Category: Development

Two people in office, one sitting on chair with two monitors programming

How Flutter App Development Can Hit Jackpot For Startups?

Miley on June 22, 2020

The business evolution timeline suggests that the commercial sphere has shifted in favor of this recent development called a Start-up. Gone are the days when professionals would work until retirement and live their sunset years encashing the pension plan cheques.

With evolution, came in the insatiable need to create and re-create. The catalytic growth of businesses has blurred the distinction between various industries to the point where they seem to be co-dependent for their survival. In such times, the IT industry has been scoring a home-run in consecutive business cycles.

The basis of any business is ideation, but the sooner or later they are standing that the threshold of digitization which requires their business to have an online identity. Such transformations have created a need for periodic development in the arena of Information Technology.

Start-ups today understand the need for having an online presence and employing digital marketing tools for increasing the frequency of their appearance. Mobile applications have taken the lead in the online presence segment due to their compatibility with convenience. In such times, developers keep looking for advancements in the mobile arena to bring in something that would make applications technically vivid.

During one such search, Google came up with an open-source software development kit named Flutter. It enables developers to create robust and scalable mobile applications with exclusive typography, icons, and scrolling behavior; Google’s in-house language, Dart, powers this open-source kit.

Now let’s shift into a different frame of mind, i.e., that of a start-up investor. An investor would want to invest in your start-up project only if they are happy with the choices you’ve made during a dilemma. Let’s assume a case of a Mobile Application Development Start-up; if you choose to begin development with Flutter, it may result in investor trust.

A mobile phone, tablet and monitor showing the Flutter App

There are two ways to look at it, you are either a Mobile Application Development Agency, and you provide services to others, or you are a start-up looking to develop an application of your business. In both those scenarios, Flutter stands as the best alternative due to its increasing rate of use and efficiency.

Let’s look at the hows-and-whys of adopting Flutter as a means to accelerating your Start-up growth!

1) Increases The Market Value Of Your Mobile Application

The increasing use of android and IoS devices keeps the graph very dynamic. One cannot determine which platform to choose, and in such a dilemma, developers have come up with something called Cross-platform application development.

Flutter allows its developers to create a completely native UI/UX by using those elements to provide the ultimate experience; this is something that the developers have been longing for throughout the world.

Launching an application created within flutter can allow you to feel a Native experience in a cross-platform application. Developers across the world have waited long enough for this coveted platform.

Since Flutter offers you more than the cross-platform limitations, it has captured a considerable amount of market share in the mobile application arena. As a consequence, your flutter mobile application will already have a desirable market share.

2) Expedites Developer’s Productivity

Since flutter is the talk of the town, one may wonder the key reasons behind its popularity, at some point. In addition to having captured a considerable market share, flutter’s Hot Re-Load feature promises the developer’s productivity. The premise is very easy to visualize, as a start-up company, you do not want to spend a lot of time fixing bugs, and solving errors only to re-work on the application you’ve created.

Flutter enables you to fix the bugs and errors in real-time, thereby reducing the re-work time and enhancing productivity. So as a dedicated flutter development agency, your productivity is already in the marked in the top right corner, assuming it is the highest.

To entice you towards the application even further, let’s assume that you do not encounter any bug fixes, but you want to experiment with the application that you’ve developed. So instead of worrying about re-work in the code structure, you can experiment within your flutter application and leave the rest on its real-time feature.

3) Start-up Friendly

We are familiar with the term pocket-friendly, so we took the liberty of tweaking it to Start-Up Friendly to emphasize the monetary liberty this platform provides.

As a start-up, you may not be very comfortable with spending a lot on development platforms because of the monetary constraints. Flutter rids you of the dilemma since it adheres to a FOSS (Free and Open Source) model. Not only that, but it also provides 3-tier support in terms of money, time, and resource efficiency.

Flutter comes with an array of native UI widgets to improve the aesthetics of the application that you’re developing. You can switch between various functionalities depending on the platform, Android, IoS, Google Fuchia, etc.

Also, flutter is fairly easy to work with, which makes it easier for a newbie in this field to work with it very quickly.

Conclusion

The points mentioned throughout the blog are a mere summation of an array of experiments that have already been carried out in a Flutter app development company. As a start-up, you may rely a lot on the information that you may come across over the internet or by hearsay, and more often than not, you will be directed towards flutter as your development solution.

Our suggestion would be to experiment with this SDK platform because it provides a broad scope for experimentation. Also, due to its start-up friendly feature that we just mentioned, it stands out the perfect partner for an entry-level company that provides flutter app development services.

