Our relationship with mobile phones has no precedent in history. Because of this, the rules of mobile application development are changing. Nowadays, the place on the device’s main screen needs to be earned.

How is Branding Important for the App Growth?

Professional mobile app branding is a powerful catalyst for the development of the company, improving its image and contributing to commercial success. Branding allows you to create a unique image of the company, emphasizing its individual style and competitive advantages. Brand promotion ensures the high effectiveness of the commercial project, contributing to the brand’s dominance in the media space and consumer consciousness.

In today’s world, mobile apps are used for entertainment, education, navigation, and more. It is applications that have become one of the tools for close communication between people. Of course, this leads to the constant struggle of brands for a place on the screen of your smartphone.

So how can mobile app branding increase the chances for your applications to gain a long-term presence on users’ phones?

The answer lies in the ability of the brand app to provide users with something truly meaningful and valuable to them. This “something” may concern the sphere of entertainment, the provision of information, practical benefits (for example, the ability to more effectively solve certain problems), or a combination of all three of these categories.

Mobile App Branding Strategies

A mobile app brand is a special communication space. Therefore, the main task of brand building is to accurately determine the target audience and create interaction algorithms. Solid mobile app development allows creating truly popular brands.

The main strategies of mobile app branding are:

• Communication strategy. By setting the very logic of relationships with consumers, a communication strategy makes the brand an integral part of their daily lives.
• Naming. Successful naming embodies the whole complex of ideas behind the brand in a couple of words, emphasizing its key features and value content. A sound name inspires customers with confidence in the brand, contributing to its popularity.
• Logos. Ask mobile app developers to create a beautiful and concise logo that positively affects the perception of the brand by consumers, acting as a stylish decoration of the company’s products, promotional materials, employee clothing, and corporate attributes.
• Form style. The development of corporate identity allows creating a unique atmosphere around the brand, which helps to attract customers and create a stable audience. A successful mobile app development company knows that the unity of corporate style contributes to the growth of the company’s prestige due to a thorough approach and conceptual integrity.
• Create your success story. Corporate symbolism plays no less role than the heraldic coats of arms in monarchical states. A modern consumer buys not goods and services but emotions and symbols. For instance, behind each successful enterprise app brand is a special worldview and its own philosophy. The mission of the company and its success story are concentrated in the trademark.

Useful Tips for Effective Mobile Brand Creation

If you want your brand app to receive a valuable advertising space, you need to succeed with users. Here are some tips to help you.

What to do:

1. Explore your target audience. To understand what can attract your users, it is important to know their desires, demeanor and problem areas. This will allow you to orient the application in the right direction. Make your brand a personal message, not just an advertisement for your products.

2. Inspire emotions and inspiration. For your application to succeed, your audience must feel a vibrant emotional connection with it, especially when what you’re doing is custom mobile app development. This affects user behavior and strengthens brand loyalty, which allows the application to stand out in the market.

3. Make your brand easier. Simplification is perhaps the most important branding practice. Remove all unnecessary elements — and your brand will get a clear and bright look. Simple brands are much easier to remember and recognize.

4. Remember that apps are promoted by users. If you create an attractive application, users will fill it with content, share it, create communities around it, and all this will serve the development of the brand.

6. Properly think over the application icon. Create an icon, which design attracts attention and is recognized as the application of your brand.

7. Spend time testing. Testing will let you know which branding elements are attracted to your brand and which ones can cause dissatisfaction, so do not spare time for tests.

To Sum Up

The winners in the brand race are those who are able to build a whole system of symbolic values ​​around their product that translate significant values ​​to the consumer. You should comprehensively approach the creation of your brand, combining vivid images with deep ideas and original concepts.

Let’s face it. Selling your market research services to a large brand abounds with benefits: high revenues, a large budget to accommodate your innovative research ideas, a client’s name you can show off, and more.

Top brands need market research and continuously invest in gaining customer insights to implement worthwhile changes like Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Lego did. Still, selling market research to top brands is not an easy task. A great research budget comes with high industry competition and scrupulous screening of market research vendors.

Thus, whether you are a marketing research startup or a mature brand willing to work on challenging research projects, there are some critical recommendations to consider.

Use Professional Market Research Software

Large companies expect market research vendors to be transparent and efficient. Since these factors largely depend on the use of professional market research software, acquiring one is definitely a must.

First, market research software is associated with the optimization of operational costs. Second, enterprise software for market research helps to manage data security and validity, which is an important consideration point for top brands seeking market research services.

What is more, your market research platform can support clients’ branded dashboard with automatic reporting and data visualization. Such control over the project workflow and its results will definitely be a plus for market research buyers.

Produce Quality Content

In interviews with Steve Henke, two corporate research and insight professionals from top brands shared their views on the moves that matter in their choice of market research vendors for their companies. Both agreed that the content that the company produces has a great impact on their openness to sales pitches from the company.

In particular, decision-makers are willing to work with companies that:

• Educate them on market research trends and new research methodologies.
• Challenge common myths.
• Demonstrate the impact of market research on business outcomes.

Thus, there is a good reason to work on the content strategy for your market research company.

Present Your Expertise

Large brands are ready to agree to a larger investment if you are able to prove your expertise, suggest an innovative approach or proprietary methodology, and explain the rationale of your proposal.

Case studies and white papers are a good way to demonstrate your expertise in the initial stages of lead engagement. Further, the actual proposal you send will tell much to the experienced corporate research and insight professional. For Richard Tanner, the perfect proposal has a concise three-page form and describes:

• Insights that will help the company make informed decisions on their top business questions.
• The research project design (methodology) and the rationale behind it.
• Budget and deadline details.

Writing a great proposal should be a priority for any market research vendor willing to work with serious brands: even if you do not cope to secure the contract this time, making a favorable impression might pay off later.

Demonstrate Engagement and Understanding of the Business Challenge

Another aspect corporate research professionals seek among the competing vendors is the understanding of their industry and business challenges. Thus, be sure to dive deeper into trends and challenges of the clients’ industry before any outreach or one-on-one contact.

Here are the tips that will help you tap into the expectations of market research buyers :

• Think about all the examples you can cite from your own experience of dealing with the clients’ industry or business challenge.
• Share thought-provoking information and awareness of diverse business cases.
• Ask questions — your curiosity and wish to look into the business will be a positive message to decision-makers.
• Demonstrate that you can effectively consult the client regarding the market research needs, not just execute a project.

Get Ready for the Increased Attention to Legal Matter

Strangely enough, some market research vendors willing to work with top brands do not realize the level of rigidity and stringent management of legal and security matter attached to it. Just see this indignation with a marketing research vendor a Comcast employee shared.

If you resolve to take the challenge and support large brands in their market research efforts, know that you might be required to make written requests for information, sign non-disclosure agreements, demonstrate your privacy and security management policies, and conclude well-thought services contracts.

Concluding Ideas

As you may have spotted, selling to market research buyers goes beyond the value proposition. You need to make sure a brand perceives you as a reliable partner with a relevant background and genuine interest in their business.

Sharing professional insights, using the latest market research technology and taking care of compliance issues will definitely make you stand out among the competitors.

As ever higher demands are made on the level of service and customer experience becomes a more significant factor for decision-making than price, it is important to find new ways to establish consistent and effective work with customers. All this can be achieved using video: it is more personalized than text and less distracting than a phone call.

Streaming is Skyrocketing in Popularity

Video content is rapidly gaining popularity. According to Cisco, worldwide, by 2021, video traffic will account for 80% of all consumer Internet traffic. Most recently, Apple launched its streaming service Apple TV +, Disney enters the market with a Disney + subscription, and the number of streaming services is already in the top ten, but continues to grow. These are small companies and giants such as HBO, Amazon Hulu, and others. Streaming is what transforms the television and entertainment market, changes the rules of the game on it. And literally everyone wants to become part of this future. Video

Streaming is a live video broadcast of certain events, available for viewing in real-time via the Internet. One of the best and most efficient ways to communicate from the scene. Streamers primarily use phones and portable modems, which gives them the opportunity to stay mobile. Streaming was invented by fans of computer games. They started shooting and showing the process of passing games in real-time.

Why Your Business Needs Live Broadcasts?

