What is “EPLI” and Does Your Business Need It?

By David D. Schein, President & General Counsel, 

Claremont Management Group

www.claremontmanagementgroup.com

EPLI is Employment Practices Liability Insurance. This product was first introduced about 20 years ago and has increased in popularity since then. Small business owners and operators often miss this type of insurance when assembling their insurance package. More recently, business insurance agents have been prompting their clients to say “yeah or nay” to this insurance. With the growing cost of insurance in general, the key question about EPLI is whether to spend the extra money or not?

Most business owners carry general liability insurance, “GL,” on their business and Workers’ Compensation, “WC,” on their employees. These owners may presume that most claims will be covered by one type of insurance or the other. The problem is in the details. Virtually all GL policies exclude any claims of any kind made by employees. This creates an obvious gap in coverage.

WC only covers employee injury and work-related illness claims. A costly lawsuit is a WC retaliation claim. This is a situation where an employee is out due to a work related injury and is terminated, or returns from a WC claim and then is terminated in the first few months back at work. Absent just cause for the termination, it is quite possible the employee will prevail in a retaliation lawsuit. An award in this type of case could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the jurisdiction, in addition to attorneys fees and court costs. The retaliation claim is not covered by either GL or WC insurance.

Coverage through EPLI for a WC retaliation claim may make EPLI sound like a great deal. Not so fast! First, insurance costs money. A business must decide if the risk-reward analysis works for this insurance product. EPLI often has a significant deductible per claim or per policy year, in addition to the premium itself. If the business has had very few claims and each cost just a few hundred dollars, there may not be an economic justification to purchase EPLI. Second, the business must determine if the EPLI product will actually cover the most likely risks for that business. For instance, our firm recently reviewed a proposed EPLI policy for a client. In the section of “Exclusions,” many common types of employment claims were excluded. This significantly reduced the value of the policy to the client and the client decided not to purchase that policy. Further research might reveal an insurer that would provide comprehensive coverage.

Another obvious part of the business owner’s analysis is whether there are enough potential employment claims to make EPLI an economical choice. Businesses with less than 15 employees are generally not subject to EEO complaints. As such, these small businesses have less exposure to EEO claims, which are some of the most common claims for American businesses.

How to make your email marketing campaign landing pages work for you.

Tip #1 – Making your landing page easily say what you want your viewer to do

Having a very clear “call to action” is the best way to utilize a landing page that is linked to your email marketing campaign.  When a person lands on a web page you want to give them a way that they can take an action to either sign up, buy now, call today or whatever action you would like them to take.  By having an aim for that landing page you can increase your conversions and truly get an ROI from your email marketing efforts.

Tip #2– Keeping it simple

It is hard to not say everything about every single product that you may have to offer or the details of your full line of services.  You don’t want to overload your viewers with too much.  By keeping it simple and clean you can get a direct message across and will have a much better chance of getting a conversion or call over trying to overload them with as much information as possible.

Tip #3 – Does the link in the email relate to the content of the landing page?

Let’s say you are advertising a blue sweater in your email campaign.  Create the link that will land them right on the page where they can buy it on the spot.  Many beginners to email marketing will just link the customer to the homepage of their website which is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.  Keep it simple and give the customer what they want, don’t send them on a search to find the product they clicked on in the first place! 

Tip #4 – Use a checklist to double check your campaigns

Have you ever made a mistake in an email or article?  Who in the heck hasn’t!  By creating a simple checklist for yourself you can quickly go over the major pieces where it is easy to make a mistake and ensure that your bases are covered. 

Things to check:

·         Am I sending this to the right list?

·         Have I spell checked it?

·         Do all my links work?

·         Do they link to the correct pages?

·         Are the images clickable?

Just by checking over these pieces you can save yourself some quick embarrassment.

By creating landing pages that make it easy on your customers and give them a clear direction you can create a great return from your marketing efforts. 

For help with email marketing or web design contact us here at Elemeno Design, we would be glad to help!

What Should My Emails Be About

Credit: ballinisahabit.net

Email is so common these days, that we almost forget how powerful being in someone’s inbox can be. Email is also so common that we can often abuse the privilege and fill other people’s inbox with junk. So, here are a few ways to keep your coveted spot in the inbox and possibly get invited to the wallet.

Content Strategy

Step one for any marketing vehicle, should be to have a strategy . If there is no plan behind the content you create, then you will look like the rest of the white noise that comes in.

Also, it is important to establish value quickly in an email list, or you will be tossed out of the inbox faster than Bobby Knight throwing a chair in a basketball game.

There are a few great ways to get people involved in your newsletter, and allow you to offer a ton a value at the same time.