Development Insights

Ultimate Guide to Building a Pitch Deck

Miley on June 21, 2020

When you start a business, it can be nerve-wracking and hard, but when you present your pitch it needs to be eloquent and concise and have a great design. It is important to understand when is the best time to launch your business and don’t forget to explain what your company is trying to do.

Make sure that your pitch is perfect because investors are using it continuously to evaluate your company’s potential so it is important that you make a good impression. If you were to ask any successful entrepreneurs and investors, their advice would be to keep it simple but also include the information that is relevant to whoever it is you are pitching to.

In this article we will discuss:

What is a pitch deck?
How to write a pitch deck
The presentation

What is a pitch deck?

A pitch deck, also known as an investor pitch deck or startup pitch deck, is generally the first communication tool that is a presentation that entrepreneurs and startups put together.

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And here we go!

How to write a pitch deck

1) Customize your pitch

While some may think that PR pitches are simple and they envision themselves being successful the first time around, most of the time that is not the case. It is more common and effective to form a relationship with investors before making your pitch. You need to ask the investor the key components that they want to see in your deck and what outcomes and numbers are important to them.

2) Prepare multiple documents that tell your company’s story

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Pretty self-explanatory, but try and create a different version of your deck depending on who you are presenting to. You should divide it up into a short intro deck, one for in-person meetings, and another one for follow-up calls.

3) Verify investors before sending them confidential information.

It is important to remember not to include any financial information before you have developed a relationship with any media outlets. As much as you might really need their help, you need to qualify them so that you don’t make a mistake with trusting the wrong people.

4) Make sure to visually represent your brand identity and keep it concise

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Remember that first impression matter so designs your pitch to properly represent your business and create a presentation that catches investor’s eyes. Ride the fine line between professional and having personality. You want investors to be able to see your vision just through a few slides, Try using KISS and use your presentation as an additional way to present your vision so use mainly visuals rather than an explosion of words on the screen because you don’t want them spending so much time reading your proposal rather than listening to you.

The presentation

Keep your pitch deck concise and tell a story.

However you decide to create your pitch deck, it should not be too long in both the visual and verbal presentation. In that short presentation, you need to outline the most important parts of your business. Do not go overboard with the information that you are presenting, you want to tell a story that the investors can understand and where you want and think your business is going.

You may want to include numbers and metrics and while that may be beneficial, you need to know which ones matter most to each individual investor. So, present a good combination of both.

Represent your team.

When a company is first starting out, investors are looking at the people behind the company, not the company itself. They have to know whether you can accomplish what you are saying you will. They want to get to know the person behind the curtain. So, it is important that they get to know the entire team and their backgrounds.

If it is relevant, include personal or professional backgrounds that are relevant to the company.

Don’t forget to say what your company is actually doing.

It is important to not lose sight of the message that your company is trying to put across. It is very easy to get caught up in presentations and investors that people sometimes forget the purpose of their company.

Stay humble and don’t forget that you need their help and you need to portray that you want this company to work and believe in it.

Outline both your grand vision and your concrete execution.

It is important to emphasize the vision you have for the company and where you can see it going because if there is already a clear picture presented, investors are more likely to be interested. Once you have presented your vision, you also need to show the exact way that you will go about executing your business because they will also need to see that you have a course of action.

Address the market landscape and competition.

In your pitch, you also need to be aware of the competition that you are up against and how you can stand out from them. Investors want to not only understand why it would be a good idea to invest, but they want to know what already exists in the market so that they can figure out where your company is going to go and whether it is worth it to invest if there are already so many of the same niche.

Explain why now is the best time to launch your business.

Obviously, you want to talk about your company and how you are going to go about it, but you also need to help them understand why it is important to launch it now. It can be helpful to show that you not only have a good idea but show them that it’s the right time to pursue it and what are steps that haven’t been done before. The questions that need to be answered are whether you are ready and capable to execute it at that exact moment.

Specify how you’re going to spend the money you raise.

Presenting your company may be all good and well but investors want to make sure that the money that they are going to invest in you is worth it. You need to be specific of all aspects of business and your company down to the office space, agreements with vendors, and big expenditures.

Highlight your plans for growth.

Try and present a plan that will be beneficial for both you and them in the long run. Try and also tell them how long it will take for you to return their investment back. They want to know how long it will take for them to recover the cost of their investment.

The whole point of them giving your company money is because they know and believe that they will eventually make a profit off of it. Give them a timeline of when it is going to happen.