Live broadcasts on social networks provide more engagement than regular video content: streaming can be the most effective way to encourage the audience to switch from passive viewing to active participation. In addition, live broadcasts are convenient for both parties. You earn, and customers save time, money, and effort, just by watching a live broadcast from a conference while being at the other end of the country.

What other advantages does live broadcasting bring?

Rethinking Corporate Communication

Requests from various companies — both small and large — indicate a growing trend in the role of video in internal communication. Whether it’s training materials, fixing the location at the workplace, videos related to internal processes, videos created within the company for the purpose of training, and organizing the work of teams will become the next noticeable trend in the field of video and streaming.

A New Way of Customer Service

Today, brand loyalty is heavily dependent on the quality of service they receive. This is why customer support should be proactive and find ways to provide the best experience. The best support teams use the opportunities that video gives to establish personal contact and interaction with customers. The answer to the client’s question in video format promotes more open dialogue, as it allows you to better demonstrate readiness to understand his problem.

Finally, the video “humanizes” the support team and helps to prevent the escalation of the conflict with the client, since communication takes place directly with the company representative. This eliminates the anonymity that is inherent in familiar communication through text messages.

New Educational Opportunities

Today, streaming is widely used in e-learning. This approach eliminates the need to become attached to an educational institution: the necessary material is presented in videos and, due to this, is absorbed more fully and efficiently. As video content becomes easier and cheaper to produce, companies will more often conduct video training and webinars for staff and customers. This format allows employees to learn in a mode convenient for them, without changing the work schedule. Many companies are increasingly switching to portable internet as it is convenient for online training and conferences.

Integrate the Brand Into the Stream

You can integrate your company’s ads into the stream using the following tools:

• Integration into the content: the most native way to promote a brand, despite the fact that such advertising is almost always immediately guessed by users.
• Integration into messages from donators: viewers of the channel may ask the streamer to publish some message on the broadcast screen.
• Integration into the channel description.
• Integration in the background: a non-clickable banner that accompanies the broadcast, usually located in the corner or at the bottom of the screen.
• Integration into the name of the stream.

What do You Need to Start Streaming?

Technical preparation for broadcasting is no less important than its informational content. To configure the stream, the user needs to prepare the equipment: choose a powerful computer, a high-quality camera, microphone, etc. Also, the streamer will need services for recording videos, setting up donations and subscriptions, and programs for chats and notifications.

One of the most popular platforms for recording streaming video today is Open Broadcaster Software and Xsplit Broadcaster. The first product is a free open source program developed by the OBS project and a community of independent developers. The second platform — Xsplit Broadcaster — is available to users only by subscription (from $4 to $8 per month).

Xsplit Broadcaster is fairly easy to install, but this program requires reinstallation for each platform. Open Broadcaster Software is more difficult to install, but once you configure the program, you no longer need to return to its configuration. In addition, OBS offers a large set of modifiable parameters and does not load the computer so much.

The most important thing in today’s live streaming — is to always have a good internet connection. With this in mind, you might want to consider using a portable modem,  so that you are sure you won’t miss an opportunity to live broadcast interesting news and events in your company. You can choose an affordable Internet plan suitable for your lifestyle, and thus always stay connected. A good portable modem provider should be able to ensure universal compatibility service and a modern device with embedded eSim technology and constant battery power.

Conclusion

Thanks to affordable technologies, the availability of appropriate equipment, any Internet user is available to create their own broadcast. Moreover, for thousands of enthusiasts, this has become a major source of income. This leads to the fact that video and streaming become an integral part of the marketing strategies of both the largest and smaller brands. In the coming years, real-time broadcast technology will continue to evolve, becoming cheaper and more efficient at the same time.

The majority of marketing specialists agree that any industry’s future is a combination of the current disruptions. This is a clear indication that marketers will have to change their approaches to various practices to support the business adequately.

Previous studies showed that this statement is true as four out of five specialists were sure that marketing organizations have to adjust their structure and design to meet their business needs in the short run.

Meanwhile, the minor part of experts thought there is no real need for any future changes. However, it is possible to speculate that they accepted a legacy role instead of keeping up with the ever-changing technology. Around half of marketers agreed that the change is necessary, but not in a drastic manner. One-third of marketers strongly believed that marketing practices should be amended to support business objectives.

Interestingly, the last category of professionals is usually seen as more than just cost centers and rather like revenue drivers responsible for customer experience and engagement, talent acquisition, and the leverage of data and technology.

What Did We Get

As a result, some influencers developed quite an innovative approach to marketing as a whole. Brian Harrington, CMO of the US-based car-sharing company Zipcar, founded the so-called philosophy of “small bets”. From the organizational perspective, the CMO created something quite akin to the modern agile approach!

After all, if we consider the idea of small marketing programs that are highly flexible when it comes to upscaling, tweaking, or shutting down, we get an approach similar to agile marketing and project management. Agile management is about rushes that can be easily adapted to environmental changes through constant meetings and effective communication.

As Harrington stated, each marketing program has its own success metric used to determine whether a project is worth investing in. This sort of organizational behavior is now typical for most large companies as they invest in multiple marketing projects — some of them shoot while others fail.

This leads to the modern realities of marketing — constant changes in both internal and external environments entail flexibility from the marketing department and CMO. So, we have an ideology similar to “You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs”. Although this may sound rather ruthless, in fact, increasing competition and a constant inflow of disruptive technology require executives and managers to calculate risks and make rational decisions.

Marketing as a Revenue Driver

Traditionally, marketing practice was viewed as a cost center and rarely as a revenue driver. However, everything has changed in recent years. E-commerce has become a staple mark of many industries, thus radically changing the perception of marketing practice within a company in general.

What was seen as a cost center that provided only some research data is now considered as one of the main revenue drivers! The thing is — consumers have evolved alongside technologies. That is why marketing practice appears to be more and more imperative for businesses that want to be ahead of the competition.

John Dragoon, CMO of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, stated that you would be viewed as a cost center if you don’t accept responsibility; however, you’re going to be regarded as a partner and adviser if you aggressively pursue the agenda of accountability and transparency. While this was true like 5 years ago or so, the situation is different now.

Until recently, the role of marketing was to bring consumers to the brand while the sales team managed the purchase decision. Nonetheless, notable changes can be evidenced. Technology has evolved, social media platforms play their role, and the general population has almost unlimited access to information.

Now, these are the factors that allow marketers to show how they are driving the business revenue. For example, many company executives, such as Mr. Gupta at Kimberly-Clark, admit that there’s no such thing as funnel anymore — the consumer is at the center of all processes. The CMO has to drive experience as there’s no funnel, which means that marketing practices should inspire customers despite any borders and at any stage of the purchasing journey.

Mr. Dragoon claimed that it’s important to remember that creating marketing teams, which are focused on highlighting their personal input in the result, can have a destructive effect on the company. That is why the role of CMO is so crucial — the ability to recognize the achievements of other departments while finding correlations with different events is the way to acknowledge people who contributed to success properly.

Experience Leading to Engagement

Only a couple of years ago, customer experience did not receive a proper oversight. However, most marketers now agree on the idea that they are responsible for the customer experience. This is a rather interesting tendency in its own right as traditionally, sales departments were considered the ultimate experience deliverers.

Today, the line between sales and marketing is becoming more and more blurred. The reason is quite simple — consumers hold power, and the role of sales is diminishing. As a result, the role of marketing appears to be even more important for the company as a whole.

Jamie Moldafsky, CMO at Wells Fargo, stated a need for a holistic approach due to a large number of channels and contact points. She also pointed out what’s currently happening in the world of marketing — integration of channels and businesses is a prerequisite for shaping a customer-centric strategy that is easy to understand by the end consumer.

Mr. Dragoon claimed that nowadays “customer experience is a matrix with marketing taking a central role, even if it’s not the lead role.” This statement implies that companies should be quite flexible regarding customer experience, especially marketing departments. Therefore, complex enterprises require effective cooperation and sometimes integration of different functions across departments.

Engagement as a New Norm

The goal to create a holistic system that is customer-centric is based on the idea of transforming customer experience into an engagement. Traditionally, engagement has been viewed as the combination of branding activities and the development of customer awareness. However, the times have changed and engagement is seen more as the key element to creating customer loyalty and advocacy!

Customer engagement is evident through such indicators as retention, repeat purchases, and renewals. Virgin America’s CMO Luanne Calvert asserted that “It’s hard to attribute revenue at the top of the funnel.” That is why retention, loyalty, and advocacy are the main factors used to determine a marketing strategy’s effectiveness. This, in turn, provides companies with an opportunity to link marketing to solid revenue numbers.

