you can market your new blog or ecommerce store with no extra spending on your part.

Plus, there’s a lot more marketing you can do for free to reach the first page of Google through employing my SEO strategies for Wix sites.

On top of all of that, Wix’s paid plans are quite competitively priced:

Pros of Wix

Here are the best things about Wix:

Powerful app market – Wix has an enormous amount of add on features that you can access through their app market. Want to book meetings directly on your site? They have got you covered. Want a live chat pop up box? Simply click and install it on your site.

Covers every need – Wix covers most of the needs of people looking to set up a website. This includes setting up an ecommerce store, blog, or even just a simple information website.

Lots of templates – Wix has a wide variety of templates that you can choose from to get your website up and running quickly. Their templates are well designed and take the user experience into consideration.

Cons of Wix

Here are the weaker parts about Wix:

No migration – A huge downside with Wix is that you’re locked in, so you cannot take the code of your website somewhere else later on. This can cause problems if you quickly need to scale your business.

Jack of all trades, master of none – Wix’s main strength is also its weakness. Although it has many features, it cannot compete with the quality of niche website builders.

Who should use Wix?

Small businesses – If you are offering a service such as legal advice or marketing, Wix is a solid website builder that will handle all of your needs. If your focus is selling products online, avoid Wix.

Freelancers and professionals – In a similar manner, Wix is great for professionals who want to showcase their personal brand. It will allow you to cover all the potential bases of highlighting your portfolio, such as taking meetings and even blogging.

Try Wix for free today.

#2 – Weebly Review — The Best for Beginners

Next, we have Weebly, which is a drag-and-drop site builder that prides itself on its ease of use.

Weebly currently powers over 50 million websites and has been around since 2006, which is a huge achievement and testament to how effective the platform is.

So, what has caused Weebly to be consistently favored among users? It comes down to the simple user experience and short learning curve. Weebly does not bombard you with features or a complicated interface.

Instead, it allows you to get straight to the point of setting up your website.

Pros of Weebly

Here are the best things about Weebly:

Simple and easy to use – Weebly has a simple interface with drag and drop mechanics that just work. Everything feels natural and intuitive. It also helps that they have an onboarding mechanic with email and popup explanations when you get started.

Migration – If you decide you want to host your own website, Weebly makes it easy for you to take your site off their platform.

Affordable – Compared to other generalist website builders, Weebly has one of the most affordable pricing structures.

Great customer support – Weebly has a powerful customer support team who are active every day of the week. They typically reply within 1 day by email or even quicker via their live chat or phone lines.

Online store capability – While limited on its free and lower-tier plans, Weebly allows you to set up a web store powered by Square. If you’re already using Square as a payment processor, Weebly allows a cheap and easy way to start selling products online.

Cons

Here are the weaker parts about Weebly

Lacks diversity of function – The tradeoff of using Weebly is that it is not as powerful as Wix. For example, there are fewer features. In addition, some features such as their content management system and analytic tools are much weaker than competitors.

Limited customization – As Weebly uses a drop and drop interface and themes, the customization can be quite limited. Wix also has this problem, but they have more tools at their disposal to solve this issue.

Scaling problems – Weebly is simply not a great platform if you have plans to grow your website in a significant way: it is just a simple website builder for day to day users.

Who should use Weebly?

People who need simple websites – As a rule, you should use Weebly if you are not very tech-savvy and want to set up a simple website quickly. One category of users would be associations or clubs who want to set up an information site about their group.

Try Weebly for free today.

#3 – Web.com Review — The Best for Building Landing Pages

Web.com is a lot like Weebly—it’s fantastically easy to use, with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor that lets you mold any available template to your needs. And it comes at a great price and with great support.

But I think Web.com’s website builder shines brightest for a particular need: setting up landing pages and single-page sites in a snap.

Seriously, it’s so easy with Web.com—start from one of their 126 templates, then just tweak the colors, swap out some imagery, replace the copy, and add a custom form. Voila, you have a gorgeous landing page, done in about 15 to 20 minutes.

You can build a ton of unique landing pages in one sitting or make simple or temporary websites with ease. And at a competitive price, too.

Pros of Web.com

Email accounts – Web.com gives you five email accounts to match your domain. That’s a boon for folks building landing pages with Web.com—not only can you get multiple sites up in a flash, but each can have separate associated email addresses for doing split testing or for collecting contest entries in a place where they won’t overwhelm someone else’s inbox.

Free domain for one year – Web.com will throw in one year of an available domain for free when your purchase one of their website builder plans.

Very affordable – Everything I mentioned above is in the Starter plan, which starts at $1.95 for your first month and then is $10 per month after that. You can save big, though, if just go for a full year at checkout—that’s just $50 for the whole 12 months, a savings of over $60.

Cons of Web.com

No building from scratch – You are somewhat penned in by the templates available to start from. It’s easy enough to customize them far away from the original look, but some elements are permanent or at least inflexible, which can make it harder to quickly build the exact site you had in your mind.

Limited eCommerece features – Web.com also has Marketing and eCommerce plans for their website building service. They’re a little more expensive and more appropriate for standalone business sites, especially for local and small businesses. But more advanced selling features are missing overall.

Who should use Web.com?

Salespeople and marketers working on multiple campaigns – If you want to knock out landing pages in no time flat and get the useful benefits of email and domain included, go with Web.com and enjoy every bit of value you get from their Starter package.

Get started with Web.com today.

#4 – Shopify Review — The Best for Ecommerce

If you plan on selling any type of product online – from jewelry to electric scooters – then your best bet will be to use a dedicated ecommerce platform and website builder.

Without a doubt, the number one in this category is Shopify. The platform powers over 1 million merchants in 175 different countries, and is the third-largest online retailer in the US, trailing behind only Amazon and eBay.

The Shopify software represents a complete end to end platform that allows you to set up, manage, and promote a store online. You can easily list your goods for sale, take payments, and fulfill orders – all under one roof.

Pros

Here are the best things about Shopify:

Ecommerce specialty – The main draw of Shopify is that it is a niche website builder focused on setting up an ecommerce store. This means that all their features and processes are geared toward that end, resulting in a powerful platform that can help maximize sales.

Security – If you are going to be handling transactions, you need ways to keep your site safe and customer data secure. Shopify stores have strong cybersecurity measures in place which a self-hosted website would typically lack.

Integrated sales channels – Shopify has strong integrations with other platforms, such as Facebook and Amazon. This allows you to streamline your sales by managing your catalog on each platform under one roof.

Cons

Here are the weaker aspects of Shopify:

Niche focus on ecommerce – Because the focus is on ecommerce, Shopify lacks some of the features and finesse of other website builders. For instance, their content management system is very limited compared to WordPress.

Transaction fees + monthly fees – With each sale you make on Shopify, there is a transaction fee that ranges from 2.4% – 2.6%. Combined with payment provider fees, this can eat into your margin.

Who should use Shopify?

Brick and mortar stores – If you have an in-person store and are looking to sell your products online, Shopify will offer you a solid footing into the digital world.

Ecommerce startups – Entrepreneurs that are starting new brands or drop shipping will also benefit from the quick end to end set up that Shopify offers.

#5 – WordPress Review — The Best for Content Management

One of the oldest and most reliable website builders is WordPress. The platform has come a long way since it launched in 2003 and is the most popular content management system on the web today.

In fact, WordPress powers a whopping 37.6% of all websites.

As WordPress was around during the earlier days of the web, its focus revolved around content, which was the most prominent form of website at the time.

It maintains that focus to this day, with WordPress having arguably the best content management system out of all the different website builders.

An important caveat is that WordPress is divided into platforms:

WordPress.org – This is the open-source (free version) of WordPress that comes with greater flexibility, but is harder for non-technical users.

WordPress.com – This is the paid version. You can get help with the installation of themes and management but is generally less customizable.

Pros

Here are the best things about WordPress:

You have full control – Unlike other website builders, WordPress is fully customizable as the site is developed directly with code, as opposed to drag and drop interfaces. This means that you have much more flexibility in terms of design and function.

Robust blogging and CMS – WordPress is built front the ground up with content in mind. It has some of the best tools for publishing and managing content including team management, advanced scheduling, and categorizations.

Lots of plugins – There are over 52,000 plugins available for WordPress. You can measure and boost your SEO with plugins such as YoastSEO, or you could even add a new function such as a shopping cart.

Cons

Here are the weaker aspects of WordPress:

You may need help – As your WordPress site is developed with code, you will likely need help to install and update your WordPress theme. This can come with a hefty cost, particularly if you want ongoing changes.

Learning curve – If you want to manage and update your site yourself, it can take some time to learn how to do so. Managing and scheduling posts are relatively easy, but updating how your site looks or installing a plugin is much more difficult.

Security issues – As your WordPress site is self-hosted, you are more vulnerable to cybersecurity issues. Some of the plugins for WordPress also can act as a risk as well.

Who should use it

Bloggers – If writing is your main focus, then WordPress is a great choice. The platform is designed for bloggers, optimizing content management, and SEO. WordPress will allow you to scale and get the most out of your content.

Content centric businesses – Likewise, if you are building a business that is content-heavy, such as a new website, WordPress will help you to manage the operational side of content production much easier.

What I Looked at to Find the Best Website Builder

Now it is time to take a closer look at some of the specific features to consider when evaluating a website builder.

Remember that although some website builders may fall into the same category, each may suit your needs differently.

For instance, you may be setting up an online shop and your primary consideration may be a low learning curve, whereas somebody else may be thinking about a platform that can allow them to scale easily.

Here are some features you should consider.

Ease of use

Things to consider:

Intuitiveness – Some website builders are easy to use and have simple interfaces with drag and drop functionality. This is useful as you won’t have to Google changes you want to make with the tool.

Learning curve – If you are not great with technology, it is unlikely you will want to spend hours learning how to set up a website. Some website builders are much easier than others.

Setup time – Similarly, you may want to get your site up and running immediately, particularly if it is an event you want to promote.

Ongoing management – Needing external help to manage your site defeats the purpose of a website builder. It must be easy to manage in terms of updates.

If you are new to setting up online or are time-constrained, how easy it is to get started will likely be your primary concern.

Scalability

Things to consider:

Custom code – Website builders use standardized code, which are the building blocks of a website. These allow you to easily create a site with various features. In some cases, however, you may need your own custom features and the ability to write your own code.

Migration – At some point, you may want to host your website yourself. However, not all website builders allow you to easily make this move. In some cases, you may have to redevelop your site from scratch.

Integrations – You will probably create new goals as your website grows, such as running ads or embedding social feeds. Some website builders are more compatible with other platforms and are easier to integrate.

You should think strongly about scalability if you are already an established business looking to create an online presence. This is particularly true if you are already selling products at scale in the real world.

Startups in the fundraising process and are looking to scale fast or even change core features of their product should also take caution here.

Support

Things to consider:

Support channels – You will need to consider the different ways you can get in touch with support teams such as live chat, email, and phone. In-depth FAQ’s (frequently asked questions) are also important.

Responsiveness – If your site breaks at 5 PM eastern time, but their support only works European hours, then you are in trouble. Some teams may also respond much quicker than others.

Engagement – Unfortunately, some support teams are useless. Maybe they are being paid very little so they do not care, or they are overworked. Either way, you need support that can actually solve your problems.

If you plan on running a site with a lot of visitors and it happens to go down, the last thing you want is an unresponsive support team. This is especially true if you plan on driving a lot of traffic at a given time.

A website builder with a strong support team is also useful if you are just getting started online, considering you may still get stuck, even with simple interfaces.

Price

Things to consider:

Cost – Some website builders can be more costly, with some reaching upwards of $299 a month (for landing pages, for instance). Others are permanently free with the option to upgrade for a small monthly fee.

Trial – Before you commit, it can be useful to take advantage of a trial offer to play around with the tools. You will likely find that some are a better fit than others.

Hosting & domain – Most website builders will host your website on the web, which is typically included in the price. Some may also offer a domain as part of the package. Otherwise, you would have to purchase these yourself.

If you plan on making money from your website, either by selling products directly or to capture leads, then price should not be a key consideration for you. Make an investment in the best service for your needs.

However, if you just want to set up a small information site, then you could do with the cheapest options.

Generally, website builders that have feature depth are typically more expensive as they solve more specific problems.

Features

Things to consider:

Ecommerce shop – If you plan to sell things online, you need a website builder that allows you to do so. Consider sub-features such as payment processing and product catalogs.

SEO – Some website builders have tools that allow you to rank better in Google searches.

Marketing tools – You may also need other marketing tools, such as forms, pop-ups, and chat boxes.

Community – In some cases, you may want to expand your website into a community where people can communicate and network (otherwise known as a forum).

Analytic tools – Website builders may also offer analytic tools that help track traffic on your website or at least integrate with other tools that do.

Niche features – Perhaps there are some special features you are looking for such as the ability to set up a crowdfunding campaign in addition to having a standard website.

The features of a website builder are the main thing to consider when deciding which route to follow. This is because they will have the most impact on your specific goals.

For instance, if you want to set up a landing page for a specific product, trying to optimize with a generic site builder will be a pain. It will probably lack the in-depth analytic tools that a dedicated landing page builder would have.

Also keep in mind that there are some features that you may not need now, but you could need in the future, such as if you plan on running paid ads to your blog posts.

Design

Things to consider:

Themes and templates – Website builders allow you to start with a predesigned website that is customizable to various extents. Some themes serve different purposes in terms of branding and utility.

Mobile-friendliness – You will need to ensure that your website builder automatically makes your website easy for mobile users, typically with responsive design.

Customization – It is likely you will want to make some changes to your template. You will need to consider the various customization tools available.

Regardless of your goal, you should always be concerned with providing a great user experience to the people who are visiting your site. It simply makes logical sense – if your site is hard to navigate, people won’t get the most out of it.

The actual design and branding are important too. For instance, some designs are more corporate while others are more welcoming. There may be a design template that really suits your particular brand.

And if you are selling something, you need to ensure that the design is optimized to increase conversions.

Now that you have a good understanding of the types of website builders and the features to look out for, it is time to take a look at some of the best website builders on the market.

Conclusion

An important thing to keep in mind is that the website builders listed above can serve multiple functions. Now that you have a solid overview, it’s time to look into the details of each platform.

Use my recommendations as a guide a guide to get started:

Wix — Best for general use

Weebly — Best for beginners

Web.com — Best for building landing pages

Shopify — Best for ecommerce

WordPress — Best for content management

Follow the links to further explore each option. The best choice for you will come down to both your needs at the moment and where you plan on taking your website in the future.

After reading reviews like this one, make sure you take a step back and put your particular needs at the forefront of the decision before you commit.

from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/3hmBnsT via https://neilpatel.com

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dailybail · 3 years

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The Best Payroll Services (In-Depth Review)

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

What would you do with ten extra hours a month?

Maybe you’d catch up on work, or take a day off to spend with the family.

However you spend that time is better than fighting with payroll. And yet, the average small business owner spends hours pushing paperwork through each pay period.

At tax time, it’s even worse.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

The best payroll services streamline the process of paying your employees by automating most of the time-consuming tasks. When its time to cut checks, you have the tools you need to stay on top of taxes, benefits, paid time off, and so on.

Nobody likes payroll surprises. Make sure it’s easy for you to get people paid on time, every time, with as little busy-work as possible.

In this post, I’ve reviewed the top six solutions on the market today and included a short guide to help you evaluate your options. Keep reading to find the best payroll service for your specific needs.

#1 – Gusto Review — Best for Remote and New Businesses

For startups and small businesses with a remote workforce, Gusto is going to be the easiest way to take care of essential payroll and HR services.

Gusto is cloud-based and mobile friendly. Run payroll from any device with internet access, wherever you are.

It’s a full-service platform, which means Gusto takes care of tax filings, health benefits, and employee retirement plans. For companies where people aren’t coming into the office, having all this information in a centralized, easy-to-use platform is a boon.

Gusto makes remote hiring and onboarding is a breeze. Employers build an onboarding checklist and send the new hire an invitation.

Employees complete each step of the simple process. They enter bank information directly into Gusto, so you never have to worry about sending sensitive data over email.

Once the employee sets up their account, everything they need is self-service. They can see all of their pay stubs and documents. Employees quickly gain confidence on the friendly, approachable platform.

The ease-of-use is really important to teams without any on-site training or coaching. Plus it’s going to eliminate busy work for you.

You never have to hunt down someone’s W2 again. As soon as it’s available, employees are notified and get on-demand access.

Coordinating remote work is hard enough without having to deal with multiple middlemen to answer basic questions about payroll. Gusto makes everything transparent, which saves time and frustration for employers and employees alike.

Gusto has a growing list of more than 50 integrations with popular tools remote teams depend on. Connect to accounting software like Xero and QuickBooks or time tracking software like QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets), Deputy, and Homebase.

Every integration cuts down on the information your teams are entering manually. Employees clock out and the data syncs immediately with your payroll.

This creates fewer opportunities for errors and miscommunications, which can easily go unnoticed when people aren’t sharing an office.

With Gusto, the features you get depend heavily on which of their plans you choose:

The pricing for Gusto includes a monthly base price plus a per-employee charge:

Core: $39/month + $6/employee

Complete: $39/month + $12/employee

Concierge: $149/month + $12/employee

Contractor: $0/month + $6/employee

Gusto’s Core plan gives you full payroll tax service in any state, as well as access to direct integrations with time tracking and accounting tools. This product is all that smaller remote teams will need.

The Complete plan has a higher cost per employee than Core and gives you a greater degree of visibility and control over your payroll processes. You’ll get project and workforce costing along with customizable onboarding tools.

Gusto customer support has a very good reputation, regardless of the plan you choose. However, the Concierge plan gives you access to certified HR pros who can help companies navigate complex tax and benefit scenarios.

This is a really great option for companies that work with 1099 employees. With Contractor plans, you pay $6 per each worker. All the tax stuff is handled, and your contractors get the same great self-service features as your employees.

For large, established, enterprise companies, Gusto is probably going to be too light. They aren’t able to handle health benefits in every state, for example, and that platform isn’t going to run as smoothly if you have over 100 employees.

This is the tradeoff of having such an easy platform to use. For new businesses and remote teams, Gusto is everything they need and nothing they don’t.

The guided onboarding and intuitive platform ensure that everyone gets off on the right foot, even if there’s no traditional HR department to oversee the process. Add to that the unlimited chat, email, and phone support, and you have the complete payroll toolkit for small business.

Get started with Gusto today!

#2 – OnPay Review — Best for Simplifying Complicated Payroll

A lot of companies end up hiring a full-time payroll person once things get too complicated. A cheaper, easier alternative is to get OnPay.

This is an affordable solution that takes all of the complexity out of processing payroll. Anyone can learn how to run OnPay. It’s that simple.

There is one pricing plan with one low monthly rate and you get access to every payroll capability OnPay offers. No strings attached.

Say you have a business of less than 50 full-time employees and you want to offer a qualified small employer health reimbursement arrangement (QSEHRA). This is a good way to attract talent without having to offer a complete benefits package, but it can be a little tricky for a non-accountant to set up.

With OnPay, it’s easy to designate and track QSEHRA for payroll. Other providers don’t have this and you’ll be stuck trying to create a workaround or hiring someone to set it up for you.

These are just a few examples, but it’s true for Form 943 workers and other less common payroll scenarios that can easily trip up business owners.

In fact, OnPay provides special modules for restaurants, farms, churches, and other organizations that can’t depend on traditional payroll templates to get things right.

None of these capabilities cost you extra, and you can count on OnPay to keep providing new services. During the pandemic, they made it as simple as possible for companies to apply for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP):

Instead of having to wade through the complex government regulations, companies using OnPay could follow simple steps to complete their PPP application.

OnPay is easy to navigate. It demystifies both common and edge-case payroll problems that trip up the average user. And if you run into issues, you can reach out to the OnPay customer service team. They are known for expert advice and solving problems quickly and that quality of support comes with no extra charge.

Unemployment insurance, garnishments, multiple pay schedules, PTO—OnPay has you covered. Getting set up is not hard and you can reach OnPay by phone, email, and chat if things don’t make sense.

OnPay doesn’t have any annoying limits. With every subscription, you get:

Unlimited monthly payroll runs

W-2 and 1099 capabilities

Automatic tax calculations and filings

Employee self-service onboarding and dashboards

Intuitive mobile app for management on the go

PTO, e-signing, org charts, and custom workflows

Integrated workers’ comp, health insurance, and retirement

Multi-state payroll

For employers who can’t stick with a routine payment schedule, the unlimited payroll runs are a must. You won’t have to think about extra fees for 1099 workers or upping your subscription to get more HR features. Pay any employee in any state any time you want.

Pricing for OnPay is simple to calculate. Take their base rate of $36 per month and add $4 for each employee you have. So, using OnPay for an organization of 30 people will run you $156 per month.

OnPay offers free account migration and helps setting up the integrations you need. If you are tired of confusing payroll and hidden charges, get in touch with OnPay today.

If you switch, your first month of OnPay is free.

Try OnPay free for 30 days to see if it’s right for you!

#3 – Paychex Review — Best for Replacing Your Current Payroll Service

Lots of companies switch from an outside payroll/accounting service to Paychex Flex to streamline HR.

Stuck with having to request filings and payroll information? If you’ve grown to the point where the middleman has become a bottleneck, that won’t work anymore.

Paychex provides self-service access to both the employer and employee.

Now, you can get the same on-demand access with some of the lighter (and less expensive) options like OnPay. The thing is, OnPay doesn’t replace that outside expertise.

With Paychex Flex, you get a dedicated payroll specialist. This will be your single point of contact at Paychex, which is much better than playing the old customer service lottery.

Don’t get me wrong, Wave and OnPay have excellent customer service reps, but they can’t stand in for someone who knows your business. That knowledge was a big part of the value from hiring an outside expert and no customer service call center can replicate that.

In addition to getting a payroll expert in your corner, you get the Paychex platform, which will accommodate any conceivable tax or benefits scenario.

Instead of having to figure out workarounds, you can customize deductions and earnings with a few clicks. Paychex makes it easy to maintain accuracy and figure out when something’s wrong.

I really like the flexible views, which let you drill down into individual payroll records, list out your employees, or switch to a grid-view for easy data entry:

The versatility of the platform, the depth of payroll capabilities, and the dedicated customer service rep combine to make Paychex Flex the best solution for replacing your old outside payroll service.

Enrolling employees in a retirement plan, for example, is a common reason that business owners have to hire help. With Paychex, you have a wide range of plans to choose from and an easy process to get set up.

Employees can check their retirement plan and contributions from their browser or phone and use the retirement calculator to track their savings.

There are also 160 pre-built reports and dashboards to help owners stay informed about the company’s financial health. Much of the insight and perspective of that would normally be supplied by an outside advisor is built right into the platform.

Some of the other highlights include:

Recruiting and onboarding

Performance and learning management

Powerful real-time analytics

Payroll automation features

Direct deposit, paper checks, and paycards

Salary, hourly, and contract workers

Paycheck garnishments

PTO and benefits management

Job costing and labor distribution

What if you don’t need every capability? That’s okay, as Paychex Flex comes is available at three different tiers: Select, Pro, and Enterprise. You’ll have to get in touch with sales for pricing, as it’s not on the website.

Paychex Flex Select is aimed at businesses with basic payroll needs. You don’t get the self-service onboarding, which is useful, but you do get the dedicated payroll specialist to help with any problems you have.

With Paychex Flex Pro, you get access to the full platform. This includes additional support for workers compensation administration and state unemployment insurance. With the Enterprise plan you can build out customized reports and additional tools to manage HR compliance.

Paychex has 191 integrations with banks, employee retirement plans, and of course, tons of the popular software applications associated with payroll. This allows companies to oversee a centralized system that tracks employees from recruitment to retirement.

With Paychex Flex, companies can keep everything in-house. The platform makes payroll a cinch and gives business owners the insight and confidence they need to move forward without an outside service.

Contact their sales team for a custom quote to get started!

#4 – ADP Review — Best Bundled HR/Payroll Service

ADP is a one-stop shop for companies that want to handle payroll and HR through a single provider. Over 700,000 businesses in more than 140 countries entrust ADP, which has earned a very strong reputation over seven decades of service.