Tweak the deck based on the feedback you get from each investor.

Finally, it is important that each pitch deck is tweaked for every individual investor because not all points will match each person. You may be asking different people for different things, so try to change it up a bit.

With these tips, pitch decks can be easy enough to create. It is important for both you and the investors to understand all aspects of your company and the vision that you are trying to present. You can use websites like this one and others in order to do things on your own without having to break the bank trying to outsource your skills.

Sometimes it can be stressful to create a pitch deck, which is where we come in. We pride ourselves on providing the materials to create an effective PR campaign. If you are interested in our services, check out our pricing and packages so that you can get a customized press kit.

Development Insights Martech Products SEO

Digital Products and Services That Drive Marketing

Miley on June 18, 2020

Technology has transformed almost every aspect of our lives including marketing. For example, before the advent of the internet, most companies relied solely on print and electronic media to market their products and services.

However, the introduction of the internet has opened a myriad of opportunities – that have taken marketing and advertising to another level.

A good example is social media. It is hard to find a business or company today that doesn’t use social media to market products and services.

Below are some of the digital products and services that are driving the market:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

This is one of the popular digital services used by companies and individuals to drive marketing. It is considered one of the most effective marketing strategies today.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization is a technique used to optimize the content of a website so that it can easily be found on popular search engines. The objective is to create keywords that are commonly frequently searched by internet users and drive them to your website.

The effectiveness of SEO depends on who is implementing it. Most marketing companies hire professionals to optimize their business websites.

2. Digital Product Development Agencies

This is another digital service that is driving the marketing industry. There are many digital product development agencies whose focus is to market products and services for other companies. They are responsible for identifying what marketing strategy suits your need and implementing them.

A digital product development agency can analyze your business and recommend an appropriate marketing strategy. If you implement a marketing strategy and you can’t see the results a few months down the line, then it means you are missing something. You need a professional to analyze and recommend something that will work for you.

3. Email marketing

Email marketing strategy is as old as the internet. It is another digital service that is being employed by many companies to market products and services. It is also considered one of the most online marketing strategies after SEO.

How does email marketing work? Email marketing focuses on maintaining existing clients or customers and attracting new ones. It is a perfect strategy for those who want to build brand awareness as well as encourage repeat clients.

4. Social media marketing (SMM)

Social media has proved to be a powerful marketing strategy in the modern-day. Most companies have taken into social media to market their products and services. This is because social media platforms have the power to reach a large audience within a short time.

As a result, most companies have opted to hire professional marketers to run their social media pages. This has led to an increase in competition in different sectors.

5. Pay-per-click (PPC)

PPC is also another major service that is driving the marketing and advertising industry. Pay-per-click service works very simply – a client bids for words that they want their ads to show up for. That means when a user clicks on one of the keywords, their ad is automatically triggered.

The good thing about PPC is that you don’t pay for space to advertise, but rather for the results you get.

In general, there are several digital products and services that drive marketing. All you need to do is identify a strategy that works for your business.

Development Martech Products SaaS SEO

The Tech Your Employees Need for Peak Performance

Miley on June 18, 2020

Technology has helped to simplify tasks and improve performance. However, the market is filled with all kinds of equipment and software claiming to be the best at managing employees. The availability of numerous options can make it difficult to choose. That’s why we’ve prepared this list of the best tech for your employees.

1. Virtual Reality

Your employees need to undergo training at least once every year. The training familiarizes them with the latest issues in their work environment and teaches them how to cope with such scenarios. Traditionally, employees had to handle real-life scenarios as part of the training. Some of those situations were risky for the employees. Instead of hiring someone to train your employees, use virtual reality for learning purposes. This technology introduces the employee to a virtual environment without putting them in harm’s way. It also offers a variety of scenarios for better problem-solving.

2. Multiple Monitors

Have you ever tried to use multiple programs on a single computer at the same time? It’s a lot of work. That’s why you should consider installing multiple screens in the workstation. You can use an adjustable monitor arm or mount for the extra screen. That way, your employees don’t have to keep switching between different windows. With two screens, the worker can use two programs simultaneously and be more productive.

3. Wireless Laser Printers and Copiers

Your staff has to print documents for record-keeping purposes. The workers also have to print documents for meetings and customers. If you want your employees to be more productive, invest in high-speed wireless laser printers. That way, they can print bulk documents within a short time. Wireless printers will also keep the work environment free from wires, which can be a hazard – somebody can trip on those wires and hurt themselves badly. Also, anyone can connect to the wireless printer from their computer. As a result, printing becomes more efficient.