Modern Realities of Engagement

Today, customer engagement is seen as the major driver of revenue growth as the availability of social media and other communication channels has pushed companies to the “vulnerable” side of the market. Today, consumers have the power to boost sales or dramatically cripple entire businesses just through their social media presence. This is a reason why marketers pay meticulous attention to social media influencers.

Methods that may have been seen as unorthodox only a few years ago are becoming a new norm in the marketing industry. Social media influencers as the main advertising drivers are a common practice among top corporations around the world. The thing is — an influencer has a personality, reach, and image. That’s why they are the solution to “keeping up” with consumers for many brands.

However, it is important to understand that these realities also create potential threats for businesses. First of all, consumers have the power to considerably damage the public images of companies, which calls for active engagement build-up on the part of marketing departments. Secondly, an influencer’s failure can dramatically affect the sponsoring organization, which may have disastrous consequences for the latter’s reputation.

As it can be seen, modern marketing has become a double-edged sword. On the one side, marketers can effectively influence the target market through active engagement and influencers to reach the target audience with relative ease. On the other side, there are risks associated with uncontrollable factors such as ill-meaning consumers and irresponsible influencers.

The Skills Hunt

There is a difference between what marketers used to do and what they do now. At present, the battle between art and science is in favor of the latter. This is a clear indicator that marketers delegate the “art” part to influencers and other agents while focusing on data behind marketing campaigns. This state of affairs creates a new sort of status-quo.

Marketing specialists have to embrace the perspective of end consumers to develop effective solutions. This is why the marketing department and CMO’s role has transformed in the last few years from purely creative to analytical. Such a change is a sign of another tendency — marketing is becoming more capital-intensive than ever before.

In this way, a potential marketing specialist is expected to be competent in marketing automation infrastructure, data, and content. The demand has switched from artistic personalities to the minds who can run analytical functions while listening to different communication channels’ feedback.

Final Thoughts

It comes as no surprise that marketing practices have transformed significantly over the last several years. Before, it was okay to think of the marketing department as a cost center; however, the trends have changed, and now marketing specialists are perceived as revenue generators. CMOs of the leading companies agree that the role of marketing departments is expanding, but it is also essential to acknowledge others’ achievements.

Furthermore, marketing has shifted from creating customer experience to actual engagement. There are many factors behind this tendency, but the fact remains that the role of sales is diminishing while marketing is increasing. This blurring has led to the evolution of marketing practice that is now more data-focused. Now brands view customer data platforms as an opportunity to facilitate their business growth, especially in challenging economic conditions. Companies must evolve their marketing strategies to get closer to their consumers, better understand their needs, and deliver personalized messaging across different channels.

Overall, the evolution of marketing from a cost center to a revenue generator was an entertaining path that clearly highlighted the advancement of technology and communication in the world. Social media and end consumers are dictating the rules, and marketers have to properly interpret the available data to keep up with the competition. Whether you are a startup with a brilliant idea that you want to execute or an already well-established company that aims at reviving its brand with innovations, marketing should be as important as your invention itself. It will keep you competitive in the market and allow you to explore the whole new world of expertise and, therefore, success.

Originally published at https://rioks.com/the-rise-of-marketer/

High website traffic doesn’t necessarily mean high conversions. Sure, you might have an attractive home page, but your bounce rate is through the roof. What could be the problem?

In this article, we’ll provide you with a few choice pieces of advice to get your conversions back on track.

1. Best Headlines for Conversions

When someone visits your website for the first time, likely the first thing they’ll notice is your menu bar. If you don’t have your headlines and labels optimized, you’re only setting yourself up for failure.

Here are a few examples of great headlines and labels that have worked in the past:

• What we want to do in the future
• Want to work for us?
• How we view ourselves as a business

As you can see from the examples above, brevity is not what we’re aiming for. In fact, when it comes to headlines, the longer the better. You can even take a simple concept like, “Who we are” and turn it into a verbose phrase like, “How we view ourselves as a business”. Viewers to your site will appreciate your turn of phrase and be more likely to keep reading. Way to go, Shakespeare!

*Disclaimer – If you want your website to generate conversions, do the opposite of the advice above. Keep your headlines and labels concise and to the point. Use simple language and don’t have more than four headlines. In short, don’t overdo it.

2. Make Your Own Original Layout

When it comes to web page design, novelty is your friend. Ask yourself the following question. When you visit a new website, aren’t you tired of seeing the same, basic format? The menu bar at the top, big headlines, CTA in large print, all run of the mill for web page design.

A basic layout like this will cause visitors to bounce faster than you can yell, “WAIT!”.

When viewing your unique, original layout, visitors will be automatically interested and want to keep scrolling to find out more. Here are a few suggestions to get your creative layout juices flowing:

• Place your menu bar at the bottom of the screen
• Make your headlines tiny
• Bury your CTA in text

Believe it or not, but people actually enjoy searching for information. The more difficult you make it to find and navigate necessary details like your menu bar or CTA button, the more you will perk your visitor’s interest. That’s why we suggest placing your menu bar at the very bottom of the screen. You can be sure visitors will enjoy the hunt!

*Disclaimer – Please don’t do this. Instead, use a standard layout. It has been time-tested and proven to deliver conversions. If you keep your menu bar at the top and CTA button visible, you can’t go wrong.

3. The More CTAs the Better

It is a known fact that call to action buttons on a website cause conversions. They are the direct link to the sale, email list, or subscription. The more of them you have on your home screen the better.

Don’t worry about placing CTA with different goals in the same space. They all lead to conversions, so the more there are, the more likely a visitor will be to click on one.

Better yet, think of the offline conversions that come as a result of interaction with website appointment booking feature or simple contact information on the site. For the companies that are selling offline services through the websites, simplifying the way site visitors interact with the business shall be great advice.

*Disclaimer – The truth of the matter is that conflicting CTAs on the same page can hurt conversions. Ideally, you want one or two CTAs per webpage, but make sure they’re serving the same function. Whether a sale, referral, or subscription, pick one CTA approach per page.

4. Empty Space is Wasted Space

When designing your website, you want to fit in as much information as possible. After all, you’re paying for it, so why not use it? Remember, empty space is dead space.

A picture speaks a thousand words, so feel free to add as many images as you want. The more information a visitor sees on your homepage, the more credible they will believe you to be. Such an approach is guaranteed to generate conversions.

*Disclaimer – The more info you have on a web page, the longer it will take to load. Research has shown that longer-loading websites experience higher bounce rates. So if you want your website design to generate conversions, minimize the clutter and use space to call attention to your menu and CTA.

5. Mobile Is A Dead Technology

Mobile technology is going nowhere fast. These days, people are using desktops more than ever, and desktop use is only expected to increase in the future.

In light of these facts, you must design your website with desktop in mind, while ignoring adjustments to mobile. Keep your design static, don’t worry about scrolling, and your website will have more conversions than ever before!

*Disclaimer – Obviously we’re joking here. Mobile technology is fast becoming the primary way people use the internet, especially for purchasing and booking appointments. Therefore, you should design your website with mobile in mind. Eliminate excess clutter that could cause slow loading speed and make it scroller-friendly.

Conclusion

All joking aside, if you want your website to generate more conversions, don’t take the above advice seriously. Increasing conversion rates requires an in-depth look at your website design and navigation.

Your visitors’ eyes should be attracted to your labels. Keep them simple, so they create conversions. Use general business automation techniques to make sure your website conversions are increasing organically and drive sales.

A standard website design has been shown to generate conversions. Don’t get artistic, save your creativity for your ad campaign. Keep your design simple, stick with what works. Make sure your CTAs are relevant to each other and don’t clutter your web page with excess ones.

Keep mobile in mind.

If you follow this simple advice, your website is sure to not only attract more visitors but generate more business as well.

Originally published at: https://prototypr.io/post/how-to-kill-conversion-on-your-website-in-5-easy-steps/

As a small business owner, you know you’ll have to face challenges when starting your business. There are some lessons that many owners learn the hard way and, on reflection, wish they had taken the time to research beforehand. One of these necessary lessons is managing finances and invoicing.

