Bankruptcy can happen for many reasons. It could be because you lost your job or experienced a decrease in income. Job losses caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic are one example. Other cases involve unexpected expenses, such as medical bills, that could put people over the edge financially. As challenging bankruptcy can be, seeking legal help that will provide personalized case evaluation and counsel regarding debt-relief options can alleviate your situation.

Here is the difference between chapter 7 and chapter 13 bankruptcy.

How Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Works

One of the biggest benefits of a Chapter 7 is that you will not pay back creditors through a repayment plan. Instead, the court appoints a bankruptcy trustee to sell your nonexempt property—property you can’t protect with a bankruptcy exemption—for the benefit of your creditors. You will be able to protect most household belongings.

Not everyone qualifies for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, however. If you make too much money to meet income requirements, explore filing under Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Frequently Asked Questions

How do I find out if I would qualify for Chapter 7 bankruptcy?

If your household income is lower than the median household income in your state, you are eligible. Or, if you do not have enough remaining to pay a meaningful amount to creditors through a Chapter 13 repayment plan, you will pass.

Will I lose property in Chapter 7 bankruptcy?

Your state decides whether you can use the federal exemptions or state exemption laws. Although exemption laws differ, you will typically be able to keep these types of property in bankruptcy:

• Home equity.
• Insurance.
• Retirement plans.
• Personal property.
• Public benefits.
• Tools used on the job.

Check your state exemption laws for other exemptions.

Which should I use—Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy?

Most people who file for bankruptcy choose to use Chapter 7 if they meet the eligibility requirements. Chapter 7 is a popular choice because, unlike Chapter 13, it does not require filers to pay back a portion of their debts.

How Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Works

Chapter 13 is a bankruptcy reorganization designed for debtors with regular income who have enough left over each month to pay back at least a portion of their debts.

Typically, Chapter 13 bankruptcy is for debtors who:

• Don’t qualify for Chapter 7 but need debt relief to lower credit card payments, stop litigation, prevent a wage garnishment
• Have non-dischargeable debts such as alimony or child support arrears they’d like to pay off over three to five years, or
• Have fallen behind on a house or car payment and want to get caught up on missed payments and keep the property.

In Chapter 13 bankruptcy, the trustee does not sell your property. However, you must pay creditors an amount equal to the nonexempt property value. In exchange, you pay back all or a portion of your debts through a repayment plan.

Chapter 13 Frequently Asked Questions

How much of my debt will I have to repay if I file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy?

It will depend on the types of debt you have. Here are the general guidelines:

• Bankruptcy fees. You must pay 100% of the bankruptcy filing fees, trustee commissions, and your attorney’s fees.
• Priority debts. You must pay 100% of the following obligations: child and spousal support arrears owed to the parent or child; most tax debts except those first due at least three years before your bankruptcy filing; wages, salaries, or commissions you owe to employees up to a specific limit; and contributions owed to an employee benefit fund.
• Secured debts. If you want to keep your home, car, or other secured property, you will have to pay 100% of the arrearage amount, 100% of debt secured by a tax lien, and remain current on the monthly payment.
• Unsecured nonpriority debts. You will pay anywhere between 0% and 100% of the amount you owe, depending on your disposable income, the length of your repayment plan, and the total value of your nonexempt property (you will have to pay for it.

How long will my repayment plan last if I file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy?

If your gross household income exceeds the median yearly income for a household of your size in your state, your plan must last five years—unless you can pay 100% of your unsecured debt in a shorter period. If your income is less than your state’s median yearly income, you can propose a three-year plan.

We are facing foreclosure. If we file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, can we keep our home?

You can pay off a mortgage “arrearage” (late, unpaid payments) over the length of a three- to five-year repayment plan. For this to work, you will need enough income to meet your current mortgage payment while paying off the arrearage and other required debts.

Once you file your Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition, the “automatic stay” stops foreclosure proceedings until your repayment plan is approved (or rejected) by the court. If approved, the mortgage lender must accept payments towards the arrearage over the length of your repayment period. If you make all the required payments and stay current on your regular monthly mortgage payments, you will avoid foreclosure and keep your home.

I owe back taxes to the IRS—can Chapter 13 bankruptcy help?

Yes. Although you must repay 100% of your tax debt (unless it qualifies for discharge because of its age), you can do so over three to five years.

Featured Snippets in Google

In online positioning, a company can compete with large media and portals, technical information in its area. And value for the users to whom that content is directed.

A content generation process is based on identifying the questions, fears, and needs of the ideal client, offering answers. And presenting them when the user consults them in search engines.

If they respond appropriately to your queries, Google can promote them to appear as a recommended answer on your search results pages. In a space called a ” featured snippet ” or featured snippet.