4. Cloud Service

Today’s workers want flexibility. Your workers don’t have to come to the office every weekday. You can give them some days off to work from home. That change in environment helps the worker become more creative and focused. Invest in cloud services so that employees can share and access files through the platform. It will make remote work easier and safer.

5. Virtual Assistant Software

How many times during the day does an employee respond to a customer query? How many times does the employee give the same response over and over again? If your answer to these questions is multiple times, that employee is wasting time. You should invest in a virtual assistant software to get rid of repetitive tasks in the workplace. It will allow employees to make better use of their time.

6. Network Security

You should also invest in better network security so that employees can use their devices without putting the business at risk. According to experts, bring your own device or BYOD policies improve productivity. Employees feel more at ease when using their devices at work. It motivates them to be more productive. You can only allow employees to use their laptops if the system has been secured. Since you have no control over what the employee keeps on their computer, you have to protect the office network from malware and dangerous programs.

To conclude, most of the tech on this list is easy to use. That means you won’t have to waste time training employees. Make sure you tell the employees about the new equipment so they can be prepared.

professional developer programmer working on software website design coding

Development

Custom Software Development: What Is The Importance?

Miley on June 18, 2020

Owing to globalization, new tools and technologies are evolving continuously. And naturally, businesses must keep pace with the same to maintain their presence in the industry. Now, businesses keep investigating new strategies to streamline the way of their profit and popularity. And digital solutions are one of them.

Nonetheless, digital solutions do not always mean ready-made tools, which are available in the market nowadays. Rather, it is somewhat significant to find out an individual, customized solution for a company. Fortunately, custom software development in Melbourne is there to cater to these requirements.

A company needs to make a proper investment when it comes to custom software development. It is an expensive matter though. However, it is a much better solution than ready-to-use software. A customized business software will help to fulfil the business goals as it is personalized to the business needs only.

Now, it is time to talk about the importance of custom software development for a business.

Importance of Custom Software Development

Alleviates Complications in Business System Integration:

There is no denying that different segments of a business’s operation may call for tools from various vendors. Nonetheless, these tools can come with individual sets of technical requirements.

The same goes well for various development procedures, architectural variations and implementation differences. However, it poses a big challenge to the respective company to handle and maintain all these tools to operate the business.

Being a company, the whole technology framework must operate as an efficient single unit. Thus, a business owner can expect to extract the maximum benefits from the technology ecosystem. However, the efforts and time in integrating various tools can surpass the benefits.

Then, what can be the solution?

The simple answer is a custom software development.

It is a customized suite to cater to specific business goals. As a result, such software works on a particular set of rules for development as well as implementation. Thus, a business will get loads of advantages when it is about managing operational business applications. Moreover, it can also generate an easy-to-handle & interoperable enterprise technology infrastructure.

Addresses Scalability Restrictions:

Ready-made enterprise pieces software may come specified as a scalable solution. However, a company often has some unique needs, which calls for flexibility in application. Unfortunately, ready to use solutions may not help a company by stretching its limits. And it is where custom software comes to the picture.

Such software comes with specific business objectives in mind. Since these are flexible by nature, a business would get tremendous help in the technology domain.

So, during the changing scalability needs, customized business software can handle a business and its workflows with the ace. Thus, it eliminates the probability of arising new technical challenges for the team and continues the growth. It is essential to fulfilling specific business goals.

Now, it is clear how much custom enterprise software is mandatory to cater to the needs of scalable technology.

Helps in Excellent Innovation:

Innovations are the key to progress, is not it? So, a business owner must think about some unique solutions for the business to make a prominent presence in the competitive industry. As a result, the business owner can increase the odds of catering to the needs of more and more customers.

When it comes to opting for ready to deploy business solutions, a business cannot discover new innovative strategies with them. It is because these solutions do come with a specific strategy. So, a business may need to invest in a new solution if it is looking for something unique and innovative.

But the best solution in this regard is custom enterprise software. Thus, it becomes easier to experiment with new strategies and figure out innovative methodologies with the ace and ease. Thus, a business can appear like a tough yet competent competitor in the industry. It will attract more customers to a business.

Ensures A Great Support:

Businesses often look for the latest digital solutions to keep pace with the new market trends. However, it may demand a few modifications in the existing operational system. Nonetheless, opting for a wholly new ecosystem can pose challenges in terms of integration, time and efforts.

The solution is the support of custom software. It can expand the capability of the existing ecosystem. Thus, it is possible to use saved time and efforts in figuring out new business strategies.