Unknowingly leaking money is the last thing you need when you’re trying to grow a business. Below are eight pieces of advice concerning invoicing that every small business owner should learn. Keep reading to avoid learning these lessons the hard way.

Make Your Own Terms

Set payment terms for your invoices that fit you best. You shouldn’t have to wait for a payment every four weeks or at the end of the month. A weekly payment schedule is completely normal. When dealing with clients, be sure to outline your invoice schedule and expectations for payment dates. Also, discuss late fees, payment methods, and the process for late or missed payments.

It’s also a good idea to request a percentage of the payment upfront or divided up regularly throughout the life of the project. This is particularly vital for projects worth a lot of money and will ensure the partner’s continued commitment, as they have already invested a substantial sum. I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of client’s canceling orders when we’ve already begun working on them or even ending the business relationship before payment. To avoid such unfortunate instances, be sure to make your own terms and demand a deposit upfront.

Follow Up on Overdue

When it comes to unpaid or overdue invoices, it’s your responsibility to follow up as soon as possible. Don’t feel intimidated to do so; you’ll often find that it’s the client that feels weird and keeps apologizing for missing the payment. Most times, missed payment dates are nothing to be worried about. Contact clients directly through phone or video chat to get to the bottom of the problem quickly, as email exchanges can be long and confusing.

If you don’t have the resources to hire a financial team to investigate late payments, using automation will provide a good alternative. A virtual assistant or invoicing software costs less and is just as effective.

Charge What You Need To

Everyone’s time is valuable. But sometimes we tend to undervalue our own. Don’t make this mistake. Value the work that you do and charge the price you think is right. If you provide a useful good or service but do not price it fairly, customers will not see value in it either. Don’t be shy when outlining your invoice and determining the price. If you don’t stick up for yourself, no one will.

Invoice upon Project Completion

Don’t waste valuable time by waiting until the end of the pay period to send an invoice, send it as soon as the project is complete. With current mobile coverage, it’s possible to send data from virtually anywhere on the planet, so the fact that you’re not at the office is no excuse. Your clients will appreciate your promptness and professionalism.

After you’ve sent the invoice, be sure to ask your client for a quick review or feedback on the project. It’s better to ask for this sooner rather than later, as the client can forget many details in only a few days.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Don’t waste your valuable time and effort trying to manage finances and invoicing manually, there are plenty of WordPress plugins that can do this for you. With invoicing software, payments and billing is only a matter of a few clicks. Plus, most will notify you when payments are upcoming or overdue.

For example, it might be a great idea to use a booking plugin with invoice for all-in-one management of appointments, clients, and payments. Like dedicated invoicing software, it offers a variety of templates for all kinds of invoice types and supports SMS and email notifications to clients. The advantage is that you can also track and act upon all the statistics on the client's appointments and payments.

Keep Records

If you use a time and materials payment method, it is better to use project management software to keep records of all the tasks you do within the project and the exact time you spent on them. This way, you can provide clients with a detailed rationale for your pricing if there is a conflict overcharge. The software is easily manageable and will save you lots of potential headaches.

Know how to invoice individual and corporate clients

Invoicing individual clients, you mostly deal with one person who may simply forget or have no opportunity to make the payment in time. With corporate clients, the reason for late payments may be more complex, starting with the lack of awareness and finishing with the wrong details provided in an invoice.

Thus, starting relationships with corporate clients, be sure to get as many details as possible concerning the invoice: who it should be sent to, the address and department, etc. Discuss with your client what special steps need to be taken to ensure the invoice is processed in a timely fashion. For long-term clients, it’s a good practice to get to know their accounting department to be able to reach out with the questions. Sending invoices directly to the person in charge of the account will also ensure that it is given the proper attention, instead of ending up at the bottom of a mail pile.

Ease of Payment

Be sure to clearly describe your payment methods to potential clients before signing any agreements. You don’t want to end up not getting paid at the end of a project just because the client only uses Paypal. Additionally, make payments as easy as possible by using all popular payment methods, including credit cards, mobile, bank transfers, e-wallets, checks, etc.

Conclusion

Getting paid is supposed to be the best part of running a business. Don’t make it more difficult than it has to be and follow our invoicing advice. We hope that this article has helped you discover new ways to manage your invoices and finances.

Originally published at https://medium.com/the-research-nest/mastering-the-art-of-invoicing-a-cheat-sheet-for-smes-8d14b192edcb

Hashtags have become the first association with social networks boosting both user experience and business results. With the impressive popularity of Facebook these days, most subscribers are wondering how to use hashtags on this platform the right way.

It doesn’t matter whether you are trying to organically promote a business page or personal brand, this checklist will help you find out the benefits of hashtags and the ways to use them effectively to boost engagement with your content on social media.

What are the Benefits of Hashtags?

Hashtags turn phrases and words into clickable links that help users find topics they are interested in. If you are still wondering whether hashtags work for a business or personal brand marketing, here are three reasons that prove hashtags are worth your efforts:

1. Make it easier to find you

Although Facebook’s search option may be not as well-known as Google’s, you shouldn’t underestimate it. This is another place where you can be found by your target audience. Using hashtags helps you leverage the organic reach and serve content to interested users who are not even your page subscribers. When you add hashtags to your post the right way, one who is searching for the content on the topic may reach your page even without following it.

2. Build a strong brand

Hashtags work great for tracking and sharing user-generated content — a holy grail of social media marketing. What is more, users clicking on the campaign hashtag can see all the instances of its mentions, which is a strong social proof affecting their sentiments towards a brand.

This is how Coca-Cola did it:

The company used hashtag #shareacoke and its Facebook page saw a boost of 39% in the number of fans. This is just one example of how using hashtags may help you both become recognizable and build a strong brand.

3. Create a community on Facebook

If you are adding hashtags to your Facebook posts, it is a good idea to encourage your existing audience and clients to do the same. In such a way, you will establish the community of loyal clients around your brand.

Remember, if you are using hashtags on Facebook the right way, they are always beneficial.

Otherwise, they are just a noise that will not only fail your efforts to reach your goals but may play a low-down trick with your brand reputation. Take a look at a useful checklist to make your efforts of incorporating hashtags into Facebook posts a big start of positive changes.

How to Use Hashtags Correctly?

In a day when competition among companies is gathering pace, each opportunity to interact with your followers and become closer to your target audience is a big step forward. These simple hints will help you achieve better results immediately.

Have a hashtag strategy

It may sound easier than it actually is. You should keep in mind the rules of writing hashtags, and use phrases that people may really look for. There are plenty of tools that help find suitable hashtags for social media campaigns. Also, a good idea is to analyze posts of your competitors and hashtags that your followers and customers are already using.

When you have a list of all the suitable hashtags, develop clear guidelines to your social media manager on when and how to use them. For example, you may have a different set of hashtags for speaking about your services, updates on the blog, and your team and team building events.

Add hashtags to all posts

It is easy to forget about hashtags if you produce tons of content and auto post from WordPress to Facebook. Not to lose the benefits of having hashtags and maintain consistency of your blogs, use a WordPress autoposter that allows customizing the cover message and automatically adds the categories and tags of the blog post as hashtags of the Facebook post.

Measure success and optimize

As with any other social media marketing strategy, you should check whether your efforts are paying off. You can use a Facebook built-in feature or look into the insights provided by the social auto poster plugin to assess the reach of your posts. It is necessary to analyze the received data and find out whether posts with hashtags are doing more for increasing user engagement than posts without hashtags, and what hashtags are diving the most engagement.

Finally, you will be able to understand what else should be done to reach your initial goal and get the opportunity to enjoy all the benefits of using hashtags for business, a personal brand, or driving social change.

The Final Thoughts

Facebook doesn’t need an introduction; with a rapidly growing user base, it is recognized to be one of the leading platforms to use for marketing. With constantly changing algorithms of popular social networks, one might have thought that hashtags have passed into oblivion. Still, they are very beneficial for the marketing strategy of all types of business. The main thing you should adhere to is using hashtags the right way to achieve your company’s marketing goals.

Originally published at https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/a-useful-checklist-for-using-hashtags-on-facebook-the-right-way-6ea604161b03

Do you have what it takes to be a successful blogger?  

If you’ve ever thought about starting a blog, this information is for you. Many people think that starting a blog is easy, and that literally anyone can do it. It doesn’t take that much effort to write a short post about your favorite coffee shop in town or weekend in the city.