The featured snippet is also called “position 0” in Google search results. Because it is displayed ahead of links to web pages (organic products) but below ads.

Google prominently displays them when they answer specific questions.

It is content that Google rewards, highlighting it concerning the rest of the pages.

It is a single space, larger than that of organic links, with a greater number of words and can incorporate images.

In Google Spain, 10% of the queries show a prominent fragment. This data grows as more featured elements are incorporated, for example, other questions from users.

Queries of 7-8 words are the ones that offer a greater number of highlighted fragments, so they are long-tail phrases, questions that expose a specific question.

Also read: Optimize Images for SEO: 5 Tips to be Visible

Examples of Featured Snippets in Google

Several companies that are betting on Inbound projects are getting some of their content to appear in that space of featured fragments because they respond correctly to common queries from users in the search engine.

Example of a highlighted fragment shown for the query ” calculate municipal capital gains in Barcelona. ”

Google takes one or more images of the article and the concise answer, incorporating the source of the information

In this other example, Google does not add images related to the article from which it draws to show the highlighted fragment, highlighting in bold the terms related to the user’s query: ” where to invest in housing

Recommendations to Position Content as Featured Snippets

When it comes to positioning content on Google, it is original and offers valuable information to users. It is the essence for Google to mark it as promotable information.

Its artificial intelligence algorithm aims to offer a better experience in user searches.

Doing this uses relevant information to answer and humanize them through conversation. The interface uses audio to read aloud the information chosen as a featured snippet).

If the information in your posts aims to respond to users’ search intent. You will have a good chance to remain considered relevant and promoted to a featured snippet space.

An investigation of your clients’ usual questions, together with a content calendar, will allow you to achieve better positioning.

The examples presented in this article, Vivendex and PropertyBuyers. Are from clients who have opted for Inbound projects to position their brand and services and get qualified contacts for their business.

Also read: The Nine Tips to Guarantee your Safety on Social Networks

The social landscape worldwide can change in a big way every now and then. And now, the world as we’ve known it has changed. The dreaded COVID-19 global pandemic, other vices like global warming, and social and political movements have reshaped the way business is conducted. Lockdowns and other forms of physical distancing have brought digital marketing to the fore.

Whether you’re an individual marketer or part of a marketing agency, you can’t ignore the following new trends and marketing strategies.

Enhanced Cust omer Experience 

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it more essential to give customers the best customer experience possible. Instead of merely trying to convince people to do business with your company, marketing is also about getting them to remain loyal to your firm. Present a positive and attractive business culture that will get customers and potential clients to associate with your business.

Offer your customers something more than just information about your products or services– give them a customer experience. Customers want convenience, efficiency, hospitality, accessibility, and ease of doing business.

Other things worth considering for a top-notch customer experience include updated technology, branding, and mobile compatibility. When you adopt some of these factors to enhance your customer experience, you’ll retain your existing customers and attract new clients.

Employee Activation 

Your employees are the number one factor that can enhance or prevent a great customer experience in your business. If they’re clueless, unprofessional, and unfriendly, your employees could chase away existing and potential customers. In other words, employees are the company’s human face, so they have to be well-positioned to drive the marketing strategy of the business.

The interaction between your employees and your customers must be part of your marketing strategy in 2021 and beyond. They must be aligned to the company’s vision. To achieve this, you’ll need to have full engagement with your employees.

The best way to engage your employees is by empowering them so they become moving billboards for your business. You could achieve this through various ways, including:

• Staff training, so they’ll stay up-to-date with best practices and standard procedures.
• Employee access to company social media platforms, so they can post on behalf of the business.
• Staff involvement in the creation of marketing content such as blog posts and others.

Rethinking The Role Of The CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) 

The world’s challenges over the last couple of years have undone the gradually diminishing role of the chief marketing officers in most organizations. The role had been slowly evolving into that of chief market development officers, chief digital officers, or chief experience officers.

Most companies have, nonetheless, had to find innovative ways of staying in business as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc. Marketing has taken center stage in connecting the business with its stakeholders and clients. This has led to the heightened role of the CMO.

To keep your brand alive and relevant, you might have to rethink the role of your CMO. The CMO must come up with innovative ways to retain clients as well as get new ones. The other areas that may require their attention include:

• Brand positioning
• Digital marketing
• Crisis communication
• Customer relations
• E-commerce

Marketing On E-commerce Platforms 

Due to the relentless pandemic, e-commerce platforms have somewhat replaced physical stores. As such, these platforms provide an advertising opportunity worth considering. If you have the funds to do it, why not take advantage of this changing consumer behavior and grab the opportunity to advertise your brand?