With some payroll services that might be cheaper than ADP, you can run into annoying limits. Wave, for example, only offers tax services in select states. Gusto is a good option to handle payroll and HR, but only if you are in one of the 38 states that the company offers coverage.

Plus, you only get HR compliance assistance with Gusto’s Concierge plan, whereas ADP makes options available regardless of what plan you are on.

When you are looking for bundled HR features, you may have complex payroll issues that a lighter platform like Gusto will struggle with. ADP can tackle any situation you can imagine.

Once you get set up, all payroll taxes are calculated and paid with minimal effort on your part. The system is set up to simplify the most complex retirement package or unique paid-leave package. ADP stays up to date with changing regulations, which keeps your books compliant and protects you from penalties.

Paychex is another full-service payroll provider with a deep feature set. When it comes to HR, however, Paychex is going to integrate with third-party services. ADP handles everything without the help of outside vendors.

If you just need payroll handled, ADP will knock it out of the park. Should you want more HR responsibilities taken off your plate, ADP can help with:

Time & attendance

Workforce management

Recruiting & hiring

Management & growth

Benefits administration

Retirement

Group health insurance

Business insurance

Workers compensation

Unlike other payroll providers that connect you to HR service, ADP can serve as a full-scale HR outsourcing service or professional employer organization (PEO).

This is great for companies that want to minimize their HR workload or outsource their entire burden. While some of the other solutions on my list will help you streamline processes, ADP can take them over all together.

ADP has a wide range of payroll service offerings for companies of different sizes. First, you have to select your package based on company size:

Small Business Payroll: 1-49 employees

Midsize to Enterprise Payroll: 50+ employees

ADP’s small business option is a sleek platform that comes with all the essential payroll and HR features you’d expect. Instead of trying to water down their enterprise offering, ADP created a separate interface that’s not freighted by the tools larger companies need.

The midsize to enterprise offering is a much deeper platform built to manage payroll regardless of how large your organization grows.

There are multiple plan options for both the Small Business Payroll and Midsize to Enterprise Payroll packages. You can see the small business plans laid out below:

Basically, the lowest tier is payroll only and you get more HR tools with higher plans, culminating in a 360-degree payroll and HR solution. It’s the same story for the midsize/enterprise package.

Enhanced Payroll is what you should look at if you also want assistance and tools for recruiting and hiring. If you have an in-house HR team, the two top-tier plans encompass many time-saving and tracking features they’ll benefit from.

You’ll have to get in touch with ADP to get a quote for how much the service costs.

Hundreds of thousands of companies depend on ADP for payroll and HR. If you are running into limits with another service or if you are tired of dealing with multiple vendors, choose ADP and never look back.

Request a free quote to see if ADP is right for you today.

#5 – Quickbooks Payroll Review — Best If You Already Use Quickbooks

When QuickBooks Payroll launched, people who used QuickBooks’ popular accounting software were like, “Yes, please.” It almost makes too much sense.

The integration is truly seamless. Quickbooks Payroll works through the same online platform. You can consolidate payroll, invoicing, cashflow, and expenses in a single place. All of this financial data syncs and updates automatically.

If you have experience with QuickBooks Online, everything is going to be legible to you. It’s a straightforward platform in its own right, but if you are already comfortable with the accounting solution, you can step right and get to work.

QuickBooks Payroll is optimized for up to 50 employees (including contractors) with a limit of 150. So it’s not for larger firms.

While size is a limit, complexity is not. QuickBooks Payroll has a robust set of capabilities that work in all 50 states.

Full-service payroll comes with every plan they offer. Once you enter payroll data into the system, QuickBooks processes payroll and takes care of all your tax filings.

Unlimited payroll runs

Automatic payments after the first run

Health benefits

401(k) plans

Wage garnishments

Next-day direct deposit

24/7 live chat support

Workforce mobile app

Employees really appreciate the next-day direct deposit, which is faster by a few days than some of the other popular payroll services. With premium QuickBook payroll plans, you can actually get a same-day direct deposit.

The customer service options are decent compared to other options. There’s live chat any time you need it and phone support during business hours. They also offer phone support on Saturday’s for a few hours.

The Workforce mobile app is great for remote and on-the-go employees. This is especially true if you have workers in the field because QuickBooks Payroll integrates with QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets), one of my favorite time clock software options.

Pricing for QuickBooks Payroll breaks down into three tiers:

The Core plan includes full-service payroll, which automates all your taxes and forms. It also covers 401(k) plans and health benefits.

With the Premium plan, you get access to more HR support, workers’ compensation administration, and QuickBooks Time is included for anywhere employee time-tracking.

Elite plans come with prioritized customer support available 24/7. They’ll also help you deploy the QuickBooks to ensure everything is set up right.

The reason QuickBooks payroll isn’t my overall choice is that it’s less budget-friendly than some of the comparable solutions like OnPay and Gusto. It’s a little more expensive out of the box and there are some annoying fees, like paying extra for 1099 workers.

But, if you are already set up on QuickBooks, this is an appealing option. It’s going to dovetail right into your workflows.

It can be much more effective for businesses like restaurants, retail, and construction companies that use QuickBooks for their inventory and bookkeeping. Keep everything in one place. Gusto and OnPay aren’t going to do that for you.

Try QuickBooks Payroll free for 30-days and see if it’s the payroll puzzle piece you’ve been missing.

#6 – Wave Payroll Review — Most Affordable for DIY Taxes

If you are on a tight budget, Wave Payroll might be your best option.

Especially if you are the do-it-yourself type.

This is because Wave doesn’t offer full-service payroll in all 50 states. If they don’t offer tax service in your state, you pay a lot less.

You don’t get to choose–tax service is either baked into the price, or unavailable in your state. Here’s how Wave Payroll pricing breaks down:

Tax service state: $35/month base fee + $6/employee

Self service state: $20/month base fee + $6/employee

These are the states where tax service is available: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

Pricing is predictable, too. It’s $6 per active employee or independent contractor. There’s no hidden fees, no extra charges.

Wave Payroll is affordable in the tax service states and a real bargain everywhere else.

The obvious downside is that you have to pay and file your taxes.

Here’s the thing: Wave makes it so easy to figure out what you need to do.

If you are used to doing payroll taxes yourself, Wave is going to feel like stepping into a Ferrari.

But even if you have never laid eyes on a ledger, the DIY option is well within reach.

Wave Payroll is an excellent teacher. It’s easy to find your way around, even if you don’t know what everything means right away. There’s a ton of guidance and the documentation is really helpful.

Learning is the best part of doing things yourself. With Wave Payroll, explanation and clarification is always a click or two away.

The live chat is phenomenal. It feels like the human on the other end is really invested in improving their service. The quick response is critical to get you through first-time jitters and reservations, to say nothing of preventing errors.

Some of the features that take no time to master include:

Automatic journal entries (if you use Wave Accounting)

Self-service pay stubs and tax forms for your employees

Workers’ compensation management

Basic payroll reporting

Automatic year-end tax forms (in tax service states)

Timesheets for PTO and accruals

Wave Payroll works best with Wave’s accounting software, which is free forever.

If price is a factor in your decision, this makes Wave really attractive. There are fees for accepting payments, but you will never have to pay for accounting or invoicing again.

Wave keeps prices low across the board. Small businesses will be able to handle most, if not all of their finances through Wave. Doing the same thing with QuickBooks would be a lot more expensive.

You can also temporarily deactivate your Wave account and stop paying. This can be really helpful for seasonal businesses.

There’s just a lot of freedom with Wave, and very few charges. It gets out of your way and lets you get payroll done.

As I said, Wave accounting is free forever, and you can test drive Wave Payroll with a free demo here.

What I Looked at To Find the Best Payroll Service Providers

I’d love to say, “Here’s the easiest payroll service to use,” but I can’t.

It depends on your situation. Two dry cleaners in the same town might have completely different experiences with the same service, based on how they pay their employees or the other business software they use.

How many times do you want to switch payroll services?

As few as possible would be my guess.

Here are the major criteria you need to consider in order to pick a payroll service that’s actually going to make payroll a breeze.

Payroll Capabilities

Who are your employees and how do you pay them?

Before you evaluate your options, map out every factor that could possibly influence payroll. This may include:

Different types of workers (W2, 1099, hourly, salaried)

Tax liability (federal, state, and local)

Employee benefits (retirement plans, healthcare, PTO, stock options)

Pay cycles (bi-weekly, monthly, unlimited)

Payment (direct deposit, paper checks, Venmo, Apple Pay)

Garnishments (child support, credit card debt, student loans)

These are just some of the major factors to consider. If your business is subject to unusual taxes or regulations, double-check with the vendor to make sure you’re covered.

It’s going to be tricky to keep the books accurate if you have to work around the system rather than as it’s designed.

The more mature payroll solutions, like ADP and Paychex, are going to support every conceivable tax and benefit situation. Lighter tools such as Gusto might not be able to handle complex retirement packages as easily.

If you don’t need all the capabilities of ADP or Paychex, the extra features are probably going to get in the way. Many small businesses can get everything they need from Gusto in a much more user-friendly and affordable platform.

Integrations

When your payroll service plays nice with your other business software, life is great. You don’t have to enter the same information in multiple places. In fact, a lot of data entry will be automated.

New hires are automatically on payroll. Whenever they clock in or record their tips, the information is all tracked and accounted for without any oversight on your part.

Integration with accounting, employee scheduling, time tracking, and HR software is a must. It really defeats the purpose of payroll software if you are constantly having to enter information manually.

Gusto is a standalone service, but it has direct integration with 52 of the most popular accounting, point-of-sale, time tracking, and business operations software.

Alternatively, you could look at bundling multiple solutions from the same provider. The payroll service from ADP is just one piece of a suite of financial and HR tools they offer. Quickbooks Payroll and Wave Payroll are the same way.

Obviously Wave Payroll and Wave Accounting work together seamlessly. If you are already using one, it makes a lot of sense to use the other.

Customer Service

Managing taxes and benefits is hard on a good day. Congress makes one small change to the law and suddenly everyone has to rework how they do payroll to stay compliant.

Is your payroll service on top of these changes? Can they take care of their end and help you sort out problems on yours?

If you are hiring people in multiple states, it’s so easy to make a mistake. Is your payroll service going to catch it and alert you before the IRS penalizes the company?

Having a payroll service that responds quickly can solve a lot of problems before they start.

Another important aspect to consider is onboarding, both for your company and your employees.

Does the vendor help you move your payroll data over if you are switching services mid-year? The more help they provide, the quicker and more accurate the transition will be.

Gusto and OnPay have a wonderfully simple employee onboarding process that is virtually hands-off for the employer. Beyond approvals, there’s little that isn’t handled by the employee and customer service.

Finding a payroll service that really supports you and your employees can make the difference between a frictionless experience and constant frustration.

Summary

For most users, Gusto and OnPay are my top recommendations.

They’re all excellent for small and fast-growth businesses with the ability to scale to match your needs. Plus, they’re affordable and easy to use.

However, different businesses require different solutions. Use the considerations we talked about as you go through the process of choosing the best payroll services for your business.

To recap all of my top choices:

Gusto – Best payroll service for remote and new businesses

OnPay – Best payroll service for simplifying complicated payroll

Paychex – Best for replacing your current payroll service

ADP – Best bundled HR and payroll service

QuickBooks Payroll – Best payroll service if you already use QuickBooks

Wave Payroll – Most affordable payroll service for DIY taxes

Gusto and OnPay are phenomenal, but if you are the DIY-type, Wave might be the choice for you. And if you are looking to outsource more than the essential HR tasks, ADP is a very attractive option.

The only bad choice is sticking with spreadsheets, or a payroll provider that’s not working.

Save time, eliminate mistakes, and get back to running your business with dependable payroll service by your side.

What payroll services do you prefer?

from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/2FsiW9a via https://neilpatel.com

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dailybail · 3 years

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Best Business Phone Systems

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

If you are frustrated with your current business phone system, it’s worth checking out your options.

You could save money, get a more useful set of features for your employees, and deliver a better experience for your customers.

But you want to be smart about shopping providers.

You can go anywhere on the web to find generic advice, like “choose a system that has the features you need.”

That helps nobody.

To help you play the field intelligently, my team reached out to experts who deploy business phone systems for a living and manage intense call centers.

Here, you’re going to find insights for buyers from a range of people that know what really matters. I talked with:

Matt: A network engineer with more than 20 years of experience helping companies manage their IT.

Nikhil: A founder of two cloud service companies and former managed service provider for unified communications.

Lawrence: A network operations center engineer working for a cloud business phone system provider.

Guy: A call center veteran with more than 15 years experience in keeping operations efficient.

Terry: The head of IT for a midsize software company who has deployed and scaled contact centers for numerous use cases.

We talked in-depth about how the underlying technology gives companies a real-world edge they don’t have today, resulting in this buyers’ guide.

You don’t have to be an IT pro to benefit from hearing their perspective on what a “one-click” integration really means or how to keep a phone system from getting hacked.

Take a break from the run-of-the-mill guidance. Keep reading to find out which business phone systems are really delivering value and how to decide between the top options.

#1 – Nextiva Review — The Best for Remote Teams

Nextiva helped so many companies keep their operations running while offices were closed. It’s a safe, proven business phone system that works as well in an office as it does for on-the-go and work-from-home employees.

Since the platform is entirely cloud-based, it’s extremely easy to deploy. Get set up in minutes and every employee will have unlimited voice and video calling.

You can add texting for a few bucks a month or look into their contact center solutions if you want to unify communications with chat and email, as well. Whatever setup you choose, there’s no new equipment to buy and it’s effortless to upgrade if you want more channels or features down the road.

I like it for offices with remote workers because Nextiva isn’t a one-way street—it will work with landline phones if you need it to.

You have the flexibility for people to be in or out of the office without disrupting productivity or the customer experience.

New users will have hardly any trouble getting on board. They just download the Nextiva app and they can start making calls.

“It’s easier to just download the app and connect to the servers,” Nikhil explained about why both employees and administrators liked softphone apps. All the security is baked in, and your employees “can work from their mobile, tablet, or desktop without configuring as much.”

Keeping your phone system secure is a huge concern if you have remote workers signing in from home and public networks.

Lawrence told me you want a provider using TLS and SRTP to encrypt traffic so that no one “can see what you’re doing, or listen to any of the calls that go over that line.”

Nextiva uses both of these protocols to secure voice traffic, and also has fraud mitigation to detect and block suspicious calling activity on your account.

“A malicious actor can use your phone lines,” Lawrence said, “and you regularly see that there are multiple lines open to a faraway country with an expensive pay phone number.”

Nextiva constantly monitors your account for such toll fraud and other types of hacks, giving you peace of mind while workers are consistently outside your firewall.

There’s just a lot less to worry about with Nextiva providing your phone service. Your admins won’t have to provision specific phones or ensure that calls get to the right place. Because users are on softphones, that number follows them wherever they go.

This is important, as Matt noted, because it can get pretty tricky trying to route calls when people are moving around with a number tied to a specific phone.

Nextiva lets you avoid those headaches altogether. As long as someone is signed into their Nextiva account, all their preferences are stored and they’ll receive calls just fine.

In fact, Nextiva recently redeveloped their extension provisioning so that you can start a call flow from an extension:

This lets you route internal calls without having to pay for extra numbers, which is sometimes unavoidable with other providers.

Plus, look how easy it is to add an extension—if you can order food online you can configure the Nextiva phone system.

This makes it easier to take advantage of the flexible routing features, like Find Me/Follow Me, and your employees can guarantee that calls find them no matter where they’re working that day.

As Matt explained, Follow Me features are a big step up from simple call forwarding.

“Sure, back in the day, you could forward calls to your cell, and you would get to answer,” he said, “but you wouldn’t see who it was.” Now that the feature is digital, “it’s just a lot more robust,”

Follow Me lets you set answering rules that redirect your call to multiple places—your office, your cell, your home—before sending someone to voicemail. You can even set rules based on what day or time of day it is.

“It guarantees that the person on the other end could possibly get you rather than just get your voicemail, which nobody listens to nowadays,” said Matt.

There are other features designed to make the lives of administrators and supervisors more manageable. The admin portal makes quick work of adding new users, and admins can edit active call flows. Switch up your phone menu, greetings, or reroute calls without shutting off your phone system to make changes.

Your supervisors have access to a rich set of team collaboration tools, including:

Team calendar

Screen sharing

Persistent chat (team messaging)

Multi-site support

Real-time status alerts

Video conferencing

Be it sales, service, or just general business needs, everyone benefits with team messaging and an auto attendant that gets calls to the right place faster.

Perhaps the chief reason companies opt for Nextiva is its highly available customer service. You can reach out by email, chat, or phone, 24 hours a day. This is very attractive, as phone support is usually something that only comes with other providers’ premium plans.

On-demand technical support is a boon to teams that aren’t always in the office. Additionally, Nextia offers superior guidance and training to help your team get the most out of your new system on day one.

Nextiva actually took home multiple Stevie awards in 2020, which recognized the company’s consistently high quality of service.

The company will also help you migrate your existing phone number to ensure that your entire system is working as planned. With all but the entry-level plan, Nextiva includes professional implementation as part of the price tag.

Let’s take a closer look at how to buy Nextiva, as the company supports a wide range of businesses with their flexible pricing pricing structure:

The above prices are for annual subscriptions. You can opt to pay a little more per month if you don’t want to sign up for a year.

Essential is one of the cheapest plans on the market that offers voice, video, text, and fax. If you are looking for an affordable business phone system that supports multiple channels and remote collaboration, this is it.

That said, the Essential plan lacks video conferencing and many of the integrations that make Nextiva such an easy option for remote work. You get integrations with Outlook and Google Contacts, but you have to upgrade to Professional in order to tie in CRM software like HubSpot, Zendesk, and Salesforce.

The other major perk of upgrading to Professional that makes a lot of sense for remote teams is that you get full 24/7 customer support. With Essential, you are limited to support during business hours.

For companies that don’t have a CRM already, Nextiva includes one for free at the Professional tier, which is only marginally more expensive than Essential.

The Nextos CRM, which is built right into the platform, has special applications for both sales and service. It’s native, so you don’t have to spend time getting the apps to talk to one another.

This is very appealing, because you get the CRM functionality without having to pay for an additional service, or “jump through hoops” trying to make the integration work, which Jason said can be pretty challenging.

He also highlighted difficulties getting multiple CRMs to work on the same network for different departments. Say your sales team is using Sugar CRM and your service team is using Zendesk. Nextiva has integrations with both of those applications, so you have a lot less to configure on your own.

Enterprise and Ultimate tiers include a longer list of integrations, richer analytics and survey tools, and a deeper set of features with the Nextos CRM platform.

I want to call out the Enterprise plan, which starts at $32.95/month per user, as being extremely affordable compared to similarly feature-rich plans from other providers.

In short, Nextiva is a full-bodied business phone solution that delivers top-quality communications for businesses of any size. In the office, out of the office, it doesn’t matter. Nextiva has you covered.

You can try the Essentials plan free for seven days or request a demo of a premium plan.

#2 – RingCentral Review — The Best for Integrating Phones With Your Business

RingCentral has become one of the most popular service providers in the business communications space. They offer every feature a growing business needs at a competitive price. Unlimited calling, texting, and video don’t hurt either.

It’s my top pick for businesses that want to integrate their existing business software with their new phone system.

It doesn’t offer a built-in CRM like Nextiva, but it has pre-built integrations with a much longer list of apps. Most users will be able to keep using the software that has helped them get to the point where they are now—you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

And because RingCentral is so widely used, all of these integrations have been tried, tested, and improved under a range of conditions.

This is really important—not all integrations are equal. As Terry pointed out, some integrations involve a lot of development work on your end, to actually get “the systems to communicate with each other the way you want.”

RingCentral has taken as much of that work off your plate as possible. There’s still going to be some initial setup, especially if you’ve customized your CRM or ERP to the nth degree already. But you’ll quickly find out why so many users describe the integration process as seamless, and ample documentation online should you encounter issues along the way.

And the benefits in terms of streamlining the workday for your employees are hard to overstate.With Salesforce integration, for example, you can click-to-dial contacts, schedule video meetings, connect the phones to your sales cadence—all within your Salesforce account.

Think of how much time this saves for every call.

Plus, you’re going to be able to track metrics that really matter. With the CRM integration, your analytics are going to reflect information about your customers, not just call times.

You can get really crafty with the segmentation to look at sales goals in different buyer brackets, geographies, or whatever you think is worth tracking.

That’s just one example, but RingCentral offers far more pre-built integrations than any other platform I reviewed.

You want to be able to share information throughout the company, and it really grates on employees when they have to manually move data between apps that don’t play well together.

From my experience and from talking with experts, I recommend demoing these products, if not reaching out to RingCentral to get a reference from a similarly situated customer. This will give you the best possible sense of the quality and depth of each pre-built integration.

But when you’re thinking about connecting your other software, integration is only one part of building out a more efficient process for your teams. RingCentral gives you an extensive range of call handling and administrative features, which will let you tune your system perfectly for each part of your company.

As Terry explained, customer service CRMs tend to be “a little more complicated from a phone system standpoint” than those for sales.

Why? Because sales is generally about getting incoming calls to people as quickly as possible. In a support situation, “it’s not the opposite, but it’s kind of close,” he said with a little bit of a laugh.

Terry’s not arguing for service teams to give customers the runaround, but you do need to make sure that the person calling actually has a problem. From there, you want to direct them to self-service resources first.

Maybe they can reset their password without speaking to an agent, for example. Both parties are going to be happy about that outcome. This keeps your lines clear and lets your service agents focus on customers with really thorny issues.

RingCentral provides everything you need to manage call queues and set up your phone tree to direct customers however you need.

Integrate your phone system with live chat software and have bots provide automated responses that allow customers to answer a question on their own. Or let the bot triage incoming chats and gather info for when a rep takes over. Incorporate that with skills-based routing that gets a Spanish-speaking caller to the appropriate agent.

There are a ton of opportunities to streamline workflows and improve the overall customer experience because RingCentral is so easy to connect to the other parts of your business.

Some of the platform’s other highlight features include:

Single sign-on

Visual voicemail and voicemail to text

Team messaging

Real-time analytics

Developer platform

Quality of service reports

RingCentral is cloud-based and hosted, so your agents are going to be able to work from the office and home without much of a hiccup. It’s secure, dependable, and well within the price range for many businesses.

The entry-level Essentials tier is capped at 20 users and comes at a fairly attractive price for very small businesses. But I want to focus on the other plans, which include integrations with the popular software I’ve been describing.

Standard comes with unlimited voice, video, text, and online fax, as well as essential administrative features to stay organized. At this tier, you get integration with productivity suites, like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, as well as collaboration software, analytics tools, bots, and more.

Premium includes multi-site administration and management, as well as a multi-level auto attendant to route calls more effectively across sites. You also get advanced in-call features and CRM integrations to help sales, customer service, and general customer success.

Premium is still a very competitive price, and the CRM integration is well worth it. You’ll also get access to industry-specific integrations for healthcare, manufacturing, and other verticals. It’s really worth digging into their extensive App gallery to see what’s available.

The Ultimate tier comes with unlimited automatic call recording, which is a boon for organizations with compliance concerns or potential legal exposure. It also includes device and status alerts to assist admins and supervisors with monitoring critical KPIs at scale.

At the end of the day, companies love RingCentral because it can be molded to suit the way you do business. It makes everyone’s workday a little more streamlined, every interaction a little more productive.

Try out RingCentral free for 15 days and get access to Essentials, Standard, or Premium. Test the phone system, integrations, and discover why so many businesses choose RingCentral.

#3 – Ooma Review — The Best for Companies That Want Deskphones

Want to keep all the things you like about traditional phones and get rid of all the annoying parts? That is Ooma Office, my number one choice for people who want the hardware without the headaches.

Use your analog phones, mobile phones, computers, laptops, conference phones, fax machines—whatever you have—and Ooma will work beautifully.

The Ooma softphone app can be used as soon as you sign up. If you choose to order desk phones through Ooma or use the ones you already have, the entire activation and setup process takes about 15 minutes.