Starting a blog is easy, the hard part is keeping it going. The number of failed blogs far outweighs the number of successful ones. One of the main reasons for blog failure is simply giving up. That’s why successful bloggers follow rule number 7: Be persistent. As in other areas of life, success comes to those who are willing to keep going, even when things get tough. Keep reading to learn about the other rules successful bloggers follow.

1. Create a lot of content

The first for effective blogging is to write a lot. Practice makes perfect, so the more you write, the more your writing will improve.  

Write all day long. Some of the best bloggers find inspiration when on the go. You don’t have to limit your writing time to your laptop alone, you can take notes on your phone or record short audio messages when an idea pops into your head. If you prefer a physical touch, use a small notepad to jot down your inspirations.  

It takes a lot of effort to put out so much content, but the best bloggers know that the more you put out, the better a chance you have of getting recognition. The best bloggers are dedicated to their work and spend a lot of time researching, writing, editing, and re-writing their posts.

2. Stick to the point

People usually visit blogs because they want new information, they want to learn something. That’s why you should give the people what they want and be concise, internet copy is not the place for flowery language.  

The most successful bloggers are masters at getting their audience’s attention, holding it, and most importantly, making the information easy to understand. The best bloggers keep their posts short and use lists and different subheadings to stimulate their readers.

3. Analyze everything

The best bloggers are always looking to learn more about blogging and about their audience. They know what they’re audience is into, what social media sites they use, what kind of websites they visit frequently, their tastes, interests, etc. They use statistics and analytical tools to better understand their readers.  

They know the times when they get the most views, what kinds of posts their audience likes, and which posts get the most attention.  

Once they’ve gathered all the necessary information, successful bloggers then adapt their content, timing, and format to best attract their audience’s attention.

4. Stay consistent

Another habit of effective blogging is consistency. The best bloggers publish their posts at a consistent rate, monthly, weekly, daily, etc. Think about some of your favorite blogs, do they stick to a schedule? Pick a schedule and stick to it.  

Also, stay consistent with your topic. If you wander a bit, that’s fine, you can always connect your topic to new material. But you’ll find it difficult to get a following without sticking to your major topics. If you stick to both your topic and schedule, then your audience will know to expect and when to expect it.

5. Never stop learning

As you keep blogging, you’re going to find out that there’s a lot to learn. Not only do you need to be a good writer, but you need to stay on top of trends, new technologies, and techniques that you can apply to your work.  

As blogging is an online activity, and internet technologies are constantly changing, you have to keep learning if you want to stay ahead of the game. This may include learning a new program or skill, or updating old work that has become relevant again. The best kinds of people are lifelong learners.

6. Be a self-motivator

As many of us are finding out during this quarantine, there are advantages and disadvantages to being self-employed. Of course, you have more freedom, but if you can't discipline yourself to do the work, you won’t be successful.  

When it comes to building a successful blog, you’re your own boss, so you have to find the motivation to do the work. No one is going to keep an eye on you, give you helpful tips, or remind you of upcoming deadlines. It’s all on you. Find your motivation and apply it to your blog, no one is going to do it for you.

7. Be persistent

The best bloggers weren’t successful the first time they sat down to write something. The dream of quick fame is often just that, a dream.

The only way to achieve success blogging, short of selling your soul to the devil, is to keep at it. Be persistent, don’t give up, and you will see results. Eventually, you’ll look back on the hard times and appreciate your struggle. You may even find that overcoming adversity is a reward all by itself.

8. Make a plan

The most successful bloggers plan their work weeks, even months ahead. They have a plan and follow it. Of course, there will be setbacks and adjustments, you may even scrap your plan altogether, but even a bad plan is better than no plan.  

Don’t waste time now on the details, like the best font or profile picture, those will come as you do the work. The most important thing is to do the work. Make a rough plan and start now, the details will come later.

9. Have a thick skin

When you start putting information out into the world, don’t be surprised by the negative feedback you receive. Take what you can learn from constructive criticism and ignore the rest.

Criticism of your work can actually help you. Think of it this way, someone is actually reading your work, which is great, but what’s more, they’re taking the time to engage with you. This has real value online and will bring your blog more attention as people like, comment, and share the content. It’s also another perspective, and a great chance to get a second opinion on your work. If the criticism is constructive, you’ll feel both agitated, because you know it’s true and you could have done better, and motivated to do better.  

Trolling is another matter. If you think you’re being trolled, that is, someone is trying to get a negative reaction out of you by posting nasty comments on your content, it’s best to ignore and delete them from your followers. You don’t want to let their negativity bring you down.

10. Use an auto poster

Using an auto poster to manage your social media accounts will not only save you time, but also improve your site SEO, boost your visits, and keep your social media sites looking fresh.  

Supported on most social networks, you can use auto poster to post to Instagram, Facebook, and other social media. Usually, it has the features you need to stay on the path of an effective blog poster, including wp auto post, auto publish to social media through WordPress, post scheduling, and much more.

Wrapping Up

As you’ve just found out, there’s a lot more to blogging than meets the eye. It takes real dedication and hardwork to become a successful blogger. To get you going, follow these habits of effective bloggers and remember, if you don’t start something, you’ll never finish it.

Originally published at: https://yourstory.com/mystory/ten-effective-blogger-rules-follow

We can all agree that social media has become a major part of our lives. Not only does it allow us to connect with others around the globe, but more importantly, it is fast becoming one of the most effective ways to advertise. All businesses, from startups to major corporations, use social media accounts, but how do they decide which ones to use and which to ignore?

In this article, we’ll help you answer that question for yourself. The fact of the matter is, your business is especially suited for a few, specific social media platforms, not all of them. The trick is finding which ones are right for your business.  

Before signing up for all social media, here are a few key questions you should ask yourself:

1. What sites are my audience on?
2. What sites are my audience active on?
3. What sites do my audiences search on?
4. What lesser-known sites are right for my business?

Let’s explore each of these questions in greater detail.

What sites are my audience on?

The main question to ask yourself about social media is where does your audience spend its time? What social media sites do they use most frequently?

It’s important to remember that just because you have followers, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have an audience. In fact, a recent report on Facebook revealed that approximately half of its accounts were fake. So when you purchase followers on social media, what you’re most likely getting is a bunch of fake accounts. Although this will boost your number of followers, fake accounts won’t generate any real marketing opportunities.

What sites are my audience active on?

Just because someone has an account on social media, it doesn’t mean that they’re an active user. An active user is someone who writes comments, posts, and uploads videos or pictures, while a passive user is someone who just views the content. It turns out that most social media users are passive.

According to a report published by Statista this February, only 14% of Youtube users are active, as well as only 33% of Facebook users.  You want active followers that will post, share, and comment on your content, creating free marketing for you. Passive users may boost your numbers, but they aren’t good for much else.

What sites do my audiences search on?

As you may know, social media isn’t just a place to connect and share content, but it’s also a platform many people use to find information. Every second, people are making thousands of searches on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Depending on what sites your audience uses, you have an opportunity to show up in their search results.  

What lesser-known sites are right for my business?

Have you ever considered that you may be missing out on loads of potential active users because you haven’t found the site right for you? You would be right. In fact, niche sites are some of the social media’s biggest lead generators.  

What if a friend told you that you have to join a certain social media site because it’s generating them tons of leads? Before charging blindly ahead, you should first consider if it’s right for you. It might be a good fit for your friend’s business, but it could be a total mismatch for yours. Consider the context and make an informed decision before registering on a new site simply out of hearsay.  

Now that you know the right questions to ask yourself when considering which social sites to join, there are a few more things you can do to maximize social media for your business. First, join the best ones out there.

Join the Best

There are currently three social media sites that far outperform the rest. It’s in your best interest to join them immediately to ensure getting as much traffic as you can for your business. They are:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Facebook is the biggest social network today. With over 2 billion members, it’s not hard to see why. More than half of Facebook users are active every day. This means Facebook users are more likely to view your content than users on other platforms. With each user connected to around 100 other people, it’s truly an effective platform for marketing your business.

Twitter is where the conversation happens. A typical user has over 200 followers and spends around 2 hours on Twitter a day. Twitter is great for promoting your business to loyal customers. Once you get a loyal customer base on Twitter, watch it grow your business as followers retweet and comment on your content.