Marketing Videos

The marketing video industry is said to be growing exponentially in the last couple of years due to the surge in social media popularity. Videos can be a great way to showcase new products in this new way of life.

The ‘live’ element of the videos is said to be great for establishing a personal appeal to the marketing material. Use live medium on social media platforms to capture the attention of your social audience there.

Putting More Attention On Generation Z 

The marketing industry has been mainly focused on the Millennials over the past two decades or so. However, some Millennials were born before the technology boom and are now approaching their forties. Although they make an audience for marketers, they’re not as big as Generation Z.

Gen Z is made up of those born between 1995 and 2010. They’ve grown in a digital era, and make a great public for digital marketing material. This is the audience to pay attention to in this new normal.

 In A Nut Shell 

The global pandemics, climate change, and various rights movements have reshaped the world as we know it. Business organizations have to rely on new forms of marketing for their survival. Marking strategies, on the other hand, have been shaped by the new normal. In these times, one can’t overlook the big role that digital marketing has taken.

In the old form of marketing and advertising, we can say that things were hard and were somewhat easier as well. By hard, we mean that the advertising and promotion of any business were done using print media such as posters, newspapers, flyers which used to put a lot of cost on the pocket of marketers and eventually business owners, and by easier we mean that it was not too difficult to attract people.

In modern times, the techniques of marketing and advertising have become much easier than in the past and it also demands less cost or sometimes you can market your business for free if you have access to certain tools and have skills.

The King: Keep up with the trends

For marketers, the Internet has become a powerful source, providing extraordinary access to and information about potential customers, as well as many ways to engage target customers.

Today, marketing entails more than just printing ads, mailing pamphlets, and displaying images; it also entails

• Addressing customers’ needs and desires
• How well you communicate with them
• How effectively you approach them
• Building trust relationships

And The Trends Are

Now businesses can promote themselves and attract a huge line of customers while sticking to their limited budget. Here are several marketing trends all businesses should adopt to stay in the competition.

Deliver A Memorable Message

A strong message is one of the most crucial aspects of marketing. Without the right message, you cannot connect your customers with your brand’s products and services. A good message is not easy to deliver because you are in tough competition and many other brands are competing with you to attract a target audience.

Try to deliver a message about your business that is to the point, engaging, and most importantly something memorable. You can also spread your message with the help of short video clips which are one of the popular ways to attract an audience. There are some options you can pick to promote your business through videos:

• Introductory videos
• Addressing needs videos
• Telling what you do videos

Create A Website

In today’s competitive world, every business needs to be online. An online presence has a massive impact on the success of your business. Your competitors are online, your target audience is online, so what’s the point in staying offline?

When someone hears about you, he will surely try to reach you on the website and if you didn’t show up, there is a high chance that he will never approach you again. So you must have a website where you can share your profile, what you offer, your stories in blogs, ways for your customers to contact you, and so on. Create an attractive website with catchy content to boost your business.

Use Google AdWords

Google appears to be the first thing that comes to mind whenever you try to search for something or some information. But Google just doesn’t do this one thing, it’s an advertising machine as well. You can use the google ads platform to boost your business.

You may have heard about pay-per-click advertising in which the advertiser pays the publisher (Google) whenever a person clicks on the ad and reaches the website. Whether you a big or small business, with the help of Google AdWords, you can drive a large number of consumers to your website at a very small cost

Do SEO

SEO is a term that generally tosses around whenever someone is talking about marketing a business. Everyone now uses search engines whenever they are looking for something.

You have made a website but when your website doesn’t appear in the search results when people are looking for something related to your business, it means you don’t exist. This is what SEO is about. It helps customers to find your website whenever they search for something relevant on google. But it is not as simple as it sounds.

Doing the right SEO is what takes your business to the next level. You have to use the right keywords that you think consumers are going to use when they look for the products you offer, you have to build strong links to your site and most importantly you have to make sure that you publish unique and high-quality content and lots of content. You can approach SEO content marketing services for this task since they are experts in generating unique content and know how to do the right SEO for your website.

Collaborate With Influencers

Collaborating with influencers is one of the best ways to reach a large audience and it’s one of the most effective forms of marketing. Since those influencers have millions of followers. Whenever they mention your product in their videos, there are millions of people there to watch and eventually know about your business.

Leverage Social Media

Everyone is on social media these days. If you haven’t used any of the social platforms for promoting your business, then do it right now. With the help of posts on Instagram, Facebook, and other social accounts, you can share your business and let people know about you.

Make sure you stay competitive and share catchy content because people keep scrolling through the post until they see something interesting or something that forces them to stop and watch. If used in the right way, social media can be your best business partner in promoting your business.