Moreover, the team would also find it easier to work on the existing system rather than executing completely new software. Thus, it is possible to prevent the needs of costly customization of the new ecosystem, which were otherwise needed to address the business needs and goals.

Wrapping Up All the aforementioned factors are enough to comprehend the needs of custom software development Melbourne. Different businesses come with different business goals. So, they need a tailored solution to stand out from their competitors. Remember to go for a top-notch custom software development solution always.

Development Insights Martech Products

Phone Apps for Fitness

Miley on June 17, 2020

Over the past few years, fitness apps have become popular, especially among the younger generation. One of the biggest reasons for the surge is the convenience they provide. Using an app, a person can work out at any time, from anywhere.

The Demand for Apps

Apps are a part of nearly every adult’s life. People use them for things like finding food, entertainment, retail supplies, and for social media. The new technology lets you access almost anything with a push of a button.

Apps for Exercising

Maintaining physical fitness is important. Until recently, you needed to go to a gym or fitness center in order to attend classes. Nowadays, all you need to do is select an app and your workout begins. Smart TVs and iPhones make it easier than ever to have a virtual instructor directly in front of you, allowing you to mimic the movements and keep in time. You can find Pilates and yoga classes, floor exercise sessions, and dance routines and apps for performing on workout bikes and cross-trainers. Of course, you will need to have the equipment as necessary on hand to take part.

Apps to Track Weight Loss

A big part of achieving your fitness goals is maintaining a healthy weight. Thankfully, along with workout apps, there are apps that allow you to monitor your calorie intake daily versus the number of calories required to sustain your desired weight. This lets you slowly reduce your intake of calories while also developing better eating habits and smaller portions. Nutrition apps can help you remain motivated to achieve goals.

Fitness tracking Apps

Ever wonder if you are working out too often or not enough? Today, you can remove the guesswork with an app that tracks fitness. Some of the features on these apps include a count of steps, the number of stairs you climb, and how long you run. Many of them also have the ability to save daily results as well as your routines for convenient monitoring of your progress. Devices that you wear often work in conjunction with the apps. One such app, the Runkeeper, lets users track activities, monitor progress, and offer training tips prior to an event.

Benefits of Fitness Apps

Not everyone has time to attend the local gym two to three times each week. With fitness apps, you can get in an extreme workout while at home or on vacation. Fitness apps will help you burn more calories, target areas of the body that need improvement, build lean muscles, and achieve a fit physique. Nutrition apps help you learn the right foods to eat, the number of calories you consume, and the recommended number of calories you need to consume to sustain your desired weight.

Getting the Most Out of Your Fitness App

Of course, if you don’t use the app, you won’t reap its benefits. Just like having a gym membership, you have to go and workout in order to lose weight and tone your body. The good news is that they are convenient, so accessing it when you have free time is easy. The key to your success is to remain motivated. It’s also beneficial to switch up workouts. For instance, one day do aerobics and the next session does cardio dance. This way your workouts will remain invigorating instead of stale, keeping you interested, and performing at your best.

Maintaining a healthy body is something that’s easier than ever to achieve. There are hundreds of fitness apps available. Select a few that provide the features you want, and then see which ones work best for you.

Development Insights Martech SaaS

8 Reasons Social Media Can Help a Small Business Grow Better and Faster

Miley on June 17, 2020

Are you still not convinced of the power of social media? What benefits does it bring to your small business?

Social media has approximately 2 billion users worldwide, and chances are, most of your target users are already there. That’s what makes it a crucial part of the marketing strategy of your brand.

So, while your business should be on social media, sometimes, this is easier said than done.

In this post, we’ll walk you through the eight reasons how social media can help you grow business.

1. Social media is the most cost-effective way

Social media is one of the most cost-effective ways to put your brand out there. Signing up and creating a business account on major social media platforms is easy. Now, if you decide to tap into paid marketing, you can start small, to get a better idea of what to expect.

Being cost-effective with your business is important, as it helps you have a greater ROI (return on investment) and make you have a bigger budget for your other marketing initiatives.

By investing a little money and time in it, you can increase your conversions and eventually get the return of investment on the money that you’ve invested.

2. It helps in promoting your business

When using advanced options like targeting and remarketing, it easier to address your message to your audience that is interested in your products and services.

In social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, paid advertising here is relatively cheap, and with a solid social media strategy, all your efforts will eventually pay off.

3. It helps in driving website traffic

A strong social media presence is vital in attracting traffic to