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From Market Domination July 15th

From Market Domination July 15th

Marketing Tips of the Week

July 15, 2024

Creating compelling content is essential in today's digital landscape where engaging your audience and enhancing brand visibility are paramount. Content marketing involves strategically crafting and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a defined audience. Here are some effective strategies for leveraging content marketing:

1. Understand Your Audience: Before creating content, it's crucial to understand your target audience—their needs, preferences, challenges, and interests. Conduct market research, gather insights from analytics, and create buyer personas to tailor your content to resonate with your audience.

2. Develop a Content Strategy: A well-defined content strategy outlines your goals, target audience, content types, distribution channels, and key performance indicators (KPIs). It ensures that your content efforts are aligned with your business objectives and helps in measuring success.

3. Create High-Quality Content: Content should be informative, engaging, and valuable to your audience. Use storytelling, visuals, and data to make your content more compelling. Focus on solving problems or addressing pain points your audience faces.

4. Optimize for SEO: Incorporate relevant keywords naturally into your content to improve search engine visibility. Optimize meta tags, headings, and image alt texts to enhance SEO and attract organic traffic.

5. Promote Across Channels: Distribute your content across various channels such as social media, email newsletters, blogs, and industry publications. Tailor your content format (e.g., videos, infographics, blog posts) to fit each platform and maximize reach.

6. Measure and Iterate: Monitor content performance using analytics tools to track metrics like traffic, engagement, conversions, and social shares. Analyze what works and what doesn’t to refine your content strategy continuously.

By implementing these strategies, businesses can effectively leverage content marketing to build brand authority, foster customer relationships, and drive growth in today's competitive digital landscape.

You Are Invited!

Do you own at least one million dollars of stock, real estate, cryptocurrency, farmland or a business that has appreciated a lot? Do you want to sell it but you don’t want to pay the capital gains taxes?

What if you could sell that asset, diversify your portfolio, not pay taxes, and still benefit from and control the proceeds?

Fill out the form and register to attend our virtual training where you will discover how our unique, tax exempt asset diversification trust will allow you to:

Sell an appreciated asset

Eliminate the capital gains tax

Reduce or eliminate your estate taxes
And still benefit from the entire pre-tax proceeds from selling your asset.

We’ve helped investors like you save over a billion dollars over the 26 years we’ve been in business.

There will be no sales pressure on that training, we promise.

Sterling Foundation Management was founded in 1998 as the first nationwide firm dedicated to creating and managing private foundations for high net worth individuals and families. Since then, Sterling has grown to serve thousands of families in virtually every area where the concerns of high net worth families intersect with philanthropy.

Sterling works with clients to create and manage a wide range of entities, including tax-exempt trusts, private foundations, public charities, private operating foundations, and supporting organizations. In addition, Sterling offers sophisticated strategic planning as well as our donor advised fund.

We have extensive experience and expertise in tax and estate planning that we frequently bring to the table where our services complement those of a client’s professional team which may include attorneys, CPAs, insurance professionals, investment advisors and others.

Sterling is also the preeminent provider of secondary planning services for charitable remainder trusts. We have worked with thousands of families who have had a charitable remainder trust that was no longer a great fit for the family’s changed circumstances. These changes range from the birth of children and grandchildren to the death of spouses, from financial opportunity to financial stress, and from divorce to remarriage. We invented and developed the market for the sale of CRT income interests and developed the CRT rollover technique to meet our clients’ changing needs. Sterling does not offer tax or legal advice.

A new overtime rule goes into effect today (as of this writing on July 1, 2024). The salary threshold for who qualifies for overtime pay just got a big fat increase, meaning more of your employees now qualify for more pay.

How big of an increase? Near 65 percent above the current threshold by January 1, 2025.

Are your eyebrows raised yet? Read on…

Effective July 1, 2024, the Department of Labor has implemented a significant change to overtime rules for salaried workers. This update means potentially more employees in your small business could now be eligible for overtime pay.

Feeling overwhelmed? Don't worry. I can help you navigate this change. But the changes go into effect immediately, so don’t bookmark this one for future reading.

If you want the official rule, here it is.

But here's a (much shorter) breakdown so you know the basics:

The Big Change
Previously, salaried workers making above a certain threshold were exempt from overtime pay. Now, that threshold has increased, meaning more employees qualify for overtime.

The Salary Shift
Before the update, salaried workers earning more than $35,568 annually (684 per week) were generally exempt from overtime. Now, that threshold has jumped to $43,888 per year (844 per week). This means employees making under this new limit may qualify for overtime if they work more than 40 hours a week.

Job Duties Still Matter
The same rules for overtime exemption still apply. So not all salaried workers under the new threshold automatically get overtime. It also depends on their job duties.

Exempt Duties: Employees with primarily managerial, executive, or certain professional duties are generally exempt from overtime pay, even if their salary falls below the new threshold.

Non-Exempt Duties: If an employee spends a significant portion of their time performing tasks typically done by hourly workers (such as data entry, assembling products, or making sales calls), they're likely considered non-exempt. These employees may now qualify for overtime pay if their salary is under the new threshold.

What Didn’t Change
The new rule doesn't change the overtime pay rate itself, which is still time-and-a-half (1.5 times the employee's regular rate) for any hours worked over 40 in a workweek. But with more employees potentially eligible, keeping track of overtime becomes even more important.

More Changes to Come
This is just the first phase. On January 1, 2025, the Department of Labor will implement a second, even higher threshold based on a different calculation method. This new threshold will be around $58,656 annually (1,128 per week).

Another important thing to know is that these salary thresholds won't stay static. The Department of Labor has set up a system for automatic adjustments every three years based on current wage data. This means the minimum salary for overtime exemption will continue to increase in the future.

Legal Challenges on the Horizon
It's important to note that this new overtime rule is facing lawsuits from business groups who argue it will be too burdensome for employers. The outcome of these lawsuits could potentially delay or modify the changes. We'll keep you updated on any developments.

This is just a glimpse into the new overtime landscape, with more changes sure to come. There are additional details and nuances to consider in order to stay in compliance. But, as always, we'll help you stay informed and compliant, so you can focus on what matters most – running your successful small business.

Questions? You can find some answers from the DOL here. My team can also help make sure your payroll procedures are up-to-date so you can confidently navigate these changes. Reach out to set up a time here:
410-721-6000

From Market Domination July 15th

Marketing Tips of the Week

Trivia Question❓

Optimizing Content Marketing: Engaging Audiences and Boosting Brand Visibility