Snapshot: 10 Brilliant Inspherio Features to Fall in Love With

You heard us correctly! We want you to fall in love with Inspherio, the only business management solution designed just for the event industry. As much as this sounds like promotional material or us tooting our own horn (toot toot), we honestly just want to make managing your business a little, OK a lot easier! Want to know how we do it?

We do the work for you!

That’s right! Here at Inspherio, we’ve designed everything to make owning a business seem like a dream.

Our Features

From managing your leads, to keeping track of your contacts and invoices, we’ve got you covered.

1. The Dashboard- The complete overview of your organization, where you can view pending business information, and see a snapshot of your calendar and events.

2. Leads- Time to leave the rolodex at home and use Inspherio’s Lead feature instead. You can organize and keep all of your potential customers’ information in one online location.

3. Packages- Who said you have to be ordinary when you can customize with Inspherio? You can create specialized pricing packages to send to your clients.

4. The Know Your Event Form- Isn’t it time you really got to know your event? We thought so too! Send your clients the questions you really need answered before you begin the planning process.

5. Contracts- Protect yourself from any potential disaster, whether it’s Bridezilla or the rain by having a contract in place. We’ll even provide you with a sample form.

Related: Event Contracts: Your Armor and Your Shield

6. Invoice- Who wants to spend all of their time worrying about invoices, when you can let Inspherio take care of it for you. We have reminders, auto-generated forms, and even billable expense options to make your life easier.  

7. Itinerary- Don’t panic the day of your event and help keep everyone on time with the Itinerary feature that can be accessed anytime and from anywhere.

Related: Keep on Schedule with the Itinerary Feature from Inspherio

8. Guest List- Never lose track of who’s attending again when you use the Guest List feature. You can help your clients plan their guest list, and you can even send invitations out from Inspherio.

9. Payments- Although it’s not fun to talk about, everyone needs to get paid, which is why we made it easy to accept and process payments instantly through our online payment gateways.

10. Marketing- The best way to grow your business is to promote it, and that’s where we come in! With our email marketing or other promotional campaigns, you can grow your business in no time!

Related: Follow-Up Emails: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Although the list stops there, there are plenty more Inspherio features for you to check out! And don’t just take our word for it, give Inspherio a try free for 15 days; you’ll see what we mean when we say we’re the only event business management solution you’ll ever need.

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Why Google Plus Should Matter to You

When searching for an Event Planner, Photographer, Caterer, DJ, or Reception Hall, many clients will begin with a Google search. Businesses will often find themselves on the second or third (or sometimes tenth) page, causing them to be undiscovered by countless potential clients. One way Google’s search rank is affected is through Google Plus +1’s (similar to a Facebook like) which can only be earned if your company has a Google Plus page. Google Plus can also help to market your small business, improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and gain more exposure to potential clients, here’s how:

Connect with your peers
You can do this by joining communities, creating circles, and getting others to follow you. For a caterer, joining the “catering” community as well as the “wedding” community can help gain more +1s on your posted content, as well as, your company page. Also, follow leaders in your industry and comment on their posts so you can increase your exposure to your peers. Find more relevant content and communities to join by clicking the hashtag on a relevant post, it will provide more posts and users to connect with.

Target your market
You can also separate your different potential clients by creating circles. For example, you can create a “loyal clients” circle and send only those clients a thank you message for their business. Additionally, by creating a “future clients” circle you can post promotions and samples of your work only to that circle. You can also post to “Extended Circles” which will include everyone in your circles and everyone in their circles.

Increase your reach
Post shareable, interesting content to get more followers. When a follower searches for “caterers” in Google, while they are logged into Google Plus, your catering website will be more likely to appear higher in Google search rank than before (as long as you have linked your company website with your Google Plus). This has been found to help search rank temporarily, unless you continue to get more +1s. It should be noted that Google Plus is not a two-way street, just because you follow someone and see their posts, does not mean they follow you or have seen any of your posts.

Even with many critics, Google Plus should be used seriously in order to gain exposure to new clients and improve SEO. If you’re unsure of how to proceed with Google Plus, follow this flowchart to get started.

And don't forget to +1 Inspherio's own Google Plus page!

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Class Up Your Wedding Blog to Keep Readers from Fleeing

This is a guest post by Kathy DalPra at Bride Appeal.

As a seasoned wedding professional, having an engaging blog can keep visitors perusing your website longer. It gives them more time to get to know you and fall head over heels with your work. Of course, with all the time you spend maintaining your blog, the last thing you want is to set it up in a way that turns readers off or sends them on their way. So here are a few simple ways you can add some extra class to your blog and keep those readers staying longer.

1. Add a Search Bar

I know it seems simple and obvious, but I’m continually surprised at how many website themes fail to add this amazing little tool. A search bar, or search “field”, makes it effortless for your visitors to find the exact information they’re looking for by allowing them to type in any keyword.

I’d add this field to the very top of your blog sidebar, if possible, so that it can’t be missed. The quicker visitors can find what they’re looking for, the happier they’ll be and the less likely they are to abandon your blog.

2. Eliminate Distractions

Years ago, during the upswing of the social media craze, I used to recommend installing full-scale social media widgets into your blog sidebar to grow your social media following. However, after having some time to really test this approach, my tune has changed a little.

When you really think about it, the purpose of your blog isn’t to grow your social media following…it’s to attract visitors to your website where they can learn about your products and services. In fact, that’s the purpose of your social media profiles too! Because of this, these days I encourage my clients to only place simple social media buttons that are linked to their profile rather than interactive widgets. They are less distracting, but still allow readers to connect with you off of your website if they want to.

3. Reduce the File Size of Images

I realize that not everyone is a Photoshop wizard. Nonetheless, you simply can’t afford not to optimize images on your blog if you want to avoid losing traffic. The reality is that today’s millennial couple doesn’t have the patience to sit around and wait for large images to load. They’ll simply move on to the next blog.

Reducing the file size (kb, mb) of your images is easy with free tools like PicMonkey. You can still use photos with a large width and height, just reduce the actual size of the file before you upload it to your blog. I typically suggest keeping your image file size under 50-100 kilobytes, if possible. The smaller, the better. 


About the Author:
Kathy DalPra is a former bridal-preneur who unexpectedly fell in love with web design and SEO. Today she helps other wedding professionals use their website to get more traffic, leads and inquiries so they can create a thriving wedding business in any economy. Learn how to turn curious visitors into paying brides™ on her website at http://brideappeal.com. 

Kathy's Social Media: Twitter, Facebook
Check out more great advice from Kathy at her blog

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