By purchasing phones directly from Ooma, they’ll come preconfigured. As soon as you plug it in, the phone will automatically establish a secure connection with Ooma and you can start dialing.

The company actually uses the same technology governments use to encrypt classified data, including a VPN tunnel and SRTP. This is exactly the type of security that Lawrence and Matt told our team to look for.

Go ahead, ditch the old PBX and discover how easy Ooma makes it to personalize your phone system. You get full control over configuration through the Ooma Office web portal.

It’s not as sleek as Nextiva, but it’s very clean and straight-forward. Most people who switch from a traditional PBX wind up being able to do way more themselves at a fraction of the cost.

You no longer have to know anything about how the underlying technology works in order to set up a virtual receptionist to greet callers and route them to the appropriate department. You can opt for all phones to ring in the department, or have them ring in a particular sequence if your primary contact can’t answer.

Creating a ring group like this used to be difficult, but it’s just a few clicks in Ooma.

The same goes for hot desking, which allows Ooma Enterprise users to make calls from any phone. Lawrence described how his company—which doesn’t have fixed workspaces for individual employees—really benefited from the ability for employees to go up to any phone in the office, enter their extension, and start making calls.

“Even if you have multiple branches and you work from a different branch,” said Lawrence, “you can just go there, and know that the phone system will work.” Any one of your employees can use any phone and once they connect, all of their preferences and settings will be right there.

One reason I really like Ooma for small business is that you don’t need to sign a contract to get the best deal. They will port one number per line for free and there are zero hidden charges.

So that’s transparent pricing, no contracts, and access to a robust business phone system with features like:

A conference bridge for each user

Call management tools

SMS messaging

Ring groups

Extensions, and extension-to-extension dialing

Intercom

And that’s not even the full list of what’s included with Ooma Office, which starts at $19.95/month per line.

Like the other providers I looked at, you’ll get unlimited calling in the US and Canada, but Ooma’s unlimited coverage extends to Mexico and Puerto Rico as well.

The company also has lower than average international calling rates. For example, a call to China would be 2¢ per minute with Ooma Office, whereas the same call would be 3¢ per minute with Dialpad or 3.9¢ with RingCentral.

That 1-2¢ savings adds up quickly if you have a lot of customers abroad.

As I mentioned, the pricing is extremely straightforward.

If you choose to upgrade to Office Pro, you get video conferencing, call recording, voicemail transcription, and access to the Ooma desktop app.

Ooma Office is going to be more than enough for many businesses, unless of course they absolutely require one of the key features that come with Ooma Office Pro.

The price of upgrading is very reasonable, and well below the price of other companies that offer a similar range of services.

Ooma Enterprise (which does require a contract) gives you access to more channels. But it’s not quite as turnkey as other unified communications platforms, like you can get through RingCentral, Nextiva, and Dialpad.

I say this because a lot of the integration and functionality that comes baked in with those platforms has to be done custom with Ooma Enterprise.

This could provide a better end result for companies struggling to fit their workflows into pre-built integrations from those other providers.. Ooma has worked with restaurants and retail to streamline order tracking, payments, and reporting through integration.

As much as I like the pre-built integrations, there’s a “cookie cutter” aspect that comes from trying to make them work generally. So it’s worth giving Ooma a call if you aren’t wowed by the integrations offered by other platforms.

Enterprise subscriptions also come with a greater range of features, like hot desking, advanced call flows, and team messaging. The Enterprise Call Center solution is billed as a complete UCaaS, but neither I nor the experts we talked with had any experience with it, so you’ll have to investigate yourself.

For small businesses, though, Ooma Office is a tried and true way to keep the phones working with minimal complexity. It’s a true plug-and-play solution that works with a wide variety of phones. Analog, IP, wireless, and conference phones are all going to work just fine.

Keep your equipment if you have it, or buy new phones at a price that often beats the local dealer. Ooma offers open standards phones from manufacturers like Yealink, a favorite among the experts, so you can mix new phones into your old system with minimal frustration.

Hang on to your existing number, pick a new one, set up a toll-free number, connect online fax—none of this takes any time at all.

Now you have a cloud-based phone system that unites all of your tools within a business phone system that works in the office or on-the-go.

If your current business phone system isn’t getting it done, give Ooma a try, risk-free, today.

#4 – Grasshopper Review — The Best for Businesses That Need Fewer than 10 Lines

If you need a very simple phone system, Grasshopper can provide it for a lot less than some of the other options I’ve reviewed.

It’s not as deep in features as some of the more expensive packages from other providers, but small businesses get the essentials of a modern business phone system.

Plus, unlike other options, every Grasshopper plan comes with every feature the company offers—so you’re not having to purchase more than you need just to solve one particular issue.

The most basic plan comes with a business number that works on any device and three free extensions. Bear in mind that extensions aren’t always free, especially with budget-friendly options.

With Grasshopper, on the other hand, you can outfit a small team for the price of a single line.

It’s really a complete package for the small office. Scaling up remains affordable, though I wouldn’t push it too far over ten lines, as the call administration is really geared towards smaller business phone systems.

Grasshopper is a perfect low-cost, all-in solution for a single brick-and-mortar, a small warehouse, a company with a few different locations, or a toll-free number for an ecommerce site.

Grasshopper isn’t as elaborate, but that helps teams get comfortable with it more quickly. You don’t have to have an IT wizard on staff in order to add a new user or extension. Because of the simplicity, even your most tech-averse users are going to be fine managing business calls from their personal cell.

Nothing is going to be tied to a hard phone with Grasshopper, so you don’t have all the headaches Matt talked about with regards to people moving from station to station. There’s no backend provisioning necessary if personnel get shifted from one desk to another, which you’d have to do with deskphones in many cases.

Despite the flexibility, you still get the core phone system functionality small businesses need. Transfer calls and set extensions to forward calls to any device with a phone number. Send calls to a landline if you want.

You get the core phone features without the IT drama or security concerns. Some of the most useful for small business include:

Business texting

Call forwarding and transfers

Virtual fax

Voicemail transcription

Free extensions

Simultaneous call handling

Call screening

Custom greetings

For someone trying to run their business off a cell phone or struggling to manage an outdated phone system, Grasshopper is a revelation. Instantly, you’ll be able to screen calls and know whether it’s a personal or work call.

On your end, you’ll be able to choose which number you want to call from. No more carrying two phones or anxiety over which type of call you’re getting.

And when callers dial in, they’ll be welcomed by a professional greeting. Answer questions about business hours or let them select which department they’d like to speak with.

Because you get free extensions with every line you purchase, you’re not paying for dozens of extra numbers just to route calls.

One of the other features that I think is critical for small businesses today is texting. That’s included with Grasshopper, which makes the system a very cost-effective way to open additional channels of communication with your customers.

Set up instant responses to new callers when you’re on the line or in a meeting. Read a voicemail transcription, respond with a text, and you won’t even have to make a call.

Grasshopper plans include unlimited calling and texting. You’re looking at a flat rate each month. The prices below reflect an annual subscription, and are a few dollars higher if you choose to pay month-to-month.

Since every feature comes with every plan, you’re really buying based on how many phone numbers and extensions you need. Solo comes with one number and three extensions, which can be routed to your cell, home, other colleagues, or different locations.

Partner comes with three numbers and six extensions, which is ideal if you’re trying to grow beyond a single location or manage teams in the field. Small Business comes with five numbers and unlimited extensions.

With Partner and Small Business, you won’t have to ask employees to give you their personal number or buy them a phone. They’ll be set up with everything they need to receive, screen, and transfer calls.

You can purchase extra numbers for $10 per month each or hire a Ruby Receptionist, which is a live US-based agent who can answer calls and speak with customers. It starts at $135 per month for 50 receptionist minutes, and the cost per minute goes down the more you purchase.

This could be huge for a small company that’s struggling to man the phones. For a tiny fraction of what it would cost to hire a full-time person, you can stop worrying about missing calls and know that it’s handled.

I really like Grasshopper for small business. It’s all the necessary parts of a phone system without tons of features aimed at call centers or larger businesses. You can’t get too fancy—there are no direct integrations with other platforms and there’s no easy way to add additional channels—but it excels at the essentials.

OpenPhone is similar, but people that are looking for a more traditional office phone experience will like Grasshopper because it handles things like virtual fax and extensions with forwarding rules.

If you want a stress-free business phone system for small businesses, you should try it out. Grasshopper offers a 7-day free trial, no credit card required.

#5 – Dialpad Review — The Only Way To Deploy A Contact Center in 10 Minutes

I like Dialpad because it takes the complication out of call center work for employees and delivers a great experience to customers. Everything about the platform is streamlined, clear, and made for the way communication happens today.

You can (and should) check out Dialpad for individual channels, but if you’re looking for an all-in contact center system that works out of the box, this is it.

“Nobody goes out of the way and says, ‘Hey, I can’t wait to call into this contact center,’” Guy told my team, drawing on years of first-hand experience. “However, when they are going to do it, you want to make it as seamless as possible.”

Dialpad gives you everything you need. Deploy in minutes and continually improve your system over time with Dialpad’s unique set of integrations, AI-powered analytics, and speech recognition technology.

These features deliver meaningful benefits to your agents during every interaction. If an unknown caller says their name, Dialpad will pin it to the call screen and apply it to the real-time transcript of the conversation.

Agents talk to dozens of people before lunch each day. Having names and a running transcript of what was said is going to make each conversation that much easier. Agents aren’t asking people to repeat information, and they can refer back to past conversations with the same client in a click or two.

Once the call is complete, Dialpad pulls action items out of the call for review. No more scribbling notes or logging into another platform to check boxes.

Agents can actually share these call highlights with coworkers or supervisors with a couple clicks, leaving a short note for context:

The entire experience seems like a step forward to me. From the agent perspective, everything is centralized, regardless of what channels they are using. The platform minimizes the number of clicks each action takes, which boosts productivity and resolves problems for customers faster.

When an agent clicks to record a call, for example, an automated message plays that says the call is being recorded. This is a big deal, because companies can face steep fines if they don’t let a caller know the conversation is being recorded. Such violations range from $500 – $2,500, or even jail time.

The laws vary in different states and countries, but agents don’t have to remember to say anything with Dialpad. It happens automatically.

You’re completely covered in terms of call routing and administration features. Get as crafty as you want standing up your call center, tie in every channel, integrate your business software, and Dialpad remains easy to manage.

Reviewing call recordings, for example, is much easier for supervisors when every conversation has been transcribed and time-stamped. Add that to the deep analytics features, and you have a phone system that allows team leaders to take action when they see an agent in trouble.

Guy was long on supervisor features that help train agents. In call centers, employee burnout is a reality. Yes, Guy said, people get tired of taking tons of calls, but another factor is that “agents don’t get a lot of very specific, detailed feedback about how they can improve.”

With Dialpad, there are so many opportunities to intervene. Supervisors can listen in to live calls, “whisper” to agents so the caller can’t hear, or “barge” in and take over the call. Alternatively, they could listen in and reach out through the chat app.

“If I’m able to monitor my agent live, and I can see that their handle time is really going past eight or nine minutes, I can drop in and listen in,” Guy said, “and maybe I can co-pilot and help land the plane.”

Another way to increase agent productivity (and happiness) is skills-based routing, which assigns calls to agents based on their areas of expertise. Guy said agents get overwhelmed when their supervisor just throws them on the phone and says, “You need to start knowing a lot about everything.”

You’ll also see that skills-based routing will increase your first call resolution because your agents that are specialized are automatically fielding calls in their area. It’s a real win-win, and you’re not purchasing any extra hardware or writing complex scripts to get this done.

It’s a really deep platform and you should absolutely investigate the whole of what it lets you do. But let’s quickly highlight some of the other standout features you get with Dialpad Call Center:

Customer sentiment tracking

Custom hold music

In-queue callback

Manager alerts

Real-time agent recommendations

Pre-built integrations with Salesforce, Zendesk, Kustomer and more

Dialpad acquired TalkIQ, a company that specialized in speech recognition and natural language processing. It’s just a cut above, and during conversations, Dialpad will pull from your knowledge-base to make real-time recommendations to agents.

For example, if a customer says they want to apply for a loan, all the relevant SOPs and documents pop right up on the agent’s screen. “Yes, I’d be happy to help with that,” a relatively new agent can say, confidently guiding the customer through each step of the process.

You’re going to have to get in touch with Dialpad to get a price for their call center solution, though there is a three-license minimum for the Pro plan and a 100-license minimum for the Enterprise plan.

Dialpad’s basic business communication service is about $5 less per month than both Nextiva and RingCentral. You still get unlimited talk and text, so this might be a good option even if you’re not just looking to use it for a contact center.

I’d take a hard look at Dialpad if you’re having trouble finding a solution that accommodates all the integrations and channels you want. The company has a rich app marketplace, as well as an open API and Zapier integration to connect virtually any tool teams use today.

Request a free trial of Dialpad contact center today.

#6 – OpenPhone Review — The Best for Single Teams and Sole Proprietors

OpenPhone is designed with freelancers, founders, and entrepreneurs working alone or with small teams. It gives you a separate business number on your mobile phone, but unlike other apps that do the same thing, it has very few limitations.

When we’re talking about “second line” solutions like Google Voice, it’s handy, but primitive. You’re not giving incoming callers a menu of options or the ability to transfer calls. But with OpenPhone, you get both plus so much more.

Instantly, you can establish a professional business identity—no more handing out your personal number. People who call your number are greeted by an auto attendant that lets them press one for sales, or two to hear business hours. It’s easy to configure and a major step up in terms of how your business appears to prospective customers.

OpenPhone will get you a new local or toll-free number, and their team will help you port your old number over if you want to keep it.

Starting at $10 per month, OpenPhone is less than half the cost of other basic business phone systems. You’re not getting video conferencing, sure, but you have unlimited talk and text on any device.

If you have employees or partners, you can set them up with a business number for $5 per month. They’ll be able to use their own number, but you can also set up shared numbers and inboxes to keep everyone on the same page.

This is a big deal and where OpenPhone really stands apart from the competition. There are much more comprehensive (and expensive) phone systems that don’t let you do this.

With OpenPhone, you get threaded group messaging to communicate within the team, and the ability for multiple users to call and text from a single number.

As David Sacks, the investor from Craft Ventures who led OpenPhone’s most recent round of funding told VentureBeat, “OpenPhone puts the business phone inside a collaborative app that anyone on the team can use from wherever they are.”

For the busy entrepreneur or small business owner, the end result is that it’s much easier to communicate with people in and out of the organization. Everyone can see what’s happening, what needs to get done, and has the tools to respond immediately.

You’re not getting some watered down system with limited capabilities. Attach files and send SMS, MMS, or even GIFs:

I feel like a lot of the budget-friendly business phone solutions leave a lot to be desired in terms of user experience, but not OpenPhone. Yes, it’s just the bare essentials, but the app’s not freighted by legacy phone technology in the slightest—it’s perfectly designed for small business communication in the 21st century.

As Guy pointed out, smaller companies benefit from having the ability to work on multiple channels. “You have to depend on more of your folks to do more things in the smaller desks,” he said. But it’s not enough to simply open up more channels—employees have to be able to “easily navigate in between them.”

OpenPhone has a simple, intuitive interface that gives your team the ability to chat with colleagues, or text an answer to a customer who left a voicemail about something they emailed you. It’s all right there.

Some of the other features that are going to make a difference include:

Auto-texting snippets if you miss call

Call screening

Setting business hours and do-not-disturb

Call recording

Call transfers and forwarding

International calling

Zapier and HubSpot integration

To get the full range of features and integrations, you’ll have to purchase an upgraded plan.

All OpenPhone plans are flat rate with 1,000 calling minutes and texts per month. It’s billed as “unlimited” but, like many providers, this is within the acceptable use policy, so I wouldn’t use this service to run drip campaigns or anything like that.

Standard includes most of the features I’ve described, including Slack, Zapier, Google Contacts and email integration. If you want the ability to transfer calls, a more complex IVR, or integration with HubSpot you’ll have to go with Premium.

Right now, HubSpot is the only CRM integration, but integrations with Salesforce and Pipedrive are in the works.

OpenPhone is a young company that’s constantly upgrading their service and adding critical features. I like where it’s going, but I already like where it is today more than any other lightweight business phone app.

Try OpenPhone free for the first week and never look back.

What I Looked at to Find the Best Business Phone Systems

All my top recommendations for business phone systems are cloud-based, which means you make calls through the internet instead of a landline. They’re also hosted, which means you sign into a service to use the system rather than build the infrastructure yourself.

For most companies today, a cloud-based hosted phone system is going to be your best bet. Here’s why:

Unlimited Calling: Say goodbye to per minute charges for calls or a set block of text messages each month. Every provider I’ve reviewed offers unlimited calling in the US and CA. You’ll also get unlimited texting and video conferencing, if that’s included in your plan. Where there are limits (or free calling in additional countries), I’ve called it out in the reviews.

Lower IT responsibility: Your provider will host the phone system, so you have a lot less to worry about in terms of security, maintenance, and keeping the network up 24/7. If you host your own system, you have to buy all the equipment and manage the system yourself.

Remote work ready: People can sign into the system securely wherever they have internet. If you host your own system, there are a ton of security issues that crop up when you have people trying to access your system from unknown or home networks.

Cost: Running your phone system through the cloud is cheaper per month than using a landline. There’s also much less equipment to buy, which decreases your initial outlay for a new system—no PBXs, routers, switches, upkeep, or need to have additional wires to your location.

More functionality and control: You get all the call handling features that you get from a traditional PBX—like call routing, conferencing, and voicemail—but these can all be managed by non-technical people. Admins and managers are going to be able to make changes to the phone system themselves, which was not always possible with older systems.

Scalability: You can add new users without purchasing additional infrastructure. You can also upgrade plans to access new features without any sort of downtime or migration headaches.

Future-ready: Nothing is truly future-proof, but cloud-based phone systems are definitely the direction that things are headed. Each year, these systems get less expensive and more powerful, whereas the traditional PBX/landline setup is becoming harder and harder to accommodate.

You can still make calls over landlines or host your own phone system on premises, but I don’t recommend it for most people.

Landlines make sense if there is no way to get fast internet to your business—but it’s not really a choice in that case.

In terms of hosting a system yourself, you need IT staff to troubleshoot issues and keep it up 24/7. No compromises. And, even then, pulling your IT team away to resolve issues at all hours might end up being more expensive in the end.

Personally, I can’t imagine going back to a landline, trying to run my business off a second cell phone, or hiring a fleet of techs to manage my phone system for Neil Patel Digital. You couldn’t pay me.

But I have marketing ventures and millions of readers in different continents—my communication challenges aren’t the same as everyone else. To help my readers, my team reached out to five experts from different quarters of the business phone system world to gather perspective for prospective buyers.

These conversations confirmed for me that cloud-based phones are the way to go, and I learned some really great ways to approach the different decisions that businesses face.

No one is using landlines any more, according to Matt, a backend IT veteran. Right now, he handles all the communications for a nonprofit healthcare provider that has several clinics spread across a major American metro area.

Every dollar counts for these clinics, so one of his first projects was helping them switch over to a cloud-based system.

“With voice over IP, you can take your existing internet connection and basically slap a phone system on top of it,” he said. “It’s just like a layer,” rather than having to find someone familiar with wiring new cables to the office.

Nor are people managing their own phone system as much as they used to. I spoke with Nikhil, who helps small businesses install open-source phone systems that they can manage themselves. He noted that a lot of people who start out managing their own phone system wind up buying managed plans.

“It’s the support plus SLAs,” he said. Instead of hiring people, these companies decide to let someone else handle the backend.

“They don’t have to mess with the technology at all,” said Nikhil, “and they’re basically not seeing any downtime.”

Lawrence works for a VoIP provider that actually built their own network. He emphasized how you really need to know what you’re doing if you host your own system on premises.

For example, you’ll have to deploy the phone system behind a firewall, which regularly causes all sorts of trouble for cloud-phone systems, like one-way audio.

“This can be fixed by configuring your firewall correctly,” said Lawrence, “but it can be difficult because most of the problems don’t occur all the time—it’s hard to reproduce issues.”

Every phone system is going to have things go wrong—with a managed plan, you’re not on the hook for solving these mysteries. As Lawrence said, people can stop worrying about the phone system and more about taking calls.

But of course it’s not just making calls any more. Guy talked with my team about the “big shift” in how customers are making contact with businesses. He started working in call centers more than 15 years ago. Now the contact centers he manages connect with customers through talk, text, chat, email, and social media.

Guy’s question for companies is, “Are you gathering demographics about your customer base, figuring out age-brackets and trends?”

You can do this easily with VoIP, which gives you a lot of ways to connect your communication data to reporting tools and other business software that lets you harness these insights. Doing this with a traditional phone system would be much more expensive, if it is possible at all.

Terry, who ran the IT backend of call centers rather than administration like Guy, emphasized how painful it is to switch from one phone system to another. “It’s worth your time to really weigh your options before making the switch and making sure that it’s not just enough.”

It’s probably a lot smarter to get more than you need today, or to find a system that will more likely accommodate future changes.

You definitely don’t want to find yourself “in a situation where you’re on a system that can’t handle what you need it to do from day to day,” Terry said. “Trying to find a quick fix to work around that is very hard.”

Running your business phone system on the internet is definitely the least risky, and likely least expensive way to go. But even among this particular type of business phone system, there are things you want to pay attention to.

Here’s how you decide from among the best options.

Requirements for Cloud-Based Phone Systems

Because you are calling over the internet instead of a landline, you have to make sure your network can handle it.

Now VoIP doesn’t require a ton of bandwidth on its own, but the connection has to be stable. Any delay or issues with the data being transferred and real-time voice/video communication becomes choppy.

You’ve probably had your internet bug out during a call. It really ruins a conversation, which is a death blow for sales, customer service, or really anyone using the phone system for business.

So what do you need?

It’s going to depend on how many people are using the phones (or other channels) and what else is happening on the system.

Nextiva lets you test your internet speed on their website. You can simulate up to 200 phones, and you’ll find out all the important metrics—upload speed, download speed, latency, jitter, and packet loss.

Ideally, you have (or can get) fiber internet as opposed to cable or DSL. The latter two “high-speed” internet options are fine for home users, but VoIP is simply not going to be reliable for business on DSL.

Cable is better, but you still could run into issues if you have a decent number of people making calls. “For one office it could work,” Matt said, “but if you have multiple offices, a cable modem is just not going to cut it.”

He had to convince the healthcare clinic he worked for to switch to fiber, which was over three times more expensive than the cable service they were using. Yes, it was going to cost more, but both customers and employees were reporting issues with the current service. Call quality was not great, and there were dropped calls from time to time.

These are important, timely conversations with patients. Matt and his team prioritized voice traffic on the network, which made sure that calls got as much bandwidth as possible, but it slowed down the internet for all the employees.

“It was ridiculously slow,” Matt said. Although it allowed the phones to work, “the internet traffic was much, much slower until we put the fiber in. Now we have no complaints.”

With fiber, the upload/download speeds are the same, whereas cable they’re different. You may have 100 down, 40 up. So, if people are uploading a lot of documents or using heavy-weight CRM software, trying to make calls over cable is going to get problematic. This is what happened to the company Matt worked with. Definitely something to avoid.

One other thing to pay attention to, according to Terry, is trying to run that CRM software plus a phone system on low-end computers.

“You can run into some issues for a computer that’s probably pretty good for browsing the web and doing basic stuff,” he said. But once you integrate the CRM, “all of a sudden it’s stretched to its limits.”

This can cause problems with connectivity and performance loss, “where you get an echoey call or other weird issues that are pretty hard to deal with.”

My advice is to address the requirements of any system head on, especially if you are integrating powerful software with your phones.

At some point, any savings from low-end equipment or cheap internet is going to start to blow back on you. “Just as people have factored in electricity or insurance, it’s a cost of doing business,” Terry said. “You have to have a strong internet backbone if you want to have that stability and uptime.”

Desk Phones, Headsets, and Softphone Apps

You’re going to hear that some of these business phone systems are “no hardware required.” Is that for real?