A truly unique social media platform, LinkedIn is best at connecting professionals. While it is more geared toward a B2B rather than a B2C approach, you shouldn’t neglect it when considering how to grow your business. Since most users are professionals, they have connections with viable companies, connections that you can make use of.

Check Out the Rest

There are plenty of other social media sites out there. Once you’ve got the feel of working with the top three, you should try out others to see if they are right for your business. Below are a few examples of more sites to pay attention to.

• Instagram - It’s all about the gram. A picture speaks a thousand words and so should your content. A good phone camera combined with witty remarks will take your marketing to a new level.
• Pinterest - Unfairly judged as a site just for women, Pinterest generates the most sales per click of any social media site.
• Youtube - Video is one of the most effective marketing tools, and Youtube by far the world’s video leader. With all kinds of content, your channel is waiting to be discovered.
• Reddit - While sometimes unfairly judged for its lack of monitoring, Reddit is a force to be reckoned with. Most Reddit users are more active than users of other sites, and by getting them to subreddit you can ensure your content will get a lot of traffic.

Explore Other Options

Once you grow your following on your chosen sites, you’ll find that managing them all at once will become more and more difficult. There are a few options open to you. You can hire a social media expert to manage your online presence (create content, make posts, head marketing campaigns, etc.). If you prefer to create your own content, a better option is to use a WordPress plugin for auto-posting and scheduling. This way you will have complete control over your content while also saving time by letting the program do those mundane, everyday tasks.

Conclusion

Although social media marketing can seem a daunting challenge for a small business, it’s really an extraordinary opportunity. The age of technology has leveled the playing field, allowing start-ups to compete with Fortune-500 companies in the social media sphere. By following our simple advice and subscribing to the best sites out there, you’re already well on your way to growing your business.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/mystory/managing-several-social-media-profiles-business

Social media is now more important in marketing than ever before. Some would even argue that it has already outstripped all other forms of marketing and will soon dominate the market. Regardless of its scope, social media is here to stay. If you haven’t developed a social media strategy for your business yet, what are you waiting for?

Follow our eight easy tips to supercharge your social media strategy and watch your content go viral. Let’s get started.

Set Your Goals

Let’s face it, without a good plan in place, you’re not very likely to even begin your project. That’s why our first priority when creating a social media strategy is planning: develop objectives and goals that you wish to accomplish.

Make sure your social media plan is in alignment with your whole marketing strategy and don’t forget to write it down. A plan not on paper isn’t a plan.

Also, there are a few criteria for setting your goals:

1. Goals involve numbers (for example, 1000 Facebook followers)
2. Goals have deadlines (set a date and stick to it)
3. Goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-based)

Find Out About Your Audience

Knowing your audience is essential to developing a good social media strategy. Knowing who they are, what they want, and what motivates them is a good place to begin. There are a few ways you can learn more about your audience:

• Make use of forums where your audience hangs out
• Investigate demographics
• Answer all comments on your blog and social media sites
• Collect feedback

Once you know who they are and what they want, the challenge of developing a social media strategy is much less daunting. Now that you have their attention, you need to show them that your company cares about them and isn’t “just another company”.

Host Contests

Creating an effective social media contest is one of the most effective tools you can use. Not only will it increase your visibility, but it will boost your followers and engagement. Make the prize something attractive, like a new phone, that you know they will want. Choose your social media platform, create the contest, and start promoting! Get your audience to do some of the promotional work by asking them to comment and share after completing contest registration.

Craft Content Carefully

You should know that the same content that works on one platform won’t necessarily work on another. This is because each social media site has a specific purpose that your content must be crafted to. You wouldn’t post a cute beach photo on LinkedIn any more than you would write an essay on Instagram (although people have tried). Craft your content to the platform carefully and don’t be afraid to edit it several times before posting.

Luckily, there are a few general rules for creating content on social media that you can apply to any of your posts.

• Use direct language with your audience
• Begin posts with an attention grabber
• Be versatile (use different types of content)
• Use plugins for auto-posting and scheduling
• Always write descriptions for your links

Don’t be too Pushy

Social media is not the place for traditional marketing methods. They don’t work because people don’t want to be sold something, they want to discover something. The more subtle your content is, the more likely the viewer is to take the bait. If you provide them with interesting content for free and build their trust in your brand now, they’ll be more likely to buy from you later.

Emphasize Video Content

Video has quickly become the most viewed form of content on social media. If you want your content viewed, liked, and shared, investing in better audio and video recording devices will only boost your social media marketing.

Live videos are currently very popular on social media. This is because it’s a form of interaction, a conversation. While live streaming your content, you can interact with viewers by responding to comments or even video calls (such as Zoom). Through these live interactions, you are transformed from a business to a person, which will make the viewer trust you and want to buy from your company.

Make a Connection

Connecting with your audience is a great way to get them to care about your brand. By engaging with them over social media, your customers will feel appreciated and want to spread your content more and more.

You can connect with your audience by:

• Connecting on Twitter via chats or retweets
• Taking part in Facebook groups that your target audience does
• Always replying to comments on your platforms

Keep an Eye on Trends

The social media landscape is constantly changing. The strategy that worked for you today might not work next week, or even tomorrow for that matter. Algorithms change and so should your marketing methods. In this ever-changing environment, staying relevant is vital.

Conclusion

We hope these tips will help you to develop your own killer social media strategy with confidence. With social media as the main marketing tool these days, it’s better to start sooner rather than later. Make a plan and give it a go today!

Originally published at https://www.mycustomer.com on June 23, 2020.

No-shows can be more damaging to your business than you might think. Not only do they disrupt your scheduling, but they actually cost you money, as the missed appointment could have been filled with another.

Luckily, there are a few simple practices you can start implementing today to dramatically reduce the number of missed appointments for your business. Here are nine points to remember when trying to reduce no-shows.

1. Make Use of Automated Reminders

Using automatic reminders does two things. First, it shows your customer that you care about them enough to send them a reminder, building a closer relationship between yourself and the customer.

Second, they improve punctuality. Studies have shown that text message reminders decrease the amount of tardiness among patients. Booking plugins, like those for WordPress, are a great way to automate your appointment reminders.

2. Give a Prepaid Option

Getting your customer to pay beforehand is a great way to ensure they will actually be there when it’s time for the appointment. The only thing that people care about more than time is money, and if they’ve already paid, they won’t want to waste it.

It’s also helpful to provide them with some small reward for booking in advance. For example, you could give them a discount on their next visit.

3. Message Your No-Show

With the busy lives that we lead in the modern world, it’s no wonder that sometimes we forget about our appointments. Usually, customers don’t mean to insult you when they don’t show up for an appointment. Most likely they simply forgot.

When this happens, simply send them a text alert saying you’re sorry “that we missed you” and providing options for immediate rescheduling. Customers can be forgetful so it’s your responsibility to suggest rescheduling as soon as possible, otherwise, you might lose their business.

4. Use All Kinds of Reminders

• Cell phone call.
• Home phone call.
• Text message.
• Email.

The first time a new patient makes an appointment with you, ask them what kind of reminder method they would prefer. A cell phone call? Text message? Email? Home phone number? Once you have this information, you can prioritize their choice.

However, you shouldn’t ignore the other options. The more ways you remind them, the better the chances are that they will keep their appointment. Automating these kinds of interactions will save you time, and in the long run, money as well.

It’s also a good practice to provide customers with physical reminders if they make an appointment at your office. A simple slip of paper with the date, time, and location will suffice.

5. Minimize Waiting

One of the main reasons for customer dissatisfaction is the wait time. It can even cause you to lose customers. You must remember that the customer’s time is just as important as yours, and commit to it just as they have committed to you.

As a general rule, 10–15 minutes is an acceptable wait time. Anything over 20 minutes and watch out! You will most likely be dealing with unsatisfied customers and might even lose them in the process.

6. Show Appreciation

A simple “thank you” is often all it takes to let your customers know that you care about them and value their time. Get in the habit of thanking customers who keep their appointments and arrive on time. It will make them feel appreciated and help to develop your relationship.

7. Reward Good Customers

Positive reinforcement is one of the best ways to ensure good behavior. If your customers consistently keep their appointments and show up on time, you should reward them for their good behavior. Whether a discount on their next appointment or a customer of the month photo on the wall, show them your appreciation in a tangible way.