Most Popular Blogs List

A great way to start a relationship with a new reader is to give away your best stuff. What has been your most popular content with other readers? A list of your three to five most popular blogs will give people a flavor for your writing style, cover popular subjects and reel them in for more.

This is also a great way to find out what else people want to hear about. By listening to the feedback from the posts, you can plan another set of creative and engaging content to schedule.

How-Tos

Writing guides and how-to content are probably the most frequently created pieces of content. Walking people through tasks is an easy way to win them over and establish yourself as an expert on the subject.

There are benefits beyond the inbox of How-To content as well. These posts are often link bait to have other websites link to you.

They also give your website a large amount of SEO friendly content at one time. By covering several areas of your business all in one spot, that conveys relevance to the search engines. Neil Patel at quicksprout.com is a great example of this!

Resource List

People like to know when, where and how to do things. Giving a large list of tools and resources is an awesome way to help people out. These types of posts are often shared with friends via email and social media, and often bring new email readers to your list.

Profile

Many times people join email lists by trading their email for a valuable piece of content they wanted. Once that nugget of information has been grabbed by your potential reader, it’s important to let them know why they should stay.

Taking the time up front to tell people what your newsletter is about, and how it will benefit them as a reader is extremely important these days. A good way to do that is by sharing a small profile on a reader.

Put together a small case study around one of your loyal readers, and point out the ways they have succeeded, and the things you plan to share so that your entire audience can have the same experience.

There are plenty of other ways to engage readers in your blog. What are some of the best you have seen?

a href="https://plus.google.com/u/1/104003665698533076695/">Jake on Google+

Creating Conversion Through Conversation, Content, and Curiosity

The last thing anyone needs these days is one more useless email to hit their inbox.  We're all overwhelmed with a constant deluge of emails. We sign up for this or that list to get access to a great deal or some incredibly useful piece of information and usually don't give much thought to the continuous stream of emails that will follow now that we've given our permission.

We're all given the same hours in the day so at some point there is a choice to be made.  We can't simply open and read them all.  Some have to be deleted.  Sometimes unsubscribing is the right choice. These choices that we're making are the same ones the people on our own lists are making.  Our open rates are evidence of these choices. If your email list open rate is "average" you're probably barely hitting 20% open rate and your click through rate...well, that's another story.

So, is email marketing even worth it?  Absolutely! Email marketing can be a gold mine for your business but you have to do it the right way. Here are three  keys to creating a strategy that will boost your email marketing efforts:

1. It's a conversation. Be real. Be a person. You have a brand but people do business with other people.  With all of the choices we have today, it comes down to how your customer/potential customer RELATES to you and your team. 

2. Skip the fluff. Here's a good rule of thumb: If you don't have anything valuable to say/give, then you really need to consider whether you're going to say anything at all.  Your email marketing plan should not be about creating a electronic sales flyer but rather it should be about building that relationship. One of the best ways to do that is to give them valuable content.  It needs to be worth their while to spend their precious email time reading YOUR stuff.

3. Have fun with it! Create a catchy subject line--one that makes them so curious that they can't help but open it up. It doesn't matter how great the content is, if it doesn't look like it's going to be worth reading then they probably won't even open it to see.  Give them an inkling of what you'll be sharing and infuse the personality into that subject line and you'll be much more likely to grab their attention right away!

The bottom line is that your email marketing isn’t' about the "selly-sell" as Chris Brogan likes to call it.  It's about the relationship.  Build a rapport with your customers by more sharing, less selling and they will actually buy more. If you want to see how we do it, I invite you to sign up for our weekly newsletter at our blog at http://hjkdigitalsolutions.com/blog/. In the meantime, we love to see what other people are up to, so feel free to drop us a line and let us know where to find you online so we can get on your list too!

Twelve Seconds

"I will never write another book again."  Those were my exact words to Troy after having spent a year on the book tour trail with my first book, Unfunded. 

Troy had a different plan in mind for me, though.  Troy knew that the reason I didn't enjoy my first book experience was because it was just a book.  It was just a few hundred pages with ideas.  It was just my picture on a dust jacket and some signatures.  It didn't change the world.

In fact, Troy didn't want to just write books either.  Troy wanted to build a training system.  Troy interacts with AddressTwo users every day -- users who are small business owners, working hard to pursue their dreams and using AddressTwo as just one of the tools in their toolbox.  Troy wanted to give more, and he wanted to get those ideas out of my head.

Troy's vision was for small businesses to have access to training courses, conferences, coaching and peer-to-peer support all built around the fundamental concepts of business success that could be found in (you guessed it) my next book.