It’s true enough that cloud-based systems don’t require routers, switches, PBXs, or even desk phones—you just need the internet. With the options I chose, you can set people up with a softphone, which is just an application that allows people to make calls through your system from a tablet, mobile phone, or their computer with a headset.

A lot of people are using softphone apps these days, Nikhil said, because of the flexibility.

“It’s easier to just download the app and connect to the servers,” he said, talking about why cloud-based phone systems are so attractive to customers. Their powerful softphone apps offer “flexibility without the maintenance and troubleshooting.”

Still, you have to think about the environment where these phones will be used. As Terry pointed out, you can’t just get the cheapest headset for every user planning to use a softphone.

Investing in high-quality noise-cancelling microphones is really valuable if you have a bunch of sales folks making calls in the same room. Otherwise, “it’s harder to build trust with customers” who can hear the other conversations in the background.

For my part, when someone calls me from a number I don’t recognize and I can tell the speaker is sandwiched between a bunch of other folks blasting out calls, my reaction isn’t positive.

A little bit of extra money on some good noise cancelling headsets is definitely going to increase your conversion rate, whether you’re serving or selling to customers. RingCentral has a great selection of headsets that work really well with their system. So does Nextiva.

The other big advantage to softphone apps is that they are much easier to configure. For the most part, you are just signing in to access an account—so you can work from anywhere, and your number follows you around.

Desk phones, on the other hand, “create more headaches for me,” Matt explained. “As people move around, their extension follows the phone, not them.” When staff get shuffled around from one health clinic to another, Matt has to re-provision them on different servers.

For employees that just use the softphone app, it’s easier because they have a single extension, “and that extension follows them no matter what office they go to, because it only requires an internet connection.”

But some offices still want desk phones, retail stores need wall mounts, hotels have to have a phone in every room, and so on. If you are in the position of needing so-called “hard phones,” there are a few things to pay attention to.

“I would really look at something that supports open standards,” Lawrence said. If you go with phones from certain providers—like Cisco, for example—those phones are only going to work on a Cisco system.

On the other hand, Lawrence explained that open-standards phones, “can be used with most PBXs that exist, and you can easily switch from one provider to the other.” This is going to give you a lot more flexibility and control, not to mention being better positioned for an uncertain future.

The other big thing that Lawrence said buyers should pay attention to is the provisioning system. You want to make sure that the phone manufacturer offers a provisioning and redirection service that makes it simple to add new phones. “So if you have to configure hundreds or even thousands of phones, you can just plug them in, and they will work.”

Providers like Ooma can be a great choice for companies that still want phones. As people needed to work remotely, folks with Ooma office just took their desk phones and plugged them in at home. Everything worked fine—calls were still secure and all the routing features worked like people were still at the office.

For the most part, the providers I selected will let you keep using whatever phones you have. If you already have IP phones, great. If you have analog phones, most providers will sell you an adapter that will let them call through the internet.

In terms of manufacturers, the experts consistently cited Poly and Yealink for consistently delivering phones that have good voice quality, are easy to use, and work well with a lot of other technology. Poly (formerly Polycom) received especially good reviews from the experts as a source for conference phones.

As Matt said, “they just seem to have better microphones.” The standard base conference phones work pretty well for a small room, but you may want to get additional microphones for a room that’s large enough for 12 or more people.

If you still use fax machines, look for a provider that offers that specifically. Fax machines use a different modem than phones, so you can’t just layer it on top of VoIP. Providers like RingCentral and Ooma have all the adapters and capabilities you need for stress-free faxing.

In the end, cloud-based business phone systems require less hardware than traditional set ups—it’s no contest. But at the same time, you may need headsets, desk phones, and conference phones, and you want to get high-quality equipment.

Voice and Unified Communications

Other channels are gaining ground, but voice is still a critical component of business communications. “I just want to speak with an actual person,” is a feeling we’ve all had as customers. But it’s simply not enough to only have voice communications these days.

A lot of the solutions I like give you multiple channels with your service. OpenPhone and Grasshopper both give you texting with voice to connect with customers. RingCentral, Nextiva, Oooma, and Dialpad support other channels as well—like chat, video, fax, and email—which is why these providers are able to offer truly unified communications.

This is ideal for reps, service agents, and other employees because all of their communications are centralized in a single platform—no switching accounts, forgetting passwords, or losing track of conversations.

People simply aren’t using the phone as much as they used to—although it is still really important—and increasingly using other channels. As Lawrence noted, new research has shown that younger people are especially hesitant. “They’d much rather go to a website and click on a chat button than pick up the phone,” he said.

And it’s not just Millennials who appreciate other opportunities to connect with companies. Over 15 years, Guy watched the call centers he managed become contact centers. He’s noticed multiple age brackets interested in chat, text, and making contact through social media platforms. He said the latter is “definitely something that you want to look at when you’re upgrading, changing, or purchasing your business phone system.”

Every business is different, and Guy encouraged companies to use surveys and outbound campaigns to get feedback about how they’d like to make contact. “You have to know your customers’ tendencies and hone in on what they want to do.”

But it’s not just consumer preferences driving the shift towards unified communications. For the healthcare clinics Michael supports, the automatic texting feature is an important complement to phone service. He explained, “Once the appointment is made, we can then automatically text patients, reminding them of their appointment, as well as any future appointments.”

This ability to automate texting is an advantage to any business that books appointments, confirms orders, or wants to update customers about new offers.

Staying competitive is likely going to mean being available on more channels for your customers. “Make no mistake,” said Guy, “You want to open up other options in order to communicate.” It’s going to come at an added cost, but there wasn’t a person I talked to who thought that the phone alone was going to make companies fit for survival in the 21st century.

Now, what if you’re a company that just needs voice as a way to communicate internally? Or be generally reachable for things like deliveries and meetings? If that’s all you need, the benefit of the trend towards unified communications is that you can get a basic phone system for a steal.

OpenPhone and Grasshopper are limited to talk and text, but they are going to cost considerably less than unified communications products.

You can also go with basic plans from some of the other providers, which include excellent voice capabilities for a bargain. RingCentral and Nextiva are great for this, and if you ever want to add more channels, it’s as simple as upgrading your plan.

Integrating Phones With Your Business

A cloud-based phone system can integrate with your other business software. This is an opportunity you should absolutely take advantage of.

Many of the best hosted options include pre-built integrations with popular apps, calendars, CRMs, ERPs, and other tools. This is going to streamline employees’ daily workflows and make staying organized so much easier.

Within a CRM like Salesforce, for example, your employees will get click-to-dial capabilities. This saves so much time on every call. On top of that, all call recordings, notes, purchase histories, and so on are stored automatically with the customer account, which makes it much easier to track down info later.

Lawrence said that the CRM integration was far and away the most valuable aspect of their phone system for most customers.

“When a customer calls, you don’t just see a number,” he said, you see everything that’s in their CRM profile. “Who they are, what kind of services they subscribe to, when they last called, and what the call was about.”

Say there’s an ongoing issue and the customer has called five times. The agent picking up that call can see what’s happened already. The customer doesn’t have to re-explain themselves—which everyone hates doing.

It puts your customer at ease to know that the person they’re speaking with knows what’s going on, and the agent is on a much stronger footing to help.

That’s just the basics in terms of what CRM integration can do, and I haven’t even mentioned what’s possible with other business apps.

Chatbots can start conversations and gather information before switching the conversation over to a relevant agent. Integrating your phone system with your knowledge base software will automatically provide agents with the right script and information, or provide your customer a fast answer without an agent having to pick up the phone.

So there’s a lot you can do, but as a buyer, here’s what you should be thinking about.

Unless you have a team of developers, you are going to want to stick with the pre-built integrations from providers like RingCentral, Dialpad, and Nextiva.

Yes, some vendors offer an open API that lets you build out your own integrations, but getting these to work properly (and efficiently) is going to be a lot of trial and error.

This is something where you’d want to use a hosted phone system, Nikhil told us. He has a lot of experience helping companies build out their own phone systems. “With open source it’s kind of a black box,” he said, “so use a managed service provider if they want the integration.”

Finding a phone system that integrates with the tools you use is a critical consideration. But it’s not enough to just confirm that a vendor offers pre-built integrations.

“Some of them are easy and out of the box,” Terry said. But it’s not always the case. Sometimes, “you have to do a lot of complicated development work, or just jump through a lot of hoops to make systems communicate with each other the way you want.”

You really need to test the integration to see how it drives. But how many integrations are you going to demo? That’s a lot of work, time, and effort.

Terry said it’s definitely worth your time to reach out to your account rep and ask for a reference. If you use Zendesk, for example, ask your rep for the contact of another company that’s about the same size as yours and uses the service platform in a similar fashion.

“You can have a pretty candid conversation with someone in the exact same position that you’re in,” said Terry. “Generally they’re pretty real about what works and what doesn’t work.”

Securing Your Business Phone System

Security is one of the big reasons I’m such a fan of hosted business phone systems.

When you host the system yourself, you’re responsible for securing everything. This is hard enough if everyone is working in the same office, and much more difficult if people are working from home, multiple branches, or signing in from unprotected networks like coffee shops and hotels.

Why not go with a hosted solution? All of the providers I picked handle security so you don’t have to.

You don’t have to worry about provisioning the phones correctly, ensuring that calls are encrypted, and that your phone system is hardened to outside attacks.

I really agree with Lawrence, who said that one of the biggest questions you have to ask about any potential provider is, “Do they offer a secure connection for the phones that are connecting to that system?”

This is a must for me. Toll fraud is a serious issue. Nearly every expert I talked with highlighted the importance of security for business phone systems because each year, there are millions of dollars lost.

“There are always systems on the internet that are looking for vulnerable VoIP systems, and those are actively being abused,” said Lawrence. It’s happened to some of Lawrence’s clients, but fortunately his company has systems to detect and prevent that behavior. “Ideally what you want is a provider that has the phone system in their network, that can do the maintenance and security of that system,” he said.

This removes the responsibility of security from your plate. All you are on the hook for are the standard security considerations when doing anything online: using strong passwords, enabling two-factor authentication, de-provisioning old users, and so on

Because he’s doing the IT backend for a healthcare provider, Matt has to be ultra-conscious of security and privacy. A single HIPAA violation can cost thousands of dollars or even result in jail time.

But because Matt uses a secure business phone system, there is a lot less to worry about. “It’s impossible for someone to barge in on a call without somebody knowing what’s going on,” he said. “So there’s no concern of a HIPAA violation.”

For companies with compliance and security concerns, going with a hosted business phone system is going to give you the protection you need out of the box.

All communications that go through RingCentral, for instance, are protected by TLS and SRTP to prevent a bad actor from listening in. They also manage all the firewalls, session border controllers, fraud analytics, and systems hardening. It’s like you get enterprise-level security simply by signing into their service.

If you deploy on premises or host your own solution in the cloud, all the backend IT legwork is on you. “You’re responsible for securing that system,” Lawrence explained, “making sure that communications with the phones are secure, and that no outside actor is abusing your phone system for any kind of reason.”

Security is critical, and you will have a lot less to think about if your users are signing into a cloud-based system rather than trying to connect to a traditional on premises system.

Summary

To say you have lots of options to consider for a business phone system would be a drastic understatement.

But, by using this guide, you’ll be equipped to make the right decision based on your needs. Use the perspective from the experts I spoke with to round out your search and make sure you’ve considered every angle that’s going to impact the experience for your employees and customers.

By going with one of the above systems, you know you are getting a secure solution that’s built for the way the world works today. There’s no equipment to purchase, and all but the lightest options will work fine with your existing infrastructure.

In a market that’s saturated with phone systems for businesses, I really like the seven options I reviewed:

Nextiva — Best for remote teams

RingCentral — Best for integrating phones with your business

Ooma — Best for companies that want deskphones

Grasshopper — Best for businesses that need fewer than 10 lines

Dialpad — The only way to deploy a contact center in 10 minutes

OpenPhone — Best for single teams and sole proprietors

So start your search there, and use the buying guide I outlined. This will steer you in the right direction.

from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/3mwk6RM via https://neilpatel.com

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dailybail · 3 years

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The Best VoIP Phone Services (In-Depth Review)

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

Do you want to skip the read and get right to my top pick? The best VOIP phone services for most people are Nextiva, Ooma, or Ringcentral.

Buying VoIP for your business is going to save you money over a traditional phone line. And if you are using a clunky VoIP service from an ancient provider, you may be able to switch to something sleeker without losing anything except the frustration.

With old phone systems, you called your vendor to re-route a call path or set an employee up with a secure at-home workstation.

With VoIP phone services, these actions take a few clicks.

To write a really helpful post for my readers, my team got in touch with leaders who have used VoIP in different ways. You can find about 80 percent of what you need to know about VoIP anywhere on the web—here’s the 20 percent you can’t find anywhere else.

We spoke with:

Gregg, who manages IT services for a living. He knows the good and bad of different VoIP options and helps businesses stay protected from hacks.

Jason, who has been working in call centers for nearly 30 years and just bought VoIP for his enterprise organization. He’s attuned to what’s important for your employees, whether they’re remote or in an office.

Makan, who’s set up dozens of high-volume telemarketing teams. He’s learned how to reduce the risk of regulatory fines and identify top performers in an industry with exceptionally high turnover.

Sarkar, who manages sales teams in the B2B SaaS space. He walked us through how to sync VoIP and CRM software with the fewest possible headaches.

Look, I know what works for a company like mine. By speaking with a range of experts, my team and this article can help a wider array of buyers with different use cases or situations than my own.

There are companies looking to outfit offices in 20 countries. Others have to protect patient data. Some folks just want to stop using their personal mobile number for work.

Here are the seven best VoIP phone service providers you can start using right away. After the reviews, you’ll find an in-depth buyer’s guide.

#1 – Nextiva Review — The Best for Offices with Work-From-Home Employees

I hear a lot about the trends of working from home, but I don’t think anyone can say for sure what “office life” is going to look like two or three years from now. If you want your teams to stay functional no matter which way the wind blows, Nextiva is a solid choice.

It’s cloud-based VoIP, so your employees can come into the office, set up a desk at home, or use their phone on the go. Unlike an on-premises phone system, employees can use their phone without a VPN because they’re calling through Nextiva.

So, you have way less to worry about with security—which is definitely on the minds of managers who have people calling from hotels, coffee shops, and their home network.

The experts my team spoke with categorized it as a true plug-and-play system for businesses that want a dial tone without IT headaches. If your system is built on ten phones or fewer, you will have very little trouble getting Nextiva installed.

One thing that Jason pointed out, however, was that you’ll need to put some thought into compliance if you plan to take credit card numbers over the phone. But, for the most part, security is handled by Nextiva because everything is routed through their cloud.

Nextiva can scale to hundreds of phones if need be. There will be some backend configuration to get everything going, but Nextiva will help you deploy with a guided installation process.

And unlike some of the other companies that offer this type of flexibility, Nextiva can outfit your entire office. Fax machines, conference phones, multiple offices–whatever your setup, you’ll be able to transition it to Nextiva’s modern platform.

Level up your business phone by connecting it with email, text, and video—or centralize every channel within a single window for your employees.

All the call handling and user administration features you’d expect are included. And when I say they are easy to use, check out the Call Flow Builder that lets visualize how routing is set up:

It can be tricky to configure auto attendants in some platforms, but it’s drag-and-drop easy with Nextiva.

The company has done a lot to make everything as easy as possible on end users. If you’re wondering whether or not you have the necessary internet speed at your office, you can test it right now on Nextiva’s website. Simulate the traffic required for two or 200 phones. You’ll get info on speed, but also jitter and everything that goes into whether or not you can reliably make calls.

You can also use the site to test the speed of remote workers who need to be on call, which Jason highly recommended. If their home network doesn’t support VoIP, you may be looking at an expensive hiring blunder.

Nextiva offers 24/7 support for every plan. That’s not typical, especially for VoIP at such an affordable price:

Essential: starting at $18.95 per month per user

Professional: starting at $22.95 per month per user

Enterprise: starting at $32.95 per month per user

Ultimate: starting at $57.95 per month per user

These are the annual prices—it’s a little bit more per user to pay month to month, but you don’t have to sign a contract.

The Essential plan is going to work for many teams. It includes unlimited voice and video calling, a free local and toll-free number, and 1,500 toll-free minutes. That’s a lot more than you are going to get with other entry-level plans.

Unlike RingCentral, there’s no user cap for the Essential plan. This means you can offer more people unlimited voice and video at a low price, rather than having to upgrade once you hit 20 users.

For conference calling and business SMS, you’ll need the Professional plan. This comes with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zendesk integration. Essential only has integration with Outlook and Google Contacts.

At the Enterprise tier, you get integrations with CRM software and single sign-on, which is a huge boon to remote workers.

Nextiva One is the company’s omnichannel solution. If customers reach out to you through a variety of channels in addition to phones, this might be a good idea.

Your employees can see all communication with each account, which is really helpful if people are logging help desk tickets, chatting, reaching out on social media, and so on.

Jason argued that omnichannel also makes administrators’ lives easier. “I don’t have 10 systems to manage,” he described to us, “it’s all within the same system.”

You can coordinate ecommerce with a call center or tie multiple brick and mortar stores into a single system.

You also have one bill as opposed to dozens and you’re not chasing down information across multiple platforms. If a customer has an issue, you can go back through the entire record quickly, regardless of how they got in touch.

Organization is just easier with Nextiva. Staying on the same page with customers and your employees is as simple as logging into the system, no matter where you are.

For teams that don’t have an office to coordinate activity, Nextiva is the best VoIP solution.

It’s a product that employees new and old can start using immediately on whatever device they have. Should they ever have an issue, Nextiva’s reputable customer service is there to provide support.

If you are looking at the way features break down in the different packages and you don’t find a perfect fit, just reach out to Nextiva. You can purchase any feature a la carte.

Build your system, your way, in less time with Nextiva. Get in touch for a seven-day free trial of the Essential package, or a demo of any other package they offer.

#2 – Ooma Office Review — The Best for Adding VoIP to Existing SMB Phone Systems

If you are holding off on replacing that aging phone system, Ooma can help you install business-class VoIP with minimal disruption to your work.

Any phone you have that’s still working—analog or IP—is going to hook right into your new Ooma system. You can also buy phones from them at a great price and they will be preconfigured, ready to go out of the box.

Ooma Office is going to work fine for most users, coming with 35 VoIP capabilities and a really powerful mobile app. Employees can make calls and collaborate with their colleagues in the app, whether they are in the office or on-the-go.

One thing Gregg pointed out was how expensive it can get to customize your setup if you have to pay per extension. With Ooma, every user gets a number of free extensions: one for conferences, one for online faxing, and one for a Virtual Receptionist.

Virtual Receptionist is Ooma’s term for an auto attendant. You can set it to play custom messages about business hours, let callers dial by name, select a preferred language, or route the caller to another extension.

With other vendors—especially ones that cost as little as Ooma—you often wind up paying extra to enable online faxing. Some VoIP phone service providers don’t even accommodate it.

When Jason sent his business requirement document to vendors, “two companies bailed out right away” because they weren’t able to set up fax machines. Most of the other vendors told him “they don’t really do that,” but they would try in order to get the business.

With Ooma, each of your users can set up their own fax extension for free. Problem solved.

When it comes to integrating VoIP with existing equipment, Ooma minimizes the steps you have to take and maximizes your flexibility. Connect to Ooma Office via WiFi, ethernet, or use the base station to get analog devices on board.

Think of it as a cloud-based VoIP solution that’s really good at accommodating your existing equipment. It might take some time to configure a large office, but the administrator portal is straightforward. It’s not the prettiest interface of all time, but it’s stupid simple to use.

While Ooma offers solutions for enterprise, their VoIP phone services for small businesses really stand out from the pack. There are no contracts, affordable pricing, and the customer service is fantastic.

Usually to get the best price on VoIP, you need to sign up for a year at least. Ooma’s price is what it is. For small business, Ooma pricing breaks down into two tiers:

Ooma Office: starting at $19.95 per month per user

Ooma Office Pro: starting at $24.95 per month per user

Upgrading to Pro, you get the desktop app, video conferencing, call recording, enhanced call blocking, and voicemail transcription. You’ll also be able to host conference calls of up to 25 people, whereas Ooma Office has a limit of 10.

You don’t have the choice of selectively upgrading users with Ooma Office—it’s all employees on one plan or all employees on another. But, at just $5 per user to upgrade, you’re still falling in the average range for VoIP.

And, if you upgrade, you can set people up on their computers with a softphone, which means you have less hardware to buy.

You can avoid buying phones without upgrading by having people call from the mobile app (which is included with Ooma office), though Gregg warned us that VoIP can be hard on a cell phone. “Yes, you save money because you’re not buying physical equipment,” he said, “but it can drain the battery life right out of the device.”

Transition to the cloud at your own pace. Keep your equipment and manage it yourself with way less work than a traditional set up. Get a quote, sign up with Ooma, and start saving money today.

#3 – RingCentral Review — The Best for High-Volume Outbound Calling

RingCentral gives you unlimited calling, texting, and video conferencing at a competitive price. If you just need the phones and texting, you can get an even better deal.

Forget about per-minute charges and set up employees with VoIP that’s easy to use. For call centers, customer service, sales—anyone who has people on the phone constantly will appreciate RingCentral. This is especially true if you have to train new employees all the time.

First off, they’ll be able to use the interface. It’s intuitive to anyone who has used a computer. Administrators and managers will find they can shorten the time it takes to turn rookie hires into skilled ambassadors for your company.

“You save a lot of money because you can identify hires that aren’t doing a good job and wasting their time,” Makan told us. He’s set up a lot of telemarketing call centers with RingCentral and has really valued the ability to “tell right away who’s worth the money.”

The ability to track calls, KPIs, and listen back to recordings was like night and day for him compared to working on a landline. Teams can listen back to calls that went well (or poorly) to get a sense of how to better capitalize on each opportunity.

The reporting features aren’t going to take a data scientist to glean insights from. Find your top performers and figure out what they’re doing. Identify people who aren’t a good fit and let them go.

I hear a lot of marketing word salad like “this tool optimizes performance,” all the time. RingCentral walks the walk.

“You can actually predict your sales,” Makan said, “I know it’s difficult to fathom, but it’s true.”

He was able to figure out that 2,500 calls lead to one listing. This told him the number of minutes people needed to be on the phone in order to stay profitable. Over time, he could see how many listings an employee should be generating in their first month, second quarter, and so on.

You’re likely going to measure different KPIs, but it’s the same idea. With the kind of visibility that RingCentral provides, you can distill the numbers to simple metrics that hold employees accountable. You know ahead of time what your sales are going to look like, and you can scale up or down accordingly.

There’s a lot about RingCentral that’s well suited for large-scale calling. Admins don’t have to be IT wizards to add new users and give them access to specific resources. They’ll be able to provision new hires quickly. When someone leaves, they’ll be able to switch around accounts and recycle the number, so you don’t wind up paying for lines you’re not using.

If you have turnover—as many high-volume calling occupations do—you need to be mindful of your database integrity. RingCentral makes it easy to limit access to resources and revoke it if need be.

You’re definitely going to be using a CRM (or some form of database) to call at scale. RingCentral integrates with a lot of them. You want to keep that information private.

Another liability for call centers that RingCentral helps you navigate is compliance, which is crucial if you are making a lot of cold calls or using an auto dialer. There’s a TCPA safe dialer, which helps agents avoid bringing a “robo-call” lawsuit down on your company. Instead of worrying about messing something up, they can focus on the person they are talking to.

The DNC list features are also easy to use. Integrate with third-party tools to constantly update your list, and quickly show your employees how to maintain your own internal list.

RingCentral is HIPAA compliant, which means the standard for privacy and security is incredibly high. Fines for HIPAA violations are very steep, and that’s not the worst that could happen.

Selecting from RingCentral’s range of packages, you can replace your phones with VoIP and save a little money or completely outfit an omnichannel call center.

RingCentral MVP (formerly RingCentral Office) has four tiers to choose from:

Essentials: starting at $19.99 per month per user

Standard: starting at $27.99 per month per user

Premium: starting at $34.99 per month per user

Ultimate: starting at $49.99 per month per user

These are the prices if you sign up for a year of service, which reflect a 33% discount on the monthly rate.