8. Make Scheduling a Priority

The longer into a conversation a customer books an appointment, the more likely they will be to forget it. Whether on the phone or over email, make booking an appointment with the customer your first priority, save the chit-chat and questions for later. This will help you reduce no-shows as well.

9. Invest in Your Customer Relationships

There are several things you can be doing to improve your relationship with your customers. It really depends on the customer. Holiday and birthday greeting cards may be old fashioned, but the elderly love to get them. Make it a point to send your older customers greeting cards and they won’t forget it.

For younger and middle-aged customers, newsletters and blog posts on your website are a great way to keep them engaged and invested in your business. If you provide them with stimulating content on a regular basis, they will be more likely to think about your business and so remember their upcoming appointments. Building good customer relations is important for any business, and will keep them loyal and punctual.

If you follow the above-mentioned advice, no-shows will no longer be a problem. Remember, your relationships with your customers are key to avoiding tardiness. Build stronger relationships and mutual respect with your customers and you’ll be surprised by just how punctual they can be.

Originally published at https://medium.com/better-marketing/why-customers-dont-come-understanding-and-tackling-no-shows

What could be better than a customer who already knows your company and is familiar with your products? Retargeting technology helps return users who have already visited your site but haven’t made a purchase. Read on to find out more about what retargeting advertising is and how to use the capabilities of retargeting technology for successful lead generation and effective marketing during the pandemic.

What is Retargeting?

According to statistics, about 70% of users leave the site without buying anything. The purpose of retargeting is to remind the client, through advertising, of the product he is interested in. Such advertising is effective since it is aimed at target (“warm”) customers. In addition, it is cheaper to return an interested user than to attract new customers.

From the technical side, retargeting is a cookie-based technology that allows making your ads ‘follow’ your website’s visitors.  It is part of online advertising, but unlike banner advertising, retargeting is aimed only at an audience that has already visited the site and is familiar with your brand. This way, an advertiser may be sure that the advertising budget is spent only on interested users.

Retargeting vs Remarketing

Retargeting and remarketing are two important elements of a marketing strategy that help to reach out to people that have demonstrated interest in your brand, product, or service.

The difference between retargeting and remarketing is in the online tools and strategies used. Retargeting uses cookies technology to collect information about online visits and place ads in front of the prospects. Remarketing works by collecting users’ email addresses and sending personalized emails to users based on their online activity. For example, it is common to send a remarketing email to remind visitors of the abandoned cards,

Both retargeting and remarketing can be successfully used for sales techniques such as down-selling (offering a discount to promote the buying decision), up-selling (offering additional accessories or matching items to customers that have just made a purchase), and cross-selling (offering a product or service the customer might be interested in view of the purchase made).

While retargeting is effectively managed using Google Adwords and Facebook Ads, remarketing is successfully automated using email automation software.

Types of Retargeting

The most common types of retargeting are:

• Retargeting after visiting the site. It is used when users visit your site. A cookie will be saved on their computer. The task is to track users’ activity and show banners on the sites that they visit. This is the most popular type of retargeting.
• Search retargeting. It is great to follow the latest SEO tips and enjoy top placement on SERP. However, if you don’t, search retargeting can help. It works through search keywords that you activate. As soon as the user enters these words in the search bar of the browser, he will see your retargeting banners, regardless of whether he visited your site or not.
• Social retargeting. This, in fact, is “retargeting” the target audience, which showed interest in the product in the form of “likes”, “retweets” and other social actions. Now the best platform for this type of retargeting is Facebook.
• Behavioral retargeting. It is similar to search retargeting in that there is no preliminary contact with the audience through the site. Marketers determine the target audience through their previous user behavior: reactions in social networks, searches, and sites visits.
• Dynamic retargeting. The difference between this and other types is that ads are personalized for each specific visitor.

The Benefits of Using Retargeting

Retargeting is a great way to improve your marketing strategy and get users back to your site and thus increase your revenue.

Top reasons to use retargeting are:

• The ability to create targeted remarketing lists
• Wide coverage of the audience of sites and mobile applications, where you can show ads (up to 2 million)
• Favorable prices due to the ability to configure automatic bids at auctions
• Ease of creating ads using templates
• Simple maintenance of statistics on the effectiveness of advertising campaigns on reports of advertising platforms

With the help of retargeting, you can solve the following tasks:

1. Inspire purchase: retargeting is a way to arouse confidence in a brand’s quality and push users to action;
2. Stimulate sales: if some related products or services were not ordered immediately, their repeated offer (especially at a discount) may end in a purchase;
3. Maintain customer loyalty: a reminder of yourself, especially reinforced by some special offer, increases the chances of repeated sales;
4. Promote brand awareness: many buyers are distrustful of unknown products and companies. Periodic impressions on other resources can contribute to gradual memorization and increased confidence;
5. Engage in the purchase cycle: with the help of a well-organized series of retargeting ads and with competent segmentation, you can gradually arouse interest in the advertised object.

How to Measure the Effectiveness of Retargeting?

You can use two indicators to measure users’ engagement:

• click-through conversion (CTC) – a metric showing how many clicks on the ad resulted in the desired action,
• conversion by views (VTC) – a metric showing how many users converted after seeing the ad even though they did not click on it.

To see how retargeting advertising helps to bring customers to your business, it is necessary to assess it using a chosen lead attribution model.

Conclusion

Retargeting is an effective part of your marketing strategy that helps not only increase your income but also reduce the cost of promotion. While beginners might find it difficult to plan and set up a retargeting campaign, it is important to do this early in the marketing process.

Retargeting will allow you to effectively lead potential customers down the sales funnel rather than waste the advertising budget on targeting unengaged users again and again, which is a common mistake DIY marketers tend to make.

Despite a brilliant concept and excellent branding many startups fail because they think that a mobile app is all they need to succeed.

An impressive number of startups in various fields appear every day since many inspired specialists decide to separate from the company they work in and run their own business. Unfortunately, most of them fail at the very beginning and don’t reach initial goals. According to the Statista report, the main reason is the absence of market needs. In other words, businessmen didn’t carry out essential research and didn’t learn enough about products or services the clients need.

Growth Hacking Marketing: How to Boost Mobile App Download

Despite a brilliant concept, available investments, and excellent branding, many startups fail because they think that professional mobile application development is everything they need to succeed. As a result, many apps do not even reach the top of Apple Store or lose 77% of its users within three days, according to a new study by Quettra. If you don’t want to hit their number, then consider efficient growth hacks able to attract new clients and preserve the attention of the existing audience.

Top Growth Hacks for Startups

Due to the rapid changes in the world in the whole, and business, in particular, every startup owner should realize the significance of e-commerce mobile app development at a checked company. Experienced specialists will help improve user acquisition and deliver the product/service to potential customers. Selecting a good mobile app development company is only half a success. Explore these growth hacking recommendations after mobile e-commerce development:

1. Optimization for Apple Store

You can boost mobile app downloads by optimizing the application for better ranking in the search results. For this:

• Make sure the icon situated next to a descriptive name is a well-designed.
• Test keywords in the description with Google keyword planner.
• Care about unique screenshots that demonstrate the value of your app.
• Ask for feedback and reviews.
• Update the app constantly.

2. Considering influencer marketing

At present, people prefer to trust somebody they know and believe the person who is an expert in a particular question. Finding such an influencer will bring you astonishing results and boost your m-commerce. Well-known brands use influencer marketing strategies and benefit from it. As a startup with a shoestring budget, you can start cooperation with owners of small blogs who, by the way, have a more loyal audience.

3. Creation of organic adverts

Mobile commerce app developers know the efficient channels of advertisements and help you make benefit from them. For example, an ad model PPC will not only put the startup face-to-face with your target audience but help discover what works and what doesn’t work. Sometimes it is better to avoid adverts at all rather than irritate the audience. It is worth establishing a good reputation to attract potential customers. It may take you more time but will provide more long-term relationships with the clients.

4. Implementation of a referral program

A referral program can increase mobile app downloads. A startup will reach a greater number of clients if it chooses this tool. Recommendations have always been working and will continue for sure. It is important to arrange the conditions which are interesting for all members. For example, an electronic car company Tesla changed the referral program it has been using for years. They do not offer money or something that can be purchased for money anymore. Now, the clients have a chance to receive exclusive invitations to the factory or get products that are not available in the market. Such an approach increases the number of engaged clients.