The book, Twelve Seconds, is just the tip of the spear for a new business venture that Troy, Chad, and I have started, together with the help of a business coach, called "Lift."  Where did we get that name?  Perhaps this short excerpt from the book itself will help explain:

"Lift is the upward force air applies to a wing, causing flight... It’s a harsh reality few entrepreneurs are willing to admit, but the truth is many small business owners aren’t struggling to achieve new heights, they’re struggling to get off the runway. Much goes into elevating a plane from the ground to thousands of feet in the air, but there is not an inch of that ascent more difficult than the first. To separate the wheels from the pavement is, for most entrepreneurs, a feat for which they are ill-equipped to succeed. They have studied flight, yet not learned lift."

Indianapolis Sales and Marketing Automation Workshop

Have you just signed up for AddressTwo but aren't quite sure how to use it best for your business?

Have you been an AddressTwo user for a while but you still haven't gotten the hang of it?

If this is you, then save the date to join us for our Start Right Training for AddressTwo!

May 14, 2013 in Indianapolis, IN
Register at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/6416587185

Two Sessions to Choose From

Beginners (or those wanting a refresher) join us from 10:00am - 12:00pm
OR
Intermediate (For those of you who know "just enough to be dangerous" or ready to learn some of the cool tricks you can do with A2, this one's for you!) 1:00pm - 3:00pm

Bring your laptop and your questions and we'll walk through step-by-step how to set up your AddressTwo account and start using it to help your business grow.

In the beginner's workshop, you'll learn:

·         How to import your contacts from another CRM (or other database) into AddressTwo

·         How to set up the custom fields to make the most out of your sales cycle management

·         How to create tasks and record history items so your To-Do list doesn't look so scary (and it actually gets done!)

·         How you can leverage the power of AddressTwo to create more business in less time and with less stress

In the Intermediate user's workshop, you'll learn:

·         How to set up and send your newsletter through Address Two effortlessly (and make it pretty!)

·         How to use the webforms in AddressTwo to capture leads from your website (or other secret sources we'll chat about) even while you sleep!

·         What to do once you capture the lead (aka: How to date your customer and lead them all the way to "I Do!")

·         You're still reading these bullet points? Sign up already...it's going to be fun!

*To utilize the functions in the Intermediate session, you'll need to have one of the Campaign Manager plan.  Not sure what that is, let us know and we'll connect you with the incredibly awesome Troy Hanna over at AddressTwo and he can tell you all about it and make sure you're ready to rock and roll the day of the training.

Register at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/6416587185

Register today to secure your seat. Because we will be actually there going through each step, each session is limited to only 10 people. (P.S. You have to have an active AddressTwo account already before you attend these sessions but don't worry, we've got you covered.  If you don't have one, come to the FREE session at 9am and we'll get you signed up.)

Application of “Comp Time” in Lieu of Overtime Pay

Small Business and the NLRB

By David D. Schein, President & General Counsel, 

Claremont Management Group

www.claremontmanagementgroup.com

Application of “Comp Time” in Lieu of Overtime Pay

A small business owner inquired about using “Comp Time” for some employees. In the private workforce sector, Comp Time can only be used for exempt employees. Those are employees who are not eligible for overtime. So, an employer’s first challenge is to identify those employees who are exempt from overtime. Second, most of the time, exempt employees are expected to work as many hours as needed and many work 45, 50 or even 60 hours a week. So, Comp Time is often just a day off to reward hard work and is not tracked on an hour-for-hour basis. Third, if an employer wants to adopt a formal Comp Time policy, such as is sometimes found in the public workforce sector, then the employer has to decide at what point to reward exempt employees with Comp Time and how to keep track of it.

Briefly, the following categories of employees may be exempt from the requirement to pay overtime:

Executive Exemption –Executives and managers

Administrative Exemption – Employees managing a functional area

Professional Exemption – Professionals, generally with a 4-year degree

Outside Sales Exemption – Actual field sales employees - not applicable to inside sales persons

Computer Employee Exemption – Fairly close to the Professional Exemption

Refer to this newsletter for more information on exemptions from overtime at: 

[Newsletter]

Some employers would like to use Comp Time for all employees, including non-exempt employees. This is hard to do under the Federal Wage-Hour law, which requires employers to establish a defined work week of 7 consecutive 24 hour periods. During that defined week, if a non-exempt employee works more than 40 hours, they must receive OT for the hours worked over 40 in the defined work week. This is true even if they only work say 30 hours the next week and could really use the pay in the next pay period. An employer generally cannot transfer hours through the "comp" process from one week to the next for non-exempt employees.

While many employers have heard about Comp Time, and some try to implement it across the board, the unfortunate outcome is that they may be found to have violated the Federal Wage-Hour laws. Employers also need to be mindful of state and local wage rules that may be even more restrictive than the Federal rules. For instance, some states require payment of overtime after eight hours in a day, and not just 40 hours in a week.