The Essentials plan is capped at 20 users. You get unlimited talk and text, as well as document sharing, which can be helpful for sharing sales and customer service scripts. You also get team messaging, which is especially helpful in the days where not everyone is coming into a physical office.

With Standard, you get unlimited fax, video conferencing and integrations with Google Workspace, Microsoft 365. There’s no cap on users, either.

But if you are going for high-volume calling, I really recommend getting Premium. You get the CRM integration that is so important for dialing into your metrics and communicating effectively at scale.

At $10 above the average cost of VoIP, Premium is a steal. Remember, that VoIP average is for voice only and with RingCentral MVP you’re getting texting, video, and advanced call handling features that other “average” plans do not include.

Managers will be able to listen in on live calls and “whisper” advice. The employee can hear them, the caller can not. From what I found, features like this from other vendors were usually reserved for plans that cost upwards of $50. So in that sense, I’d consider RingCentral MVP well below the average price-wise.

RingCentral offers contact center software, as well, which will unify your communications. Your agents will be able to see a complete record of a customer’s history. When did they call, when did they chat? It’s all right there. You’ll have to get in touch with RingCentral for Contact Center pricing.

This is my number one pick for people who have to make a ton of calls. RingCentral helps you protect yourself from a number of the liabilities that come with outreach at scale. It also gives you the viability and tools to stay efficient and maximize each employees’ ability to contribute.

Try RingCentral for free today.

#4 – Phone.com Review — The Most Affordable Professional-Grade VoIP

Phone.com is a smart choice for businesses that are looking for budget-friendly VoIP. You can have unlimited calling or pay less for a set block of minutes each month.

One of the really cost-effective features of Phone.com is that you can mix and match plans. Give the sales team unlimited plans and save money on each employee that only uses the phones occasionally.

And, with the Basic plan, you’re still getting most of the standard VoIP features like call handling, auto attendants, hold music and so on. You’ll have to upgrade to get HIPAA-compliant video conferencing, for example, but you can host up to 10 people in a regular session with Basic.

With most other vendors, you have to upgrade the plan for all your users. Phone.com can really help you keep costs down by giving users the features they need. This is one of those licensing irregularities that Gregg told us about, where it can work out well if you know what you’re doing.

Phone.com lets you pick what you need. Call recording and inbound faxing is extra, though you’ll be able to send faxes from your phone with any plan.

Nextiva and RingCentral are a little bit more robust, especially when it comes to reporting and analytics. In terms of CRM integration, Phone.com is limited to AllProWebTools and Zoho.

But some businesses just need a reliable phone with call handling capabilities they can manage themselves. Phone.com does more than that, and it’s just enough cheaper than those other options to net a sizable savings.

Offer your customers the ability to text when they have questions. Phone.com keeps all of your employees’ messages organized. Come for the phone system, stay for the messaging.

To use IP phones, you’ll have to be on an upgraded plan. The company offers really great prices on popular phones of all styles. You can use what you’ve got, too, as Phone.com supports a range of hardware.

Using your own equipment will definitely lessen the initial outlay, but in talking with Gregg we learned that older phones can get hacked. Just make sure that the processor isn’t too far behind what Phone.com is trying to sell you, and get ready to do some of the configuration yourself. You really can just plug and play if you buy equipment through Phone.com.

Pricing for Phone.com is low across the board:

Basic: starting at $10.39 per user each month

Plus: starting at $15.99 per user each month

Pro: starting at $23.99 per user each month

To get these prices, you’ll have to sign up for an annual subscription, which saves you 20 percent of the month-to-month price.

Basic comes with 300 minutes, which are pooled for all your users. This just means Basic users share minutes instead of having to worry about going over individually each month.

Each user also gets 1,000 pooled text segments. A segment is limited to 160 characters, which is way less than most phones can send in a normal text message these days. So it’s not 1,000 texts per month, unless you like to keep things brief.

Volume licensing brings the price down, both for users and for additional phone numbers. With 25 or more users, the price of Basic drops down to $8.99, Plus to $14.99, and Pro to $21.99.

Considering that Pro can hold its own with many of the call center VoIP solutions I’ve looked at, it’s worth checking out if you need a lot of phones on a tight budget. With HIPAA-compliant voice and video, it could be a good option for medical practices looking to support telehealth.

You really have to get input from every person and department using the phone system. Figure out the technology and functionality you need to support. If Phone.com fits the bill, it’s going to be a smaller one than you’ll find anywhere else.

Phone.com gives you a low price that scales up much better than OpenPhone, Grasshopper, and other lightweight VoIP solutions.

I wouldn’t use it to set up a call center—you’re going to have to fully rely on your CRM for all but the most basic reporting and analytics—but you’ll be able to get plenty of phones set up for normal business needs.

If you are thinking about cutting the cord with your traditional phone line, this option is going to save you the most money. Sign up with Phone.com today, no contract necessary.

#5 – Grasshopper Review — The Best If You Need More Extensions than Phone Lines

Grasshopper is a great option for small companies that want to establish a professional identity without buying a very complex system.

I’m thinking about the restaurant owner that wants numbers for a few locations without having to pay for a traditional phone line going to each one. Or maybe the law firm that wants a few numbers with lots of extensions.

If you outline your business requirements and it turns out you only need the essentials, don’t pay more for things you don’t need. Grasshopper is going to set you up with everything you need for one flat rate each month.

You’ll get a suite of features designed for the daily work of a modern business, without the clutter aimed at larger organizations. There’s no need to upgrade just to access a particular feature. Every Grasshopper plan comes with unlimited calling, as well as every feature the company offers, such as setting up a phone tree, personalized greetings, call routing, and more.

There are even a few features, like instant response, that you won’t always get with other providers. If you miss a call, Grasshopper will automatically send a text message.

Simultaneous call handling and call forwarding lets you pass off calls to teammates when you’re busy. Voicemail transcription makes it easier to catch up on calls after hours.

Manage everything I just listed directly from the mobile app. Route calls exactly where they need to go—it’s just a few swipes on your cell.

You also get unlimited extensions with Grasshopper Small Businesses plans, and several free extensions with their other plans. Route calls to other numbers, mobile devices, informational extensions to answer FAQs, or a polite out-of-office voicemail.

Getting charged for extensions was something Gregg said people should watch out for in the contact they sign. The total cost can “go up real quick” if you have to pay for an extra line just to set up a voicemail extension.

With Grasshopper, you don’t have to worry as much. The entry level plan comes with one number and three extensions—perfect for the sole proprietor or founder to greet their callers with a professional menu and connect them with the right person.

Let’s take a closer look at your three options with Grasshopper.

Solo: starting at $26 per month for one number and three extensions

Partner: starting at $44 per month for three numbers and six extensions

Small Business: starting at $80 per month for five numbers and unlimited extensions

As I said, it’s really just the basics. There’s no CRM integration or call recording, so think about Grasshopper as a way to replace your phone system rather than revolutionize it.

That said, if you’ve been trying to work magic with free VoIP like Google Voice, the ability to set up call routing may feel downright revolutionary.

It’s also going to cost less and be way easier to set up than it’s more robust competitors. Toll-free numbers might take a day to start working, but typically your number is ready to go when you sign up.

If you want to add an extra line, it’s $10 per month. That’s a lot more than Phone.com for extra lines, which is why I don’t recommend Grasshopper if you need a ton. Plus, the interface isn’t built for handling a big system anyway.

But for the small office, it’s perfect. It doesn’t matter where you or your business partners work—people can be out in the field when a call comes into the office, or in a different city altogether. Grasshopper makes it easy to ensure your calls get where they need to go.

Try Grasshopper for free.

#6 – PhoneBurner Review — The Best Off-The-Shelf VoIP for Sales Teams

PhoneBurner is ready to rock. Are you?

This product is a little different than the other VoIP options on my list. It’s a sales engagement platform, so it’s not designed to replace your phone system. Rather it’s designed to give outbound reps the perfect tool for prospecting, selling, and closing deals.

Is the team remote? Do people like to work out of the office? Not a drama. Your users can phone in from anywhere and start working through your hottest contacts.

It contains a CRM and auto dialer software built into the platform. You’re not trying to make technology play nice—it’s all set up when you open the box. You can integrate with your own CRM if you want, or simply import your leads and start making up to 80 calls an hour.

I don’t know what your reps’ pace is now, but 80 calls per hour is smoking. There’s no “telemarketer” delay when the call connects, just crisp conversation like it’s over a phone line.

And, because the CRM is tied in, reps can see exactly who they’re talking to, what stage of the pipeline they’re in, and any notes left in the account.

Sarkar said that pretty much everyone in the B2B SaaS game is telephoning through sales engagement platforms now. The auto dialer makes your agents far more efficient by eliminating the busy work of dialing. “You barely have to click anything,” he said.

With PhoneBurner, you’re not manual dialing, tabbing through pages to find a number, or copy/pasting emails frantically before the next call. Instead, you can drop voicemails without waiting for the beep, send an appropriate email, or move a prospect to another folder with a single click.

For Makan, auto dialer software was crucial for large-scale outreach in telemarketing, but it was a pain to set up. You have to specifically program the CRM and the auto dialer. From there, it’s expensive to get the CRM software tuned to your industry. He mentioned one popular CRM option that cost $25,000 and $50,000, “just to get you all set up with the phones.”

With PhoneBurner, a lot of that work is off your plate. It’s not going to groom your database for you, but the fundamental CRM/auto dialer integration is already in place.

The company takes it a step further by offering one of the most comprehensive onboarding packages that I have seen for any product. Their team works with you on goals before you set up, runs you through a test session, and then trains your team on how to use the platform.

You also learn how to build reports so you can track performance. It’s easy to do this wrong, on any platform, but your PhoneBurner advisor is walking companies through the process, week in week out. They’ll get you set up with dashboards, leaderboards, and all of it is going to be customized to your goals.

Leads are distributed automatically, based on rules you set. Toggle between pre-set configurations, like Round Robin or First Come First Served, or customize your own settings. Make sure leads get to the right agent every time, with only a small amount of work on the manager’s part.

PhoneBurner isn’t cheap, but remember that this isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison with the other VoIP providers because you are getting the auto dialer and CRM built in.

Standard: starting at $126 per user each month

Professional: starting at $152 per user each month

Premium: starting at $169 per user each month

These are the prices if you sign up for a year, which are discounted 15 percent compared to paying monthly. You’re getting unlimited dial minutes, which is obviously important if your reps are making a thousand calls each week. With PhoneBurner, that’s not hard to do.

Call recording is stored free for 30 days with the Standard plan, 60 days with Professional, and there’s no limit for Premium plans. There are also limits on the number of contacts you can store, which start at 10,000 on the Standard plan.

You’ll need to upgrade to Professional to get softphone capabilities. It’s not a big deal if you already have phones, but I imagine that’ll bother folks that want to use their tablet or computer.

With Premium, you get a dedicated inbound line, as well as some of the handling features. I would not recommend using PhoneBurner for serious inbound traffic—the other VoIP options are going to be way cheaper—but some teams will appreciate having a custom voicemail and the ability to forward calls.

On average, a rep can make 233 percent more calls with PhoneBurner than they can with a regular line. Does the math pencil out for you? For Makan, it took 2,500 calls to generate a listing. What’s your metric?

If doubling or tripling your rep’s productivity sounds like a good idea, start a free trial with PhoneBurner today.

#7 – OpenPhone Review — The Best Way to Run Your Business From a Mobile Phone

Jason warned us about going with the “newest and cheapest option,” so I was a little bit skeptical when I heard about OpenPhone. It’s only a few years old and it’s $10 per month.

That’s way less than the average cost of VoIP, cheaper even than some of the “budget” options I looked at.

But the more I discovered about the company, the more I liked it. OpenPhone is new, but certainly not fly-by-night. It’s a recent graduate of Y Combinator, the startup accelerator that helped launch AirBnB, DoorDash, DropBox, and Reddit.

Like those companies, OpenPhone has come to market with a new set of assumptions about how people are living and working. Instead of trying to replace a business phone system, as many Cloud-PBX’s claim to do, OpenPhone simply turns your mobile into a better phone for business.

It’s really aimed at the modern startup or small business, especially if the owner is one of those people who steers the ship from their phone. You’ll get a business number for your mobile phone. Go local, toll-free, or keep your own number, you choose. Porting your old number is 100% free.

Set up an auto-attendant so callers can get the information they need and connect with the right person. Establish a professional identity for your business in minutes. You’ll be reaching people on a stronger footing because you always know if an incoming call is business or personal.

There’s no hardware necessary and no more giving out your mobile number. Keep your privacy. Get numbers for your team and let them keep their privacy, too.

Where OpenPhone really steps away from the crowd is the shared inbox. You can have multiple people call and text from the same number. They can even make calls from that number at the same time.

A lot of phone systems don’t include text messaging, let alone allow multiple users text in the same thread. With OpenPhone, you can text the way you normal humans do:

Tag users with @mentions to bring the right people into the conversation quickly. Group messaging is really helpful for collaboration, especially since you can send files, videos, and GIFs.

You’re just not limited with texting the way you are on a lot of other VoIP phone services. You can send snippets from templates as part of a campaign or auto-reply to missed calls and texts.

Managing contacts isn’t hard either, as you get limited CRM integration with Google Contacts or via Zapier. You can use HubSpot for a more robust CRM solution as well, which allows you to store recordings and view message histories with ease.

Keep in mind this is not going to be a full-blown CRM solution the likes of which I’ve described with PhoneBurner and others. You’ll need to get into HubSpot to make changes to contacts, for example.

Because it’s a young company, there will be additional and deeper integrations “in the future,” which I know can be frustrating. But if you are a young company as well, HubSpot’s free CRM software plus OpenPhone is just about the cheapest way I can think of to deliver the essential benefits of connecting VoIP and your CRM.

Standard: starting at $10 per user each month

Premium: starting at $25 per user each month

Enterprise: contact sales

Standard has most of what I’ve mentioned already, along with unlimited calling and texting. Bear in mind that it’s unlimited within the fair usage policy. According to the terms of service, for the Standard plan, you’re looking at 1,000 texts and calling minutes per month.

Though it’s not truly unlimited, that’s pretty generous. Phone.com caps their entry level plan at 300 minutes and 1,000 text segments, which is likely a smaller number of texts.

The Premium plan comes with HubSpot integration and more collaborative features, like the ability to transfer calls and an advanced auto attendant that gives you a wider range of call routing features.

Extra lines are $5. So, for the price of standard VoIP (around $25 pretax), you could get a company of four set up on the Standard plan.

There are other free ways to get a business number for your mobile phone. Go for it. Getting off the ground you need to save every dollar—I get it—but there’s a point where the inconvenience of trying to work around something like Google Voice starts to cost you money.

OpenPhone solves most of those problems for $10 per month.

How much does a single missed opportunity cost you? For a barber, maybe it’s a call from a stranger who would have spent thousands of dollars as a regular over the next few years. If only you’d been able to catch them.

It’s well worth checking out, and I have a feeling you’ll be hearing a lot about this company in the future. Try OpenPhone for free today.

What I Looked at to Find the Best VoIP Phone Services

I’ve been a small business owner who has needed the cheapest possible business line before. Like having a real number that people can connect to by using the “Contact Us” button on my Facebook page. I think it was still TheFacebook.com back then.

Now, I have people reporting to me about our VoIP options in Brazil.

Growing from a one-man show to a global operation, I’ve been on a few sides of this conversation. We’ve built a marketing machine and I know how we use VoIP—but my team wanted to get a wider picture of what’s going on to help more of my readers.

Some of you have on-call IT support and months to demo the best options. Others are completely on their own running a business and can’t sacrifice more than a weekend in order to find the best VoIP phone service.

Either way, you need to be able to separate the options that are working well for other businesses from the one that’s going to work best for you.

My team reached out to other leaders in the field to see what things looked like from their perspective. We don’t sell VoIP, for example. So, it was really interesting to think through buying VoIP with Gregg, who runs a managed services provider.

VoIP is just one of the IT services Gregg’s company manages, but over a few decades, he’s seen plenty of things go wrong, helped people out of bad contracts, and restored their business integrity after hacks. He offered a lot of insight on VoIP security and what people can do to make sure they’re not spending money on stuff they don’t need.

Technically, Gregg is a competitor with some of the services I recommend, but he was very frank and offered advice you are not going to find on any review site.

We also talked to Makan, who set up call centers for telemarketing in real estate. These are call centers where each employee is making something like 1,000 calls each week. His practical advice is hard-won in an industry that has a staggering attrition rate.

“You’re going to let go of eight out of every ten people who work for you,” Makan told us. New hires have to be brought up to speed, coached, and—when they have to go—be safely de-provisioned in order to prevent your database from leaving with them.

And simple employee mistakes can cost thousands of dollars in legal fines because telemarketing is so highly regulated.

But if you can do it right, the payoff is huge. Makan was able to use call center analytics to surface important metrics that guided his hiring, onboarding, and training. “We no longer have to keep employees for like a year and a half to see if it works or not,” he said.

In searching for the best VoIP provider, you’ll read a lot about using analytics to optimize performance. It’s not just marketing lingo. Makan explained how you can basically predict your sales with VoIP tied to a CRM, and scale hiring up or down accordingly.

Sarkar, a sales manager in B2B SaaS, also pushed the importance of VoIP/CRM integration. We talked a lot about how your sales strategy informs the buying decision.

Are you in a mature market that needs to handle inbound inquiries, or are you selling a novel product that requires you to hit the phones and educate prospects over a cold call?

Configuring a general purpose CRM to work with your VoIP, can be a ton of work. Sarkar helped us see how some companies save a lot of time and effort by using a sales engagement platform like PhoneBurner. It has all the outreach capabilities built in. That means less setup and fiddling to get up to speed, with a better experience for your sales teams and customers.

There’s just a lot to think about, depending on where you’re coming from. Jason has worked in call centers since 1992. He’s seen the market evolve from desk phones to headsets to AI. His eye for distinguishing meaningful advances from shiny objects that get you nowhere is unrivaled.

Jason also recently purchased an enterprise VoIP system for the company he’s with now. Talking through his experience was extremely helpful in understanding how enterprise buyers have to work through their options methodically and coordinate with multiple departments in order to find a VoIP service that works across the entire organization.

And even though the scale is different, a lot of his guidance serves as practical advice for the small business owner. How do you know if remote workers have good enough internet for VoIP? How do you evaluate the quality of integration between VoIP and your key business software?

You may not have to buy as many phones or connect as many locations as Jason, but these questions still matter.

We covered a lot of ground in the interviews and research. Here are the three biggest takeaways that I think will benefit anyone shopping for VoIP:

The ability to self-manage is crucial: It used to be that you had to call your service provider to make any changes to your phone system. Want to add a user? Change a call path? The options I chose are simple enough to administrate without having to loop in IT. Small business owners without an IT staff can see why that’s important, but large businesses benefit too. It keeps overhead down as they scale. Admins won’t need technical support to accomplish their daily work. The problem is that some of the “bigger names” in the industry are stuck in the past. “It’s very cumbersome and convoluted,” Gregg told us. “End users are not making changes to it.” Avoid those and go with something you can manage yourself.

Identifying all of your business requirements early will save a lot of pain: Check in with every department that’s going to be using VoIP. If you are a small business, check in with every team. What do they need, what would be nice to have, and what’s superfluous in their eyes? Leave no stone unturned. Your solution has to cover executives and receptionists, who will be using VoIP in different ways. You may be able to replace equipment like fax machines and conference phones—or you may have to find something that plays nice with inventory you want to keep. Jason created a detailed business requirements document and sent it to vendors. A few dropped out right away, which saved everyone time. Yet a simple oversight by his IT team delayed the deployment of their new system by half a year.

VoIP plus your other software and channels is the key: I’m really going to hammer on the CRM integration below because it was so important to almost every expert we talked with. But let me emphasize here the opportunity you have by connecting VoIP to your other business software. You can really dial in with analytics—some providers offer voice recognition technology that pulls all sorts of insights about your employee’s conversations. And if your voice communication is tied in with live chat, email, texting, video, and social media, employees have everything in one place. They are looking at a complete relationship during every conversation, regardless of where it started. It also makes your billing a lot less complicated, especially if you have multiple offices. One bill for all your communications.

I looked for VoIP you can use right away. Admins will be able to make sure everyone is set up, and new hires will gain fluency quickly in the modern system. No more six-month deployments.

Companies like Ooma, RingCentral, and Nextiva can set up large offices very quickly. And if you have a small office, you may be able to get started this afternoon.

I wanted to find a few different products that work across every channel. These omnichannel solutions are more expensive, for sure, but they were worth it for virtually every expert my team talked with. It makes everyone more efficient because they’re not logging into different accounts and losing track of conversations.

I also looked at products that have a more limited selection of integrations and channels. These are way cheaper. Not everyone is trying to run a call center with VoIP—it could just be they want an 800 number on their ecommerce website. As long as their callers are routed correctly or greeted by a professional voicemail after hours, it’s all good.

Really, a lot of people get VoIP because they don’t want to give out their personal number for business anymore. OpenPhone will do just that. Grasshopper is perfect for the small office that needs the essentials covered and nothing more.

Alternatively, you can find a great deal on basic plans from some of the larger VoIP service providers. Ooma Office is a good deal no matter how you slice it. The Essentials plan from Nextiva is well within the small business price range, and can completely remove the need for an expensive traditional phone line.

Let’s walk through the big factors you have to consider. Evaluate your options like an expert by taking in the perspective from industry veterans and sales leaders.

Baseline VoIP Features

I want to focus on what makes these products different, not overwhelm you by describing every feature for every product. Once you start digging into VoIP, you’ll find that 30-40 different features is the low end in terms of what you get.

Every option I picked covers what I consider the baseline VoIP features, with some minor exceptions. You won’t hear me call them out unless there’s something superlative about how a vendor does it.

To be make my list of recommendations, the providers had to include:

Call handling features like call forwarding, call transferring, call waiting, and extensions, so that you never miss a call, no matter where you are.

Menus and auto attendants that let callers dial a certain department, listen to business hours, and so on.

Call recording that provides a history and playback of all calls, which is useful for training and sometimes necessary for legal reasons.

A mobile app that turns your cell phone into a business line

Online fax to replace the need for traditional machines while also digitizing documents automatically.

Softphone capabilities to let you make calls from desktops and tablets with just a headset.

Video calls and conferencing for meetings, webinars, telehealth, and more.

Voicemail transcription that turns your missed calls into a quick read by text or email

Some of the “entry-level” VoIP packages aimed at companies with five to ten employees only come with limited versions of these features. You may have to pay extra for call recording, for example, or go with a more expensive plan to get unlimited online fax.

Plans vary between basic business phone systems and premium solutions for call centers. The latter come with much more customizable call handling features, multi-level auto attendants, and deep reporting features that a small team isn’t going to miss.

Making a Cost-Effective VoIP Purchase

Traditional phone service, after tax, would be somewhere around $50 – $70 per month. In my research, I found many users switching to VoIP because they were paying a lot more than that.

I think this is how people “cut their phone bill in half” by switching to VoIP. They were getting dragged over the coals by their current phone provider. For people with a reasonable phone bill, the savings may not be so dramatic.

“It’s not some magic savings,” Gregg told us. “You’ll be saving a little, but not as much as you would think with your monthly phone service.”

But, since you’re probably going to be paying per-phone, even a $10 savings each month will add up quickly. The more intelligently you can select a provider, the greater your savings will be.

Let’s run through how to assess the sticker price, the real price, and everywhere you can cut costs by finding a system that fits your business.

Gregg said VoIP costs about $25 per user per month on average, which is basically what I found in my research. This is if you are paying for the phones outright or using softphones. If you’re renting desk phones, it’s typically about $10 per month extra, bringing the cost of VoIP to about $35 per user each month.

Call it $40 per month after taxes and fees. It’s not providers padding the bill, just the unavoidable government-mandated surcharges for the Universal Service Fund, which brings telecom to rural parts of the country and supports 911 emergency numbers.

Now you are definitely going to see VoIP for cheaper than $25 per line. I’ve included simple VoIP solutions like Phone.com and OpenPhone that are less than half that.

Typically, the tradeoff with the really low cost plans is that you’re getting a set block of minutes per month, whereas plans of $25+ tend to come with unlimited calling in North America.

For sales, customer service, and other use cases that require people on the horn all day, unlimited calling is a must-have. When you go over your set block of minutes, your VoIP savings can disappear.

If you are using auto dialer software over VoIP, you really need to avoid per-minute pricing. Makan did the math out during our conversation: if you have 100 employees expected to make 200 calls a day, you’re looking at 100,000 minutes per week. That’s way too much call volume to survive being billed by the minute.

Some providers, like RingCentral, Ooma, and Nextiva, offer plans in the $20 range for unlimited calling. So you can pay below average, but not have to worry about massive overage charges.

Another factor that can potentially lower the total cost of VoIP is understanding the licensing. For instance, is it going to cost you extra to add an extension? Are you paying per user, per line, per call path? Vendors don’t all charge the same way.

Gregg cautioned us that a lot of people don’t understand exactly how they’re paying in the contract. They go to customize something on their end, thinking it’s free, and then get shocked when the bill comes at the end of the month.

With Grasshopper, even the cheapest plan they offer comes with three extensions for free. This is great for a small business that wants one line for a few departments, or a startup that needs a basic phone tree.

Phone.com costs less to add a new number than Grasshopper, but you don’t get free extensions. The different arrangements can be confusing, but if you take the time to understand what you need, you can play it to your advantage.

If you are really trying to get VoIP on a budget, Jason warned us that you have to be a little cautious. It’s really easy to spin up a VoIP company these days—the technology is not new—and he laid out some horror stories of badd apple vendors pretending to offer reputable service and dropping clients as soon as they get their money.

“And since it takes about 30 days to port over a number, you’re kind of out of luck if that happens,” he said. The U.S. Department of Justice has prosecuted these cases, clawing back millions of dollars from phony VoIP fraud schemes.

Better to be safe than sorry, and use a VoIP provider like Grasshopper or Ooma that’s been around awhile. Or, a household name like RingCentral that is a publicly traded company. “I can’t imagine they would dump you in 10 days or anything like that,” Jason said.

Cloud-Based or On-Premises System

You can get VoIP infrastructure installed in your office (on premises), or use the internet to connect to the service (cloud-based). Either way, you’re paying less than you would for a traditional phone line, but there are important differences to understand.

There is a much higher initial cost of equipment if you go with an on-premises deployment. You have to buy the PBX, phones, routers, switches, etc., whereas a cloud-based provider hosts all of that themselves.

You can buy desk phones with a cloud-based solution and many people do. But, you don’t have to so long as you outfit employees with a softphone or a VoIP mobile app.

“When it’s cloud-based, you don’t have the big outlay,” said Gregg. “But you’re not really missing out by not getting the equipment because these systems come with a ton of functionality.” Some of the key capabilities he talked about were:

Your employees can work from anywhere in the world with internet

You’ll be able to self-manage features menu systems and call routing

You can scale up without buying equipment, and scale down without waste

You don’t have equipment to maintain and monitor

These are four of the top reasons why I only recommended cloud-based solutions.

Like any solution someone else is hosting, you do sacrifice a little backend control. You are limited to the features they provide, whereas an on-premises system can be completely customized to fit your exact needs.

But the end user can do the vast majority of what they need to with Ooma or Grasshopper. A shop-owner with zero IT experience can add an extension for a new employee or make changes to information about holiday hours provided by their auto attendant.

Most people get the control they need without the responsibility that comes with maintaining a system. If you need hundreds of phones and super customized configuration, an on-premises system may be your only option. That’s going to require IT overhead—hiring an MSP like Gregg to install, maintain, monitor, and replace your equipment—or hiring an in-house staff.

For many business owners, it would be a dream not to stress about the phones. The cloud-based providers I looked at offered nearly 100% uptime, and some offer financially-backed SLAs.

Like Gregg told my team, “You’re not so worried about the end at the main office being up at all times because your employees are connecting directly to the cloud-based server.”

The simplicity here is even more important if people are telecommuting or working out of the office a few days a week. It’s much harder to secure communications between external users and an on-premises system.

I’ll say more about that in the security section, but modern employees need access to company services at all hours. As such, cloud-based is becoming a lot more popular.

Greg told us flat out, “If you’re SMB in the ten phones range—give or take—it’s not worth it to do on-prem anymore.”

Larger companies will have more to think about, but VoIP providers like Nextiva, RingCentral, and Ooma can help you get set up regardless of what kind of deployment you need. With these vendors, you can really get the best of both worlds or make the transition to cloud at your own pace.

What Kind of Internet Speed Do I Need for Clear Calls?

Calls have to be clear. You can’t compromise on that, or you’ll wish you had your landline whatever the price.

So how do you make sure your setup handles VoIP?

Here’s the nuts and bolts of what I found: VoIP is not going to work on DSL. Cable might be okay for a small office, but it won’t be the greatest.

Fiber is what you want. It has the bandwidth you need and the upload/download speeds are the same, unlike cable.

Everyone we talked to about VoIP told us that running low on bandwidth is going to start causing issues—dropped calls, echoing on the line, and terrible conversations.

Here’s the thing, VoIP doesn’t need a blazing fast connection.

Gregg said that 100 kbps is good. 140 kbps is “like the most ideal, pristine phone call.”

So, if you’re on a 1 mbps line, you could potentially make ten phone calls. “Granted, you always wanna overcompensate for fall offs and whatnot, but that’s all you need speed wise,” he added.

Nextiva and RingCentral have VoIP plans aimed at smaller companies that don’t have commercial office infrastructure. They will let you test your connection right on their website. You’ll get all the information you need to figure out if you’re ready for VoIP, or you need to upgrade your internet first.

We’re not talking about a massive pipe here, the problems you run into are the stability of the connection. If you’re downloading a song, who cares if it takes two or three extra seconds? You wouldn’t notice. But when you’re having a conversation, even a slight delay is going to be a huge pain.

Any delay over 150 ms (that’s milliseconds) and your meaningful conversation is now impossible. For reference, a call over a landline has a delay of about 45 ms, so 150 is definitely the upper limit of what you want.

Any higher than that, you’re talking over someone or they missed what you said.

Making cold calls, helping an irate customer—it’s hard enough already. No one wants to repeat what they’ve said. And it’s not going to be good if someone mishears a credit card number.

“Where it becomes an issue,” said Gregg, “is if you have a cable modem that only has 5 mbps on your upstream, and everybody in the office is uploading stuff to Dropbox, OneDrive, and things like that, eating up that bandwidth.”

Remember the dark days where someone couldn’t be on the internet and the phone at the same time? Don’t go back. Make sure you’ve got the bandwidth to accommodate all of your users with all of their tasks.

Network and Hardware Considerations

Now you can have all the bandwidth in the world and still get bad VoIP quality if your network isn’t configured properly.

Small businesses don’t have to worry so much about this. According to Gregg, “If you only have five phones, maybe even as high as 10 phones, sure you could just dump them in on a network.”

He advised running a separate VLAN for anything beyond 10 phones in a single location in order to avoid quality issues. Separate the phones from the computers and prioritize voice traffic in the routers. This way, whatever your employees are doing won’t affect the quality of your calls.

Even with the so-called “plug and play” systems, you’re going to want to put some thought into network configuration if you are putting in more than 10 phones. “I mean you can just plug them in,” said Gregg, “but I wouldn’t be too hopeful about the quality.”

But it’s not just phones to think about. “The fax machines in the conference rooms really threw me for a loop,” Jason explained. “I’m like: I’m just buying a phone system!”

You have to be methodical. Where do the phone lines need to go? Are they connected to the security system? If you have PoE, you can just plug the ethernet cable into the phones, but if not, you’ll have to make sure there’s power running everywhere you want a station.

With a cloud-based service, you’re going to have to let the vendor behind your firewall.

Jason had an issue where one of his guys missed a key thing about the firewall requirements, and it delayed his VoIP deployment by about six months. “I was not too happy,” was all he said about that.

If you have a lot of traditional phones and fax machines that you want to keep using, I’d recommend Nextiva, RingCentral, or Ooma. They offer analog telephone adapters (ATAs) that allow you to VoIP-enable landline devices.

This allows you to phase out your old system gradually, instead of trying to Hercules your company through a massive (and much more expensive) transformation. It’s going to be painful to switch no matter what, but how long can you justify investing more money in an old PBX that’s twice as hard to use for half the functionality?

One last thing about using old phones. It’s great if you can use what you have or get a deal somewhere rather than going through the vendor.

Yet Gregg has encountered problems with aging phones. Hackers will try and log into the phones to start making spam calls. “We were seeing upwards of 100,000 attempts a day on a single phone system,” he recalled. The processors on the older phones weren’t powerful enough to withstand all the incoming requests, and the attack crashed the system.

So, definitely be on the lookout for deals and try to make the most with the equipment you already own. But just be cautious about buying a phone that has an older processor, because it might be a vulnerability.

Plus, when you buy a phone directly from your VoIP vendor, it’s pre-provisioned. It’s got a secure connection out of the box. When you start piecemealing things, you may lose that desirable plug-and-play functionality.

Make Sure Remote Workers Are Up to Speed

Cloud-based VoIP gives you complete freedom to go remote with ease. Connecting external users to an on-premises system has a lot more hurdles in terms of cost and security.

But even if you go cloud, which I highly recommend, there are a few things to be thinking about.

Remote workers need a solid internet connection for VoIP. When Jason hires someone working from home, the job post says they have to have a locked and secure WiFi.

He also has them take a speed test to make sure that their connections are robust enough to be able to take phone calls. He requires a minimum of 20 mbps download and 10 mbps upload.

It’s just a generic speedtest, nothing fancy. He sends them the link, they send back screenshots to verify. Jason said most people “blow those upload/download times out of the water,” but you need to be sure.

With telecommuting employees, you also have to think about training and management at a distance. I know I’ve said that the premium VoIP plans from vendors like RingCentral and Nextiva are aimed at the call center crowd. Well it’s also true that those features become really important for collaboration when there is no office.

Sharing documents within the platform, like phone scripts, or the ability for a manager to listen in on a new hire’s first live calls—you can provide more support to develop your employees, even when people are working from home.

For a small team, OpenPhone can work really well. People can share an inbox, tag calls, leave comments, and ensure that no opportunities are missed.

People love to be able to work on the go, even if they’re not fully remote. One thing that surprised Jason was how important the mobile app was to the executives. They wanted everything forwarded to their cell.

Mobile apps are great, but they’re not without their downsides. Gregg said VoIP on mobile was great for saving money, but he wasn’t so keen on it as a full-time stand-in for using a computer or desk phone. “It’s nice in a pinch,” he said, “but if you wanna watch a cell phone battery drain out before your eyes, that’s a great way to go.”

Integration with CRM

My team asked Jason what the biggest thing you can do to help reps and agents is, and he said integration with your CRM.

This was a tune we heard from everyone, and it dovetails with my own experience. CRM software is a total game changer when it comes to growing your business and providing service to customers.

Look for a VoIP phone service that has integration with your CRM. If you don’t have one, Nextiva and PhoneBurner have one built in that you can start using immediately.

The technology’s not new by any means, but CRM software has gotten really good in the last couple of years, and a lot less expensive. When you combine a CRM’s ability to track customer information with quality voice communication, the resulting experience for your employees is amazing.

A customer calls and their account information pulls right up on screen. There’s no digging for a file or asking for a customer to provide their name, ID, order number, etc.

Sarkar talked with us about how it increased his sales reps’ efficiency. “You get to have more conversations by cutting out the extra time you spend figuring out who’s calling.”

Really, every interaction is streamlined, which makes your reps and agents way more productive. If a customer has an order, the rep can see where it is. There are no extra steps to verify who’s calling, or ask them to dig up a purchase order number.

Saving seconds on every repetitive task adds up quickly. Employees can click-to-dial numbers within the CRM. Account information is centralized and agents can leave notes about calls. Everything is stored in a way that makes sense.

Makan put it well when he said, “Compared to a traditional phone system, voice over IP integrated with the CRM is hands down like: before iPhone [versus] after iPhone.”

The ability to record calls within the CRM was a huge factor for a lot of the people we spoke with. “In the past,” Jason said, “the systems that I’ve had for recording were kind of separate from the CRM, so I had to go chase that down. If somebody called in, I’d have to be like who do you talk to? When did you call? And that would be kind of a nightmare.”

When Jason moved to a new VoIP provider, integration with their CRM was the deciding factor. His company communicated on so many channels, all of which are recorded. The integration makes the process of listening back much easier.

“If you complain about a rep or something like that,” Jason said, “I can take your phone number, plug it in, and find every single call you’ve ever made over the last year, every chat, every email, every contact. It’s super simple. [It] saves me on time tracking down calls.”

For Makan, call recording was essential for assessing employee performance. “Traditionally, you give someone a dummy phone,” he said. “You don’t know how many calls they made, who they talked to, or what the level of conversation was.”

With VoIP, you can do quality control much easier. Listening back to the calls is easy. What went right? What could be improved? Identify who needs training and who’s not a good fit.

Makan explained how it really helps managers conserve their time and energy for quality candidates. They know who to invest in and who to send on their way. “I mean, you can tell in like 60-90 days. Any excuse they give, you can just listen to the quality of the calls.”

Be on the lookout for VoIP providers that showcase direct integrations with your CRM (and other software, for that matter). You absolutely have to demo it to see how that integration drives and works on a day-to-day level. If you want that “super simple” experience Jason was talking about for recording calls, the integration has to be tight.

Also be aware that the initial setup of your CRM and VoIP is going to take some time, especially if you are tying in multiple channels like talk, text, and chat. You need to customize it to fit your industry and use-case because the software is fairly general purpose out of the box.

“You can really geek out on it,” said Makan, “and that’s the challenge.”

Sarkar was a big fan of sales engagement platforms because they have the CRM built-in and they are already tuned for the job. Obviously you don’t want to use them for customer service, but something like PhoneBurner is going to supercharge a sales team with a lot less configuration required.

Convenient Compliance Tools Employees Can Use Without Thinking

There are a lot of regulations protecting consumers from getting robo-calls or having their credit card information stolen. So if you are making a lot of calls or taking financial information over the phone, there’s going to be telemarketing and privacy laws you don’t want to mess with.

I’m glad those regulations are there, but new hires (or just plain carelessness) can break a law by accident and get your company a heavy fine. I found that a single call to someone on the national Do-Not-Call registry could result in a five-figure penalty.

A single slip up could cost anywhere from $11,000 to $43,000. And that’s per call, as in you could get multiple fines if one of your employees screws up. If it happens multiple times, I doubt the government’s going to hit you with a smaller fine.

Or think about HIPAA compliance for healthcare providers. Accidentally exposing a patient’s protected health information can result in jail time. This is true even if the company didn’t know a violation had occurred.

And yet companies make calls and share private information all the time without going bankrupt or winding up in the slammer. This is because they use good VoIP providers that make compliance convenient for employees. Your agents get the proper tools so that they can focus on the customer instead of how to stay in the clear of arcane compliance laws.

Regardless of how big a business you are, if you are making a lot of outbound calls (especially if you’re using auto dialer software), you need to update your DNC list and use it to scrub those numbers from your call lists.

RingCentral, Nextiva and include easy-to-use features to make sure your DNC list is up to date. PhoneBurner has integrations with DNC.com in order to keep people safe.

Makan, whose agents made thousands of calls a week, said that Zoho CRM in conjunction with RingCentral was the cheapest possible way to set your employees up for success. You just have to keep up on your DNC list grooming, “because that’s something you’re gonna run into a lot, and they need to scrub the numbers that they call up.”

Recording calls is another area where compliance is important. These laws vary state to state. In New York, you don’t have to tell people the call is being recorded. In New Jersey, you do.

Products like RingCentral let you automatically notify people that the call is being recorded, so you’re covered. This allows your teams to think less about how to make legal calls.

Jason told us about one of the features that sold him on going with their VoIP provider. It’s illegal to record credit card numbers, so employees need to remember to pause the recording while they take that information.

“And as you can imagine,” he said, “if you take 1,000 or 1,500 calls a month, you’re bound to forget that a couple of times, or miss it, or forget to pause, or forget to unpause, which is a big no-no in our area.”

The VoIP service he chose automated this process within their CRM so employees didn’t have to think about it. As soon as their cursor was in the payment info box, the call stopped recording.

“So my reps don’t have to remember to turn that off, and that’s just super easy,” Jason said. “I don’t have to worry about PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance. I don’t have to worry about, ‘Hey, if you forget, tell me so I can go delete the call out of the system.’ What if we delete the wrong call?”

Take every opportunity you can to automate compliance. The potential liabilities from a single oversight are enough to justify the cost of spending a little more each month on your VoIP, CRM, and training.

Security

No one wants to pay for $20,000 worth of phone calls they didn’t make. That’s what happened to a client of Gregg’s before they properly secured their VoIP. Someone hacked it and used it to start blasting out scam calls.

Security is a major concern for any internet-based service, and VoIP is no exception.

It’s pretty straightforward for on-premises systems if all your phones are in one location. Set rules in your router so that no one can connect to the phone system except the phone service provider.

Gregg said, “As long as that’s configured you’re solid, and you can’t get hacked because the traffic can’t get there from anybody else.”

Securing an on-premises system gets a lot harder if you have people working from home, which is why a lot of companies are opting to go the cloud-based VoIP route. Residential addresses don’t have static IP addresses, so you can’t set rules in your router.

“The only appropriate way to do it is using a VPN service,” explained Gregg. “If you leave the ports open so that anyone can connect, you’ll see that the phone system will get hammered constantly.”

With cloud-based VoIP, the provider is ensuring that the right people are calling into their system. You still have to maintain good security hygiene at your company—long passwords, principle of least privilege, and de-provisioning old accounts.

These last two points are really important. You need to make sure that employees only have access to the data that they absolutely need. If possible, they should have read-only access. And when employees leave, you have to de-provision them.

For one thing, you don’t want to pay for old accounts that aren’t in use. If you have high turnover, be careful to re-use old numbers you’re already paying for, rather than buying extra ones. You don’t want to be shocked by a bill that has dozens of lines you’re not using.

“People need to be aware of sabotage,” said Makan. “If you get a disgruntled employee, they can wipe out the database, if you don’t back it up. Or they copy it. Or they just start corrupting the numbers and changing things in there.”

If you adhere to the principle of least privilege and are on top of booting old users out of the system completely, the risk of sabotage is near zero. If not, you’re putting your data integrity in jeopardy.

VoIP phone services like RingCentral, Nextiva, and Ooma make it easy for administrators to keep track of who has what privileges. You won’t need an infosec credential to keep all the accounts locked down.

Conclusion

My top recommendations are Nextiva, Ringcentral, and Ooma. They are affordable, reliable, and easy to set up.

If you need a full-fledged VoIP platform on the cheap, consider Phone.com.

Grasshopper is great if you’re more worried about having enough different extensions instead of unique, dedicated phone lines.

Need something that’s more suited to support your sales teams’ efforts. Look at PhoneBurner for a sales engagement platform that includes an auto dialer.

If you’re a solo operator or just someone who is sick of having to use your personal number for running your business, OpenPhone gives you an easy and cheap way to get a professional number and VoIP service.

So, to recap all my top picks:

Nextiva – Best for offices with work-from-home employees

Ooma Office – Best for Adding VoIP to Existing SMB Phone Systems

RingCentral – Best for high-volume outbound calling

Phone.com – Most affordable professional-grade VoIP

Grasshopper – Best if you need more extensions than phone lines

PhoneBurner – Best off-the-shelf VoIP for sales teams

OpenPhone – Best way to run your business from a mobile phone

Regardless of the route you go, don’t forget to consider your requirements, budget, and the criteria we talked about as you go through the process of choosing the best VoIP phone service for your business.

Have you used a VoIP service provider in the past? What was your experience like?

from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/3kt4nBe via https://neilpatel.com

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dailybail · 3 years

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Best VPS Hosting Plans

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

Do you want to skip the read and get right to my top picks? The best VPS hosting services for most people are Hostinger or Bluehost.

Upgrading to one of the best VPS hosting plans will drastically improve your site performance if you’re currently using shared hosting.

VPS stands for virtual private server. It means you get a private slice of server resources–no more sharing them with other websites–and the ability to customize the server, which you can’t do with shared hosting.

You get the exact resources your sites need, but you don’t have to pay hundreds of dollars a month for an entire dedicated server of your own.

Or, maybe you need VPS for a different reason, such as corralling all the data from a fleet of smart devices or vehicles, running gaming servers, or computing ungodly amounts of data.

Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. Using VPS servers for edge computing offers a far more efficient way to get data to the end-user than sending everything through a single central server.

Let’s run through everything you need to know to make an informed decision. I’ll start off with in-depth reviews of my top recommendations for VPS hosting and conclude with a brief buyer’s guide to help you select the best fit for you.

#1 – Hostinger — The Best VPS Hosting for First-Timers

Hostinger has some really inexpensive VPS plans and an approachable interface that makes it perfect for new users.

You won’t get as much assistance setting things up as you do with a fully-managed plan, but it’s a fraction of the cost.

It’s not like you don’t get support. Far from it. Hostinger has customer service agents available. 24/7/365. The company promises short wait times for answers whenever you reach out, even though it’s an unmanaged plan.

And compared to some of the unmanaged plans aimed solely at developers, Hostinger is a lot more welcoming. You’re not expected to know everything, and helpful context is always linked or a click away.

Consider how easy it is to backup and restore your VPS server. Weekly or daily backups are generated automatically, depending on your plan, and available in your control panel.

You can also create a snapshot of the VPS at that exact moment whenever you want. This is great if you are about to try a major change on your site. Something goes wrong, just restore your site to the way it was before in a couple clicks. No harm, no foul.

You get a solid range of OS choices: CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, or Suse. These are one-click to install.

Hostinger describes its plan structure as “semi-managed” VPS hosting. It’s good for starting out because you get a mix of support and freedom at a really low cost.

Hostinger doesn’t include licenses cPanel with the budget VPS hosting plans. There’s just no way they can give it away when you are only paying a few bucks a month for VPS hosting. The good news is that it’s cheaper to get cPanel with Hostinger than it is with any other host, starting at $1.95 per month.

Hostinger has six levels with increasing amounts of server firepower. VPS levels 1-4 are shown below:

Start off small and scale as big as you want. VPS 1 is an excellent price for getting your feet wet, and comes with more than enough resources for your first project. If you have to upgrade, you have options that remain extremely affordable.

To get the lowest price, you’ll have to sign up for a 4-year deal. This might be a turn off if you are just looking to experiment, but it’s pretty great to be able to lock in 48 months of VPS hosting at $3.95.

And if you just want to pay month to month, the price of VPS 1 is only $9.99. That is really reasonable. Honestly, that is a normal price for shared hosting, and this is way more powerful.

The last thing you need to know about Hostinger is the 30-day money back guarantee. It’s zero risk to try and easy to start using. If you’ve ever thought of seeing how VPS hosting could give you a leg up on the competition, give Hostinger a shot today.

#2 – Bluehost — The Best For New Sites that Need Top Performance

If you have a new app, project, or website that needs it’s own dedicated set of server resources, Bluehost has you covered.

You can get a VPS set up for a great price, without adding a ton of complexity to your IT maintenance.

Everything is easier to configure with Bluehost’s enhanced cPanel, which comes free with all VPS plans. You’ll be able to manage emails, domains, websites, and more within the user-friendly interface.

Usually you have to pay extra for even a basic control panel. Not with Bluehost, though, which starts at $18.99 per month.

And Bluehost includes a lot of services in every VPS hosting package. This means less to spend and try and figure out on your own. You’ll get:

Free domain name (for the first year)

Free SSL certificate

24/7 Customer support

Multiple FTP accounts

Multi-Server management

Role based access control

You’ll be able to manage all of your sites from a single location with multi-server management. This is helpful if you have sites that are fine on shared hosting and only need the VPS for a particular site or application.

Bluehost offers three different plans for VPS hosting.

The Standard plan is on the low-end of pricing, especially when you consider that cPanel is included for free. This is normally going to cost you $10-15 per month extra.

Bluehost has also improved the control panel with specific tools for managing your VPS.

You can definitely get a cheaper VPS if you are a DIY type who doesn’t want cPanel taking away from their VPS resources. But for your typical user that just wants a simple interface to manage their VPS, Bluehost is a bargain.

Getting the domain name free for the first year is another $10-15 saved.If you are thinking about VPS hosting for a new site or app, you should definitely consider Bluehost.

#3 – HostGator — The Lowest Cost for Managed VPS Hosting

For many people, HostGator is going to be the cheapest way possible to get a managed VPS plan–that means high-power servers with low-stress maintenance for a great price.

In fact, the only reason I can’t say this is the cheapest managed VPS plan for everyone is that you have to use cPanel for server management. If you use something else, HostGator can’t provide the full-service management that makes this option so attractive.

It’s a little unusual, the fact that the hosting control panel impacts the level of service you get. But given that cPanel is one of the most widely used options on the planet, many users are going to be able to benefit from HostGator’s excellent managed VPS plans.

Why am I such a big fan?

First off, the generous amount of resources you get. The entry-level HostGator VPS plan comes with 2 GB RAM, 120 GB storage, and unmetered bandwidth. That means you won’t get charged based on a set level of traffic coming to your site.

Obviously there’s an acceptable use policy, but you don’t have hard fast limits.

You’ll have root access and total control over what you install on your VPS. The Softaculous script installer (included free) lets you load hundreds of the most popular web apps onto your server in a single step.

Whenever you run into trouble, day or night, you can reach out to HostGator by phone, chat, or Twitter, if you really want to catch HostGator’s attention. Premium support comes with every managed plan, as well as server monitoring and remediation.

You can definitely find unmanaged plans for cheaper, but having a service team there around the clock to troubleshoot issues is a tremendous value.

HostGator’s support really goes to the next level with free content transfers. Sign up and HostGator will transfer everything from your old site to its new home–files, databases, scripts–you don’t have to stress or worry.

With HostGator, everything is set up right the first time and you have all the help you need moving forward. HostGator provides courtesy weekly backups, which is helpful, but you can also schedule your own backups and create them on-demand.

Such flexible backup capabilities can easily run $10-20 per month if you purchase them separately (to say nothing of the time it takes). Affordable hosting plans usually cut corners, but HostGator is loaded with cost-saving features:

Unlimited email

2 dedicated IPs

Unmetered bandwidth

Softaculous script installer

Free SSL certificates

DDoS protection

You have the option of going with a semi-managed plan or a fully-managed plan. The prices you see below are the semi-managed plan:

For people who know their way around the command line, or already have a hosting control panel they like, these semi-managed plans will be great. But if you want the fully-managed services, you will have to purchase cPanel, which is $10 per month more.

It’s still a great price, especially when you think about the 24/7 premium service and all the backups and security responsibilities that are taken off your plate.

CentOS is the default operating system, so there is a little less flexibility than some of the other web hosts on my list. That said, for most people, this is going to be fine.

So there are a few limits and asterisks to this deal (you have to use cPanel, for instance), but they are not going to get in the way of most people seeking a managed VPS plan.

Give HostGator a call today and have your site migrated for free.

#4 – Liquid Web — The Best for Upgrading From Shared Hosting

Liquid Web doesn’t offer shared hosting, and if you want to leave that world behind, the company has a great deal to get set up.

Go with one of the managed VPS plans, and Liquid Web throws in a free migration. This involves a team of specialists moving all of your content and data over to the new hosting. I think that’s a pretty big deal because it saves you money, time, and the cost of screwing something up.

And once you get set up, you kind of get to keep the good parts of the shared hosting experience without the downsides.

VPS with Liquid Web is still really affordable, especially when you consider what a dedicated server costs. So you are not breaking the bank to get the increased VPS performance and stability you need.

Plus you get to keep a relatively low-key maintenance schedule, which is something people really love about shared hosting. There’s more to do with VPS, for sure, but much of the backend legwork is handled by Liquid Web if you want.

If you are happy managing your server, get an unmanaged plan. If you want to avoid all responsibility, get a fully managed plan. And if you fall somewhere in between, you can check out the Core VPS plan, which Liquid Web describes as semi-managed.

Just pick the level of support that matches your technical confidence and time constraints.

Bear in mind that the support level you choose for your plan is an additional level of premium support on top of Liquid Web’s customer service team. No matter what plan you pick you can connect with an on-site service agent by phone, chat, and email 24/7.

So you have more freedom to build, better resources to do it, and support whenever you run into issues. It’s an all-around improvement from shared hosting, complete with:

Integrated firewall

Remote backups by default

DDoS prevention

Proactive monitoring

ServerSecure protection

You won’t have to worry about managing any of this. It just happens in the background while you focus on your business.

Liquid Web offers a range of plans and bundles with extremely low introductory pricing. Upon renewal, it goes up to the monthly rate.

To get the lowest price, you have to sign up for a 2-year deal. I think it’s definitely worth it, although it’s a higher upfront cost. You just save so much money by doing this. Looking at the 2GB packages, it’s normally $59 per month and worth every penny.

I mean look at the bandwidth. 10 TB is far and away the most you will see with an entry-level plan. Getting that for $15 a month is an outrageous monster-step up from shared hosting at basically the same price.

You can also go with a Value Bundle, which is available for any plan. This gives you business email service, and additional 100 GB of remote backup, and additional security benefits.

You have your choice of six different operating systems, including Windows Server.

I recommend going with CentOS, if you can, because then you can use Interworx as your control panel for free. If you want to use something else, you’ll need to get cPanel or Plesk, which is included as an extra charge.

So if you are looking at VPS as a way to boost the performance you’re getting with shared hosting, Liquid Web is a really good option. You’ll get the blazing speed you need without a ton of additional maintenance headaches associated with private servers.

And remember, Liquid Web will bring everything over from your old host for free. This is the easiest and most affordable way to get your online assets the dedicated server resources they deserve.

If you pay monthly and use coupon code NEIL40, you can get 40% off your first four months. Get started with Liquid Web today.

#5 – Scala Hosting — The Best VPS Hosting for Scaling on the Fly for Free

VPS hosting is the most powerful game in town outside of having your own dedicated servers. Chances are, you’re looking for VPS because you know (or at least hope) that your site is going to need a lot of CPU cores, RAM, and/or storage to give visitors a good experience.

But you may not know exactly what you need from server resources until you’re live. Fortunately, Scala Hosting gives you tremendous flexibility in every way.

It begins from setup—Scala lets you choose between fully-managed and self-managed VPS, each of which allow you to finely customize the CPUs, memory, and SSD disk space you’re getting.

And by finely, I mean finely. Just look at the range of resources available to you on both:

Self-managed VPS:

CPU cores: as few as two CPU cores, maximum of 24

RAM: as little as 8 GB, maximum of 64 GB

SSD storage: minimum 80 GB, maximum 2 TB

Can add additional CPU cores ($4 each), RAM ($1.50/GB), and disk space ($1/10 GB) beyond maximum

Select your preferred operating system

Fully managed VPS:

CPU cores: as few as one CPU core, maximum of 24

RAM: as little as 2 GB, maximum of 128 GB

SSD storage: minimum 20 GB, maximum 2 TB

But, better still, your resource allocation choices are not carved into stone. You can scale up or down your number of CPU cores and how much RAM you need (you’re only able to upgrade SSD storage, though, not downscale). And you won’t be charged for doing so at any point in your plan.

So, if you find you miscalculated on your initial plan setup—or, better still, your site is more popular than you bargained for—no sweat. You’re able to tweak your VPS plan anytime, so you’re only paying for what you need while also not missing out when you need more.

As far as pricing goes, the self-managed VPS from Scala starts at $26/month for the bare minimum (two cores, 8 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD). The prices above in the bullet list for adding CPUs, RAM, and disk space apply throughout.

So, a plan comparable to Bluehost’s top-of-the-line VPS (four cores, 8 GB RAM, 120 GB storage) runs you just $38/month, better than Bluehost’s $59.99/month.

Scala’s fully managed VPS is, understandably, pricier, but allows for lower monthly cost by committing to longer terms, up to a three-year commitment.

The steps up are more expensive—$6 per additional core, $2 for each additional GB of RAM, $2 for each additional 10 GB of storage—but, again, you aren’t charged just for the act of adjusting resources and you’re still coming out ahead compared to some other higher-end managed VPS plans.

Compared to GreenGeeks’ 8 GB plan (6 CPUs and 160 GB SSD), Scala comes in cheaper on month-to-month pricing ($87.95/month), as well as any longer commitments.

So, with Scala Hosting VPS, you get exactly what you need from their servers, both when initially setting up your web hosting and throughout the life of your commitment with them. That’s true freedom, flexibility, and customization.

Get started with Scala Hosting today.

#6 – GreenGeeks — The Best Off-the-Shelf Managed VPS Hosting

GreenGeeks offers a complete package of managed VPS hosting services. You aren’t spending extra to fill in the cracks or get the setup you want.

It’s ready to go out of the box, and perfect for the buyer who wants the performance of VPS without the IT headaches that come with.

Top-notch customer support is included with the package deal. GreenGeeks admins will help with everything from sluggish sites to network problems. Basically, they will help you with anything except the apps and websites you build yourself.

The price for GreenGeeks is definitely a little higher than some of the others you’ll see, but you’re not spending extra to purchase stuff like “premium support” or licenses for cPanel. That’s all lumped into the monthly price.

You are able to get all of your sites and apps deployed without opening your wallet up again and again.

There are no upsells on the platform. Those don’t bother me a lot, but some people really don’t like paying for a service only to be shown more products to buy at every turn. GreenGeeks will even transfer your website for free as long as you are using cPanel.

Another reason I like this option is the high bandwidth limits. You get an astonishing 10 TB with GreenGeeks entry-level VPS hosting plans. 10 terabytes? For real? Yes.

So if you are expecting boatloads of traffic, GreenGeeks gives you the bandwidth not to worry. Most other hosts aren’t giving you 10 TB unless you are paying significantly more. Some of the other standout features of GreenGeeks include:

cPanel/WHM included,

Free cPanel migrations,

Free SSL certificate

24/7 server monitoring

Custom security rules

DDoS protection

300% renewable energy infrastructure

If you were wondering about the name GreenGeeks, yes, the company is very much concerned with the environment. For every bit of energy you pull from the power grid to run the hosting of your site, GreenGeeks puts three times that amount back into renewables.

This is the only eco-friendly host I know of. If that’s important to you, know that you are making a positive impact by choosing GreenGeeks as your host.

And even if environmental concerns aren’t something at the forefront of your mind, GreenGeeks is just a great VPS hosting provider. Yes, it’s a little pricier than some, but it is hardly expensive when you look at what you get.

I really like GreenGeeks for users who want an all-in-one VPS hosting solution. All of the key aspects are covered.

There’s no catches, asterisks, or fine print to figure out. Just pick your plan and start building.

On top of that, you get comprehensive, truly managed support. GreenGeeks is there to help with any hosting issue. There’s no red tape separating you from the service you need, whenever you need it.

For the socially-conscious company, GreenGeeks should be your first choice. But like I said, even if you don’t worry so much about the environment, choose GreenGeeks for the solid price on resources for your VPS. Getting 10 TB bandwidth and 4 CPU cores is remarkable for an entry-level plan.

If you are looking for a VPS hosting solution that works out of the box, GreenGeeks should be on your shortlist. Get in touch with them today.

#7 – InMotion — The Best for Hosting Multiple WordPress Sites

InMotion is a phenomenal hosting company that’s beloved by power users and first timers.

You’ll find that they offer the full range of VPS services. Get a small slice of a server that’s completely yours for a cheap price, opt for a managed hosting plan with hands-off maintenance, or get a reseller plan built for your bottom line.

What I want to focus on in this review is InMotion’s WordPress VPS hosting. This is a great solution for companies that have a lot of high-powered WordPress sites.

Once you reach a certain point, shared hosting is not going to be enough to keep your sites fast. Some companies choose managed WordPress hosting, but that can get expensive. Plus you lose a lot of the control over how the server is configured with those plans.

With InMotion’s WordPress VPS, you get to set up your server any way you want, but you still get a lot of the benefits of a managed WordPress hosting plan: an exclusive WordPress hosting environment, top-of-the-line performance, built-in security, on-demand and automatic backups, and more.

And it’s likely going to be a lot less expensive than a traditional managed WordPress hosting plan for a lot more resources.

Another way to think about it is that you get the performance you need for your sites without the loss of customizability.

To make the transition to InMotion easier, the company offers Launch Assist. This is two hours with an IT specialist to help you set everything up right the first time. Avoid costly downtime, frustration, and mistakes down the road.

As I noted, you’re going to get a lot more resources than you could get with a managed WordPress plan, but it’s not like you are on the hook for a ton of maintenance. It’s a nice balance.

All of the tools you need are included. You get:

cPanel/WHM

Ecommerce optimization

Snapshot backups

Free SSL certificate

Malware and hack protection

Free domain name

3 dedicated IPs

A lot of VPS plans you’ll see come with a single dedicated IP. With InMotion, you get three, which is helpful if you have a few WordPress sites or want to keep them separate from mail servers and other projects.

And if you need more resources, scaling up remains very cost-effective.

With some plans, you have to pay $10+ per month on top of your monthly bill just to get a cPanel account. InMotion gives you five with their entry-level plan. You’ll also have a Resource Monitoring Dashboard that gives you performance metrics at a glance.

To get the lowest price, you’ll have to sign up for three years in advance, but InMotion offers one-year, six-month, and monthly plans as well.

One of the reasons I like InMotion so much for WordPress VPS is the security. WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world, and a favorite target of hackers. InMotion gives you a free SSL certificate, as well as protection from malware, hacks, and DDoS attacks.

That’s a great set of offerings for managed VPS hosting. InMotion really takes care of so much on your behalf and sets you up for success. But, if you’re comfortable with self-administrating your server, you can get a steal with InMotion’s unmanaged cloud VPS.

Those plans are affordable, easy to scale, and give you complete control. They start $5 per month for 1 GB of RAM, 1 TB of bandwidth, 25 GB storage, and one CPU. Plans increase by $5 to $10 per month for each step up in resources.

Either way, if you want top-tier performance without sacrificing control, InMotion WordPress VPS is a really great choice.

#8 – GoDaddy — The Best for Spending as Little as Possible

GoDaddy is one of, if not the most, recognizable player in the hosting space. It can be a great option for people looking for an unmanaged VPS plan with no-frills.

Now GoDaddy does offer managed VPS plans that take a ton of the server maintenance and monitoring off your plate. But it’s really expensive, especially looking at some of the other managed VPS plans I’ve reviewed. It wouldn’t be my recommendation.

But if you are in the market for a DIY hosting plan that gives you total control along with the exact resources you need, GoDaddy VPS plans are a great place to start.

You can get three years of GoDaddy VPS for under $180. It’s a barebones plan targeted at users who know what they are doing. So you won’t get a ton of tools to help you stay organized or white-glove support, and there are going to be upsells at every turn.

But if you are comfortable managing your own server, why pay for things you don’t need?

You also get more flexibility to choose your resources. GoDaddy offers both Standard and High-RAM plans, which give you double the memory. Most other providers don’t give you that option.

Usually you are stuck jumping from one plan to the next, but GoDaddy will let you increase RAM, which may be all you need to get your sites loading faster.

Another helpful bit of flexibility is GoDaddy’s month to month pricing. VPS hosting starts at $7.99 per month with no contracts or commitments. This is an insanely low price for your own private resources.

And there’s quite a bit included with the low price of VPS hosting. It’s not as complete a package as GreenGeeks by any means, but GoDaddy doesn’t cut corners on the fundamentals. Some of the features included are:

Free SSL certificate (for one year)

Automated, weekly, and snapshot backups

Performance monitoring

PCI compliance

Phone support

If you are the DIY type, this is more than enough support and assistance to keep your site running smoothly. And when you think about paying $4.99 per month to get started, you can see why GoDaddy is so popular.

There’s really no way to spend less and get VPS hosting from a reputable provider. The pricing above is for Standard RAM plans.

If you opt for High RAM, the lowest plan becomes $9.99, but you get two GB of RAM instead of one. Basically, you double your RAM for any plan and pay a slightly higher price.

The storage limits on the entry-level plan are on the low end compared to some of the others I’ve reviewed. If that’s a concern, you might want to look at another plan, though it’s still fairly affordable to upgrade with GoDaddy and get a ton more resources.

For someone who knows their way around a server, GoDaddy VPS is the cheapest option. If you just want to be left to your own devices, this is a great option. Reach out to GoDaddy today and see what kind of a deal you can get.

#9 – Media Temple — The Best VPS Hosting if You Manage Sites for Clients

Media Temple is a great choice for companies that need VPS to support their clients sites and projects. This is true whether you want to worry about the technical backend yourself, or if you’d rather let MT handle the day-to-day maintenance.

If your team is totally comfortable with all the IT responsibilities, the DV Developer plan is packed with power at the low starting price of $30 per month.

You can pick from multiple versions of Debian, Ubuntu, or CentOS. Manage everything through SSH and build as you see fit. It’s complete flexibility, scalability and freedom for people that are at home in the command line.

For companies that want it, the DV Managed plan provides your choice of control panel for easy server management, as well as world-class support from IT experts. Chat, tweet, call, or request support any time of day. You get 99.99% uptime guaranteed, with money-back if Media Temple doesn’t live up to it.

In fact, you get 20% of your monthly hosting cost back in your pocket for every 20 minutes of downtime that month.

The managed plan is not quite as flexible as the developer plan. You get multiple options for which control panel you want to use, but CentOS is the only operating system supported.

But there’s a lot less work to be done. You won’t have to worry about updates or security patches to keep your VPS safe. You can use cPanel/WHM or Plesk, and know that the control panel is always going to be working.

This is a big deal for resellers and agencies that have to manage their client’s sites. The control panels are always working properly, and whenever there is an issue you can’t figure out, Media Temple is there to help.

For companies that want to outsource more of their IT and security responsibilities, Media Temple offers an Agency Bundle. This includes advanced support, a technical account manager, and a suite of security services you can deploy to multiple sites.

The all-in-one bundle makes it easier than ever to outfit your clients with secure, high-speed sites in very little time.

You choose what level of support makes sense, and Media Temple ensures your hosting foundation is secure for business.

For developers who just need access to world-class resources, plans start at $30 per month.

The 2 TB bandwidth is quite good for the Level-1 Developer plan. One thing to keep in mind is that Media Temple includes 24/7 support with the developer plans. Some unmanaged plans from other hosts really skimp on support, but Media Temple does not.

The DV Managed plans have a similar price breakdown to the developer plans. A Level-1 Managed plan starts at $55 per month. You get more storage and everything you need to use your VPS comes pre-installed.

The Agency Bundle starts at $250 per month. The suite of hosting and security services costs far less than if you were to purchase the parts individually. It also works a lot better, because it’s been configured by Media Temple ahead of time, rather than cobbled together from a slew of third-party services.

Media Temple provides a turnkey solution that gives you the resources you need. For resellers, the peace of mind of having top-quality performance and support is a non-starter. Troubles will compound quickly when there are issues. But with Media Temple, there won’t be.

Go with Media Temple. Your clients will thank you.

#10 – InterServer — The Best Deal If You Want Total Control

InterServer has some of the best prices in the VPS hosting space.

Part of the reason is that they slice up servers into 16 different packages. You can really hone in on the exact set of resources you need. It’s simple: choose between one and 16 CPU cores that come with an increasing amount of memory, storage, and bandwidth.

What’s really nice is that fully-managed support comes free as long as you purchase four or more slices. That’s what InterServer calls each tier, and you can add slices at any time.

You get a lot of hosting resources for every dollar you spend. It’s not hard to find comparably-priced VPS plans with a fraction of the memory or storage you get with InterServer.

For the buyer that doesn’t need managed support, the value is unbeatable. Yes, the $6 per month cost is slightly higher than GoDaddy, but InterServer’s VPS is a lot less barebones.

First off, you get the DirectAdmin control panel for free. It makes it easier to configure your server and set mail accounts. You can add cPanel or Plesk for an additional price, but only if you need them.

With GoDaddy any sort of control panel will be an extra cost.

InterServer is extremely reliable. They offer a 99.99% uptime guarantee. The company actually uses an artificial intelligence system to scan their network for potential performance issues. Instead of your site taking a hit, the AI detects and solves the problem far faster than any human response.

The value is really there. As I’ve said, you get very high resource limits at a low price.

The starting price for a single CPU core is $6 per month. You also get more than 1 GB memory, 30 GB storage, and 1 TB bandwidth. That’s 10GB more storage than GoDaddy for a dollar more each month.

You can add slices for $6 at any time. This boosts all of your resources across the board. I like this arrangement a lot, because it’s so flexible. Instead of being catapulted into a much higher pricing package, you can grow incrementally.

And remember, at 4 slices and higher, InterServer throws in fully-managed service for free. This should put InterServer on the map for the non-DIY crowd as well.

InterServer offers Windows VPS hosting starting at the low cost of $10 per month. The pricing arrangement works the same–you can purchase anywhere from one to 16 slices in $10 increments.

You can also get WordPress VPS hosting through InterServer. InMotion is my top choice for WordPress VPS hosting for most users because it includes cPanel/WHM. If you don’t need that, or have a fairly small WordPress site, InterServer may be more cost-effective.

For advanced users, InterServer is going to give you a great deal on whatever selection of resources you are after. The free control panel is a huge standout, which is going to make simple tasks easier.

Get in touch with InterServer today to secure a great price on a VPS hosting plan that meets your exact needs.

#11 – iDrive Compute — The Best for Supporting Networks of Smart Devices

The future is likely to be dominated by smart devices. Believe me, between personal devices like health monitors and smart watches all the way up to fully autonomous vehicles, factories, and production lines, handling all of that data is going to crush many current tech infrastructures.

I love iDrive Compute for that reason. They make it easy and accessible for any organization to wield the power of edge computing so that you can manage, monitor, and collect from devices anywhere in the world.

They rightfully boast of their 4,000 servers spread across every continent. Their 20 U.S. data centers alone make it easy for an American company to, for example, troubleshoot a faulty pallet loader in Spokane, adjust smart thermostats in several storage centers across the Midwest, and collect data from wireless inventory trackers in facilities all along the east coast.

With iDrive Compute’s VPS for edge computing, you can stay on top of all of that without fretting about low latency, poor syncing, unreliable connections, or security vulnerabilities.

That’s just one practical example of what edge computing is useful for.

You can leverage iDrive Compute for online gaming, streaming video delivery, running cloud-based applications, big data processing, or even patient monitoring.

Whether you’re a startup looking to get into a cutting-edge field or a mature, enterprise grade operation that has massive demands for data transferring and processing worldwide, you get a great service at a great price from iDrive Compute.

Plus, they’re offering 90% off your first year, whether you choose a shared package or one that is CPU or RAM-optimized.

Resources scale up to 32 CPU cores, 64 GB RAM, 1280 GB of NVMe storage, and 12 TB of data transfer on the shared track. For the optimized, dedicated plans, you’ll max out at eight CPU cores with varying ceilings for the other resources.

With that 90% off, you can get a year of the most basic shared VPS from iDrive Compute for just $6! Even the most elaborate packages won’t run you more than $390 for your first year. That’s a great way to get started and see what edge computing can do for your business.

Get with iDrive Compute today and start using edge computing for your needs.

What I Looked at to Find the Best VPS Hosting Plan

VPS web hosting occupies something of a middle ground between shared hosting and getting a dedicated server for yourself.

Some people have outgrown shared hosting. They need server resources that aren’t impacted by other sites on the server. VPS hosting offers a much more stable, scalable solution.

Others need an email server or a space to develop apps. VPS hosting lets them buy exactly what they need to build and access their assets whenever they want, wherever they are.

For people hosting ecommerce sites and other resource-intensive applications, a VPS gives them all the server firepower they need. Adding more resources is easy, weathering traffic spikes is no issue, and they can configure the server as they see fit.