5. Sending push-notification

Push-notification is a great way to keep in touch with your audience, but mind that style you choose influences the reaction of the person. Avoid using passive voice or formal tone and communicate like a friend. Make the messages more personal and include the opportunity to refuse them easily if the user wants.

Summing-up

E-commerce mobile app development is what every startup should consider for reaching the stated goals as soon as possible. Cooperation with mobile commerce developers will help save time, budget, and effort. Business Insider reports that m-commerce will hit 44% of e-commerce in 2024 since more and more people prefer using smartphones to do the shopping. Most corporations understand this and have already approached mobile commerce development services. Startups also need to create a mobile commerce app to reach the target audience and go on growing from a small team to a respectful company.

However, occupying a top position and preserving it requires effort. Mind above mentioned growth hacks and implement them to reach the target audience, and still save your budget.

The rapid development of information technology contributed to their penetration into all spheres of human activity. The work of marketing professionals was no exception. Today, there is a lot of market research survey software that helps marketers to gather and organize data.

Market Research Software Tools

Marketing is a technology that allows you to invest capital efficiently and ensure high competitiveness in the markets where the company operates. By itself, this wording makes certain demands on market research automation software. This has to be a complete technology for solving marketing problems, allowing to store and analyze huge information arrays, including not only internal management accounting data but also external data about customers, competitors, and macro environment.

The basic functions of market research software tools are to help make business decisions and put them into practice. Any research software is a software shell for working with information. It helps to accumulate useful qualitative and quantitative information and propose algorithms for marketing principles on its basis.

Experts believe that in the ideal case, marketing research software acts as a consultant in the field of quality decisions. In this case, autodesk field survey software should offer the user text-graphic blanks with decision options. Using the top market research software, an enterprise will be able to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses in advertising and marketing policies and receive a set of recommendations for promoting its position in the market.

How to Choose the Best Platform for Market Research

To choose the platform for market research, you need to first determine what kind of research you will be conducting and how often. Figure out what kind of data you actually need: graphic data, percentages in tables or superior cross-tabulation and filtering. This will help you choose the right kind of analysis software that you need. Also, remember that report data and visual data require different analyzing tools.

To find the market research platform that suits your needs best, you should remember these key points:

• Make sure the platform provides recruiting with accurate screening and an interested audience that can answer deep questions.
• Look for platforms with flexible iterations to dig deeper and discover new ideas.
• Consider the platform and available services that facilitate data collection and analysis of results.
• Experience technology flexibility for short-term and long-term commitments that can help you save a small budget.

The best market research software is a system that provides:

• Consulting

This may include consulting services in the field of making quality decisions(offers text blanks with decision-making options) and consulting in the field of rules and principles of processing quantitative information from other accounting and financial software products (offers a textual description of the rules and principles of processing information for marketing purposes);

• Automation

Processes quantitative information (offers working marketing mathematical models) and automates calculations, data sharing, and reporting

• Project management

The best market research software help to build a clear workflow for researchers and act as project management and team communication tools.

The Relevance for Marketing

Modern methods of integrated analytics really allow accelerating business development and increasing the return on investment in marketing. An integrated approach to the analysis is a key condition for identifying market data and ensuring sales growth ahead of the market.

The development of big data processing tools provides opportunities for their active use in the market research process. Using analytical services like market analysis tools allows you to get significant and interesting results about competitors and consumers.

The market research software tools provide informational support for the following tasks of the marketing team:

1. Market segmentation: the formation of the territorial-sales structure of the company, with the establishment of communication between goods, consumers, distribution channels;
2. Assessment of product profitability and profitability of individual market segments;
3. The selection of optimal distribution channels and sales options;
4. Assessment of the competitiveness of the company (SWOT analysis);
5. Choosing a goal and developing the most effective strategy for achieving it — reducing costs, releasing new products, developing new markets;
6. Assessment of risks associated with the implementation of each of the strategies;
7. Develop a tactical marketing plan. Formation of an optimal portfolio of goods and events marketing-mix (Portfolio-analysis);
8. Calculation of the coefficient of elasticity of demand and forecast sales;
9. Formation of the marketing part of the business plan in accordance with international standards.

It is rare when a company can afford to allocate a budget for conducting complex market research to obtain statistically valid data. Fortunately, today there is market research software that offers a comprehensive plan for a market research project.

Originally published at: https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/how-to-choose-market-research-software-and-get-a-competitive-edge-in-marketing

When it comes to launching a new product or leveraging the growth opportunities, relying on gut instinct or doing guesswork is not a sound strategy. Bare facts and statistics may not provide valuable insight into customer views and expectations either. This is why a customer survey remains the primary tool for capturing feedback from the target audience and is sparingly used in market research.

While the satisfaction survey may be the most widespread example of a customer survey, it is just one of the dozens of survey types that can be used for market research. Overall, customer survey allows to answer any questions concerned with:

• Demand and supply: The size of the market, market readiness to absorb a new product, alternative products that address the same customer pain, etc.
• Marketing: The segments of the market and the marketing channels they prefer and marketing messages they are the most receptive to.
• Customer expectations and needs: Including insights into customer experience and satisfaction rates
• Customer demographics: Valuable sensitive information about customer demographics each business cherishes

Despite the great potential of customer surveys, its effectiveness can be ruined by poor design and creation practices. Thus, to get the best results, stick to the following 7 best practices for designing a customer survey.

1. Make it relevant

Design a customer survey with an exact goal in mind. The goals will determine who you survey, what survey software you choose (e.g. sms, phone or online survey software), and what questions you include. If the survey design is not aligned to research goals, you won’t be able to produce actionable insights.

Making survey questions relevant to your audience makes it more engaged too. This way, you increase the chances the survey will be eventually filled out.

2. Motivate customers to respond

Remember that market research is not an expense, it’s an investment, which should convert. Thus, take it seriously and make sure your customers take it seriously too. Providing an incentive is a great way to engage customers and get more authentic responses.

At the same time, research shows that no incentive commonly used to motivate responders to complete the survey (gifts, coupons or even cash) is as effective as communicating to the customers how you acted upon their feedback. Plan for such a step, especially is you measure customer experience and satisfaction rates.

3. Consider the length. Twice

Customers are doing you a favor when they agree to respond. Do not ask for too much and try to make the survey as short as possible (on condition it still allows gaining your research goals). While long phone surveys may cause indignation, adding just one more question to online surveys may limit the completion rate dramatically. If you feel the survey may be a bit too long, set the right expectations and include a note explaining your rationale to the responders.

4. Approach open-ended questions with caution

Many responders would rather quit the survey than respond to open-ended questions; thus, it is better not to make open-ended questions mandatory. You may increase the rate of responses if they are presented last.

When the first questions are short no-brainer questions, responders feel like they’ll be done with the survey in just a minute. Therefore, as they complete half of the survey, they may be more eager to finish what they have started and respond to personal open-ended questions even though they take more time to answer.

5. Avoid leading questions

Be careful with the wording of questions to make them straightforward and unbiased. If you include questions that lead the responders to the desired answer, the results will be invalid and the whole research becomes pretty useless.

To achieve better clarity and objectivity, avoid double negatives, do not use jargon and obscure terms, and do not include you opinion or evaluative words in the questions.

6. Make answer choices clear and balanced

Just like the questions, answer options should be clear and unbiased. If you use a Likert scale for the answer options, make sure the number of responses at both ends is the same. Another important aspect to remember is giving the right to select several choices each time when it’s applicable. Otherwise, survey results will be distorted too.

7. Use market research survey software

The use of market research software can speed up and improve the process of customer survey creation by far. In particular, it can assist research agencies in setting specific logic rules and calculation systems and adding client branding to surveys and questionnaires. What’s more, it may further be used for survey analysis and aggregation of data from multiple research sources.

Bonus Tip

Even if you are experienced in survey market research and follow the best practices for designing a customer survey, the best survey design will be achieved only through continuous testing and optimization.

It is recommended to send the draft to a small group of responders asking them to assess their experience with the survey too. Eliminate any questionable options and the questions that do not provide valuable insight. Thus, test the best time to send the survey or reach out with a phone survey. Improving the design of your survey, you improve its validity and its relevance for the business too.

Originally published at: https://www.adrianswinscoe.com/2020/01/7-best-practices-for-designing-a-customer-survey/