And VPS is way cheaper than dedicated hosting. $1,000 per month is completely acceptable in that space, usually it’s more.

A lot of companies will get there eventually, but a dedicated server is complete overkill where they are today.

VPS gives you your own slice of dedicated resources. Scale as need be.

The providers I reviewed have excellent speed and uptime. If you go with one of these VPS hosting plans, your sites will be up and they will be fast.

But you can’t just pick a vendor with a good reputation. I’ve gotten you to the right dealership. You need to pick the right ride.

When it comes to VPS hosting, there are sports cars and work trucks. Both are fantastic machines, but only for the right company. The moving crew may have fun in the Mustang, but it’s terrible for getting sofas from A to B.

By understanding your way around VPS hosting, you can select a setup that takes care of what you need at the right price. Here’s how to find your way.

Enough Resources Not to Worry

Each host clearly lays out the exact resources you get. These are the guts of the computer that you are paying to use, and they will impact every aspect of performance on your site. Here’s what you are looking at:

Storage

Memory

CPU

Bandwidth

I would want to have a clear idea of what I plan on using in each of these resource categories before starting my search. If you are unsure, ask your current host where to find stats on your usage.

For people thinking about VPS for a new project, reach out and talk with the sales team at a host which checks your other boxes. They will be more than happy to help you determine a resource amount that makes sense. And even if you don’t go with them, now you know.

You’re trying to find something that gives you more than you need. Even though these are your dedicated resources, maxxing them out all the time can lead to issues with your host.

Looking at the different vendors, you’ll see a lot of jargon about different resource types. They do matter, but I will say that most top quality VPS hosts use the best technology available.

That said, some web hosts have specific plans geared toward people who need more of a certain resource. GoDaddy has High RAM plans for people who need more memory, for example, and InterServer offers Storage Optimized VPS plans that come with an insane amount of disk space at a low price.

If you’re trying to make a decision between two different vendors offering the same package of resources, I’d sign up for a free trial of both and see which gives you the better performance.

Since it’s not always feasible to really test hosting limits during a trial period, I’d focus on going with a vendor that will still make sense economically if you have to upgrade to a more expensive plan than you thought.

This train of thought also applies well to VPS for edge computing use cases. The spread of resources from the cheapest plans to the most expensive are awfully similar. Make sure you get at least enough for what you currently need, whether that’s to accommodate a lot of users, devices/virtual machines, or data.

One thing you might have to additionally decide on, in this case, is whether you want to optimize for processing power or memory. The former is better for handling CPU-intensive applications, like dynamic or streaming content delivery, gaming, or machine learning. The latter is a boon for intense computation and and big data analysis.

Make sure you can scale in this situation, too. The growth potential that VPS edge computing unlocks means you might find yourself needing more sooner than you think.

There’s more to this decision than simply looking at the nuts and bolts, so let’s move on to other factors that can help you decide between similar offerings.

Total Control vs. Shared Responsibility

Some people choose VPS hosting because they are excited to control every aspect of the server.

Others are looking for predictable, high-power performance, but they’re less jazzed about the IT responsibilities of managing their own virtual machine.

Where do you fall in this spectrum?

There’s basic server maintenance, patching, and updates that need to happen. Otherwise your VPS may get hacked and wind up powering some crypto-mining scheme on the other side of the world. And that’s a benign example of what could happen if your site is compromised due to a server management oversight.

If you’re a first-timer who wants a helping hand setting things up, or you don’t want the hassle of dealing with the IT backend, I recommend finding a managed VPS plan.

With this arrangement, your hosting provider takes over much of the basic, day-to-day, IT maintenance that goes into keeping a server healthy and secure. This leaves you to enjoy the faster hosting and focus more on your business.

The experience of managed hosting is geared towards people that are less familiar with making changes on a server using the command line. With a managed VPS plan, you’ll get a visual control panel that allows you to configure everything with clicks instead of a computer language.

People with a lot of development know-how don’t need the extra hand-holding or tools that simplify server management. In fact, those things might just get in the way.

If you fall in this crowd, I recommend an unmanaged VPS hosting plan. You basically just get the server resources and manage everything yourself. You’ll still have some helpful tools and in some cases a control panel, but for the most part you are entirely responsible for the security and configuration.

The biggest plus for developers is total control–do whatever you want, however you want. It’s also way less expensive. GoDaddy, for example, offers unmanaged plans starting at around $5 per month. The same server resources on a managed plan from GoDaddy start at about 20-times that price.

Not every web host has such a stark pricing difference, but it’s usually significant. And it makes sense. With self-managed plans, you are on the hook for a lot more IT legwork. If that’s not a drama, then don’t pay for it.

If you are on the fence about what you need, I suggest going with a managed VPS plan. Better to pay a little more than have your new hosting account compromised because of some basic technical slipup.

This isn’t a concern for those of you looking to get into VPS for edge computing or IoT device wrangling. Most options out there right now are fully-managed, thankfully. The providers are the ones offering their data centers to you, so it’s only right that they should be responsible for maintenance and upkeep.

No Issues Running Your Sites or Apps

Are you planning on running anything on your VPS that has unusual requirements?

If you don’t know the answer to that question, you’re probably fine, but it doesn’t hurt to double-check that the operating system (OS) you plan on using is supported by the host you choose.

This is especially true for managed VPS plans, because the OS often comes pre-installed. With unmanaged plans, you just have to make sure the one you want is available for install. There’s usually a pretty wide range of choices, but not always.

Even more so, this is crucial for edge computing. If you’re running virtual machines on your VPS servers or incorporating a wide array of smart devices, compatibility with the infrastructure you sign up for is of paramount importance.

Most VPS hosting is Linux-based, and works seamlessly with basically everything on the internet. There are different Linux distributions, like Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, but in general they will all work for most users.

The major exception is Windows hosting. There are certain Microsoft apps and services that can’t run on Linux, like SharePoint, Exchange and MSSQL databases.

Many hosts don’t offer Windows hosting. I’ve called out the ones that do in the reviews.

One important thing: You can have a Windows PC and use Linux hosting. That doesn’t matter at all. Windows hosting is only necessary if you need to run specific Microsoft products on your VPS.

Timely and Tech-Savvy Support

If this is your first time using VPS hosting, I’d be very conscious of how much assistance you’re going to get. Even if you opt for a managed VPS plan, there’s still a few steps you have to take to ensure that your new hosting set up is secure and running as intended.

I would strongly recommend customer service that provides free migrations or data transfers, like Liquid Web or HostGator. Having them help you set everything up right will be quicker and easier, there’s just nothing else to be said.

If you’re moving over from shared hosting, know that the range of technical issues is much greater. You are going to need a tech that really understands what’s going on.

This is only more true for self-managed plans where you may have configured your server in a very unique way. Troubleshooting your issues will likely require a high-level of knowledge and understanding.

Every vendor that made my list for best VPS hosting has some form of round-the-clock support. Where you will find differences is in the number of channels you can reach out on. Some will offer live chat only whereas others will have phone, email, or ticketing systems as well.

As you are gathering a sense of the customer service quality you are likely to get, I encourage you to read online reviews. Take them with a grain of salt, however, because any long-standing, popular host is going to have one-star reviews from their millions of users.

The best thing you can do is reach out to the company as much possible before, during, and after you sign up. Submit lots of tickets and clock the response. Use the online knowledge base to solve problems on your own. Is the content actually helping you?

Most of the plans I’ve reviewed offer free trial periods. Sign up and test the support staff. This is your relatively risk-free way of getting an actual read on the service quality.

In general, premium customer support costs extra. This is how you get immediate call backs and additional service channels beyond the basic coverage they provide for all customers.

If you think that you need frequent guidance, I suggest looking into the premium support plans. It’s an extra cost, but saving a few hours of frustration each month is plenty of value.

Summary

If you need top performance and aren’t interested in a dedicated server, then VPS hosting is good option.

Use the buyer’s guide and reviews to work your way to a sensible decision. You’re looking for something that gives you a comfortable level of control and more server resources than you think you’ll need.

Here’s a complete list of my recommendations with links for you to explore further:

Hostinger — The best VPS hosting for first-timers

Bluehost — The best for new sites that need top performance

HostGator — The lowest cost for managed VPS hosting

Liquid Web — The best for upgrading from shared hosting

Scala Hosting — The best VPS hosting for scaling on the fly for free

GreenGeeks — The best off-the-shelf managed VPS hosting

InMotion — The best for hosting multiple WordPress sites

GoDaddy — The best for spending as little as possible

Media Temple — The best VPS hosting if you manage sites for clients

InterServer — The best deal if you want total control

iDrive Compute — The best for supporting networks of smart devices

There’s a range of options on here. The managed plans will work well for people who don’t have time to handle the technical stuff. Some of the really affordable plans just give you the server resources and let you build from there.

To find the right one for you, follow the methodology described above. It will help you make sense of all the options available, and find one that has the features and support you need.

from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/33Cv9Ar via https://neilpatel.com

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dailybail · 3 years

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The Best CRM Software (In-Depth Review)

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

The best customer relationship management (CRM) software helps you provide better service and captures valuable insight about what your clients really want.

It simplifies everyday tasks for employees. They always know which customer they are speaking to, for one thing, and automatically store all information in the same account. Everything your team needs is at their fingertips–no more confusion or tracking down info.

Good CRM software can do a lot more than that, the idea is simple: you are positioning your employees to deliver a five-star experience, every time.

There are a boatload of CRM software options to choose from. They each have strengths that play better for different types of companies. Which one is actually going to help your teams?

To sort things out, I reviewed the best CRM software available and put together a brief buyer’s guide to help you make an informed final decision.

#1 – Zoho CRM Review — The Best for Small to Midsize Businesses

Unlike the other options on this list, Zoho CRM is an all-in-one solution. There aren’t additional modules to look through for different departments or anything like that. This makes it an excellent option for small to midsize businesses.

This is a CRM tool that all of your employees will be able to use. That’s really important, because a CRM is only as good as the information that people put into it. With Zoho CRM your employees are not going to need significant training in order to start taking advantage of its many features right away.

They also have an extensive network of 40 other business tools. So, if you’re using Zoho software already, integration with Zoho CRM is seamless.

Plus, they have a worldwide network of over 150,000+ customers (including Netflix and Bose) in 180 countries, so you know you’re in good hands.

Furthermore, Zoho offers a free forever plan with up to three users. It includes essential features like lead management, document sharing, task management, workflow rules, and a mobile application.

However, their paid plans are affordable as well, and they include advanced CRM features like:

Real-time sales signals and customer notifications

Blueprint business management for both on and offline processes

Prospect scoring capabilities

Unique sales pipelines

Mass emails

Inventory management

An AI assistant

Advanced customizations

The cheapest paid plan starts at $14 per user per month, making it extremely affordable for small businesses.

Note: Zoho also recently launched a sales-centric CRM specifically for small businesses. It’s called Bigin, and it includes a robust free plan if you’d like to try it out. Bigin’s paid plans are $7 per user per month.

#2 – EngageBay Review — The Best CRM for Continuing Client Support

A lot of CRMs do the same things. They collect and organize your contact data, have some automation tools for sending emails and posting to social, and overall make your sales team’s lives easier.

But not all of them cater to all three core departments—sales, marketing, and service. If you need an all-encompassing tool to boost all three, EngageBay might be the best solution for you.

You get a lot of the key features you need for customer relationship management. Set tasks, build a pipeline, and place automations for email sends, SMS messages, rep hand-offs, and more.

This all happens in an easy-to-grasp interface that lets you view your funnel, social media interactions and messages, email campaigns, and everything else in one place.

Plus, EngageBay syncs up with Gmail, Outlook, and Office with no pain or stress.

But what I really love is its suitability for organizations that value post-sale relationships as much as gathering, warming, and converting leads.

There’s a whole service bay module of features and tools in EngageBay that makes your support reps’ jobs a cinch.

On EngageBay’s lowest-tier plans, you get a way to manage tickets and contacts together that carries over all the information you’ve gathered during each customer’s sales journey. That way, no one’s going in blind and your support team can really turn customers into lifelong loyalists.

But with an upgrade from EngageBay’s free plan, you also unlock macros and canned responses.

I recommend their Growth plan, though, most of all. For $29.99 per user per month, you can apply the same robust automation capability—setting triggers and events that streamline workflows—that the marketing and sales teams get to customer service.

What’s great about this is that email sequences can come back into play after a service interaction.

I can see this being a boon for SaaS and many B2B operations. Not only is ongoing support vital in those fields to building long-term clients, but you can use a new drip campaign after successful service interactions to warm an existing customer up for an upgrade or add-on.

There’s a lot of potential to unlock in all three departments with a tool like EngageBay.

Get started on their free plan to get a feel for the platform and, when you’re ready, move on up to the Growth plan to really have your sales, marketing, and service firing on all cylinders.

#3 – HubSpot Review — The Best Free CRM Software

If you’re in the sales or marketing industry, you’ve probably read HubSpot’s blog or taken one of their free certification courses. However, they also offer a robust and free CRM software to streamline your customer relationship management process.

With HubSpot, you can gain unprecedented insight into how your audience behaves.

Need to monitor when contacts open your emails so you can optimize your open rates? No problem. Maybe you want to see how a contact behaves on your website. With HubSpot, it’s easy.

Furthermore, they offer a wide variety of solutions, depending on your role within your company.

These position-specific solutions include sales, marketing, customer service, operations, and owners.

The free plan includes a robust set of features. You get all the essentials of contact management, deal tracking, and reporting that you need from a CRM.

Combined, that gives you an incredible level of insight into your sales pipeline. And HubSpot allows you to organize and utilize that insight into creating your next great strategy or campaign.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. HubSpot’s free CRM also includes:

Scheduled emails

1:1 live chat

Meeting scheduler

Website activity tracking

Task management

Document sharing

These features are hard to beat on any other free plans on this list. However, HubSpot’s paid plans are well worth their price as well.

The Starter Plan starts at $40 per month, paid annually. However, if you want to bundle all of HubSpot’s CRM software, you can get starter access to all four for $50 per month if you commit to a 12-month contract.

So, for $10 extra dollars a month, you also get software specialized for marketing, sales, and customer service.

However, keep in mind these prices are based on 1,000 contacts. The price increases for every additional 1,000 contacts you have.

#4 – Salesflare Review – Best Lead Management Tools for Small Business

Any CRM worth its salt should definitively answer one question—how does this help teams sell better?

As you see on this list, different platforms have come up with different answers to this question. Salesflare stands out for pushing lead management tools to the forefront without being bogged down with superfluous features.

If your team could use some help guiding opportunities from lead to win—and, honestly, what team doesn’t—Salesflare could be just the ticket.

It starts with the software’s intelligent information gathering. Salesflare pulls contact info, company role, and much more detail automatically from emails, social profiles, and other sources. This information is stored both in a dedicated section for each account you’re selling to and a universal contact book accessible by your whole team.

Salesflare automatically logs actions by your team—such as meetings, calls, and other touch points—and by the prospects and customers themselves, whether they open an email you sent, click a link, or visit a landing page.

In this way, Salesflare is very flexible for how your team approaches the buyer’s journey. Whether you prefer one member of your team to guide opportunities from start to finish or if you have hand-offs at various points, the information is all there.

Anyone can step in and have the latest information plus the current state of the lead based on recent actions.

When you add in the platform’s notifications for when prospects take an action or any other triggering event, your team will get really good at moving quickly on warm leads or prospects who have signaled their readiness to purchase.

The combination of simplicity and power inherent to Salesflare makes it a great tool for smaller B2B sales outfits.

Not only do you get useful automation and the tools to help really nail follow ups (and, thus, really encourage leads along the path to purchase), you get key features like:

Team-wide timeline view for tracking opportunities from lead to win

Personalized, scheduled, trackable email campaigns

Insights dashboard that can be segmented by team member, pipeline, or date range

That’s all included at the base Growth plan for $29/user per month.

One step up from there is the Pro plan, for $49/user per month. With that you’ll also get:

Custom email workflow builder for multiple simultaneous campaigns

User permissions, including view-only access

Custom dashboards

There is also an Enterprise plan for $99/user per month. The main benefits of that are the additional support you get, such as a dedicated account representative and custom-made training modules for your team.

Salesflare really shines for smaller B2B businesses and the lower two pricing tiers are quite palatable for that purpose. You can give it a try with Salesflare’s free trial or request a demo today.

#5 – Freshworks CRM Review — The Best CRM for Sales Teams

Freshworks CRM is specifically built for sales teams and lead management. From cold leads to customers, Freshworks helps you make better relationships while saving time with automation.

Furthermore, this CRM helps you find the best leads, get in touch with them via their preferred method, and close the sale.

And Freshworks includes a built-in email and phone system to help simplify the process.

They have a customer base of over 40,000 businesses, including some big names like Dyson and Best Western. So, despite being newer to the industry, they’re not inexperienced by any means.

With Freshworks CRM, you get powerful sales-based features, including:

Lead, contact, account, and deal management

Tasks and appointment management

Merge or clone records

Advanced conversation views

Lead scoring

Time-based workflows

Sales pipelines

Team inboxes and email forwarding

Email scheduling, templates, and alerts

Website visitor tracking

iOS and Android mobile apps

Aside from an impressive set of features, they also offer industry-specific solutions for 15 different industries, including retail, ecommerce, manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and more.

Their free forever plan includes access for an unlimited number of users with limited features. However, it’s a great way to try it out before investing.

Freshworks’ paid plans are more robust, yet still affordable for businesses of all sizes. Their premium plans include:

Blossom — $12/user per month (for small teams)

Garden — $25/user per month (for growing teams)

Estate — $45/user per month (for large teams)

Forest — $79/user per month (for enterprises)

#6 – Creatio Review — The Best Enterprise-Grade CRM Software

While some of the other CRM software on this list includes an enterprise plan, you may find them limiting if you’re managing a large operation. However, Creatio is an enterprise-grade CRM software built with businesses like yours in mind.

They offer specific CRM solutions for sales, marketing, and customer service teams.

Marketing Creatio gives enterprise businesses everything they need to streamline their multichannel marketing campaigns and manage incoming leads. It includes features like:

Visual campaign designer

Website behavior tracking and segmentation

Advanced trigger campaigns

Personalized email marketing

Event tracking and response management

Pricing depends on the number of contacts and the number of emails per contact.

Sales Creatio is perfect for large sales teams taking over after marketing hands them over. It’s an end-to-end sales management platform built to simplify the process and save you time.

It includes a wide range of features, including:

Opportunity management

Customer profiles and buying behavior insight

Field sales management

Performance and operations

Pricing starts at $30 per user per month.

Lastly, Service Creatio is for customer service teams interested in streamlining their processes and creating excellent customer experiences from start to finish. It includes features, like:

Account and contact management

Case and knowledge management

Omnichannel communications

Service catalog

Contact center

Pricing starts at $45 per user per month.

You can bundle all three CRM solutions if you need to. And you can use their online pricing calculator to estimate the total cost.

Get started with a free trial to see if Creatio is right for you.

#7 – Salesforce Review — The Best CRM Software for Versatility

Whether you’re a small business owner or a sales, marketing, IT, or customer support team, Salesforce has the perfect CRM solution. Known for its versatility, they offer specialized software that adapts to meet your needs.

More than 150,000 businesses, including T Mobile, Adidas, and Yeti, rely on Salesforce to help them build strong relationships with their customers.

They also offer specialized solutions for 14 different industries, including:

Financial services

Healthcare

Manufacturing

Consumer goods

Energy

Communications

Nonprofits

The system is so versatile because you can pick and choose which apps you need to build a complete CRM solution customized to match your business.

From marketing automation and ecommerce sales to call-center software and self-service portals, Salesforce is dedicated to providing everything you need for unprecedented customer relationships.

Their business plans include:

Essentials — $25/user per month (basic sales and support)

Sales Professional — $75/user per month (complete sales solution)

Support Professional — $75/user per month (complete service solution)

Pardot Growth — $1,250 per month for up to 10,000 contacts (marketing automation)

However, you can add additional features and applications depending on what you need. They also offer other plans for sales, customer service, commerce, and marketing CRM packages with varying features.

Start your free trial to take Salesforce for a test drive today.

What I Looked at to Find the Best CRM Software

With so many options and types to choose from, finding the best CRM software for your business can feel like looking for a four-leaf clover.

Start with this. All of these products have been built to respond to problems that businesses face every day.

Yes, there are a lot of parts to CRM software, but each has a purpose.

You know the problems you face. And by reaching out to your customer service agents, sales reps, IT team, and anyone who will be using the CRM software, you can get a rich picture of their daily challenges.

There is CRM software that will help everyone at your organization make the most out of every customer relationship.

Finding it is a matter of understanding where your company is, and where it wants to go.

Business Size

The size of your business plays a role in which CRM software is best for you. If you have separate departments for marketing, sales, IT, and customer service, you need more advanced functions than a business with five employees.

Furthermore, you need to consider who’s going to manage the software. Choosing and paying for software isn’t the same as using it to its full potential.

You have to set it up and take advantage of its features for the investment to be worth it.

For small teams, it may be a collaborative effort of everyone pitching in. However, large teams may have dedicated employees to set everything up and maintain the software moving forward.

The size of your business also plays a role in how much the software is going to cost. The more user seats you need, the more expensive the software.

Your Challenges

What’s not working? What could be working better?

Consider what systems you want to streamline and improve. It may help to think about current inefficiencies and how a CRM can help.

Typically, CRM software helps with sales, marketing, IT, and customer service. Which of those do you want to improve, and do you have the capacity to set everything up and maintain it?

There are specific CRM solutions for particular industries.

These tend to be more expensive, but if they are the right fit for your situation, it’s worth it. Teams will have to spend less time configuring such purpose-built CRM software, which is an ongoing savings.

Basic CRM Features

Most CRMs include a basic set of standard features. The CRM you choose should include them as well.

While the specifics of each feature vary from software to software, there should be a system in place to help you handle things like:

Contact and lead management

Document sharing and storage

Workflow automation

Interaction tracking

Mobile access

Look for these core CRM features before making any final decisions. It’s probably also a good idea to watch some videos of how these users manage these features.

Something like contact management is handled differently in each platform. Which one fits best with the way your teams work?

Advanced CRM Features

It’s also important to consider advanced CRM features that can have a big impact on your business.

The ability to automate routine workflows, process payments, and send invoices can save countless hours from every employee’s day.

Really rich automation capabilities are only available with high-tier plans. There’s definitely an added cost, but what about the benefit?

In the end, having advanced features for marketing automation and lead scoring can really drive revenue. Is the juice worth the squeeze?

Also, note that these advanced features are not distributed the same way by vendors. One may offer the high-end tools you need as part of a mid-level plan.

Third-Party Integrations

To really streamline and automate your business processes, your CRM tool needs to play well with the tools you’re already using to run your business.

Make a list of the tools you use and double-check to make sure your CRM integrates with them. I’m talking about:

Email platforms

Social media tools

Internal communication software

Customer service tools

Calling/video chat software

Shopping cart (for ecommerce)

Contract/proposal software

Connectors (i.e., Zapier)

Analytics tools

Calendar

Once you have your list, you can use it to narrow down your choices to the right CRM software. You can also use it when speaking with a sales team to make sure they offer everything you need.

Summary

Having the right CRM software can make a huge difference very quickly. It makes staying organized easier and keeps customers happy. To recap my top picks:

Zoho CRM – Best for small to midsize businesses

EngageBay – Best CRM for continuing client support

HubSpot – Best free CRM software

Salesflare – Best lead management tools for small business

Freshworks CRM – Best CRM for sales teams

Creatio CRM – Best enterprise-grade CRM solution

Salesforce – Best CRM software for versatility

Zoho CRM, HubSpot and Salesflare are my top recommendations for most businesses. Each one offers a wide range of features suitable for teams from all departments, including sales, marketing, and customer service.

Furthermore, they’re all affordable, easy to set up, and easy to use.

However, the best CRM software for you depends on your business’s size and the features you need. So, use the criteria we talked about above as you go through the process of making your final decision.

Which CRM software do you use?

from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/2Rt9lS2 via https://neilpatel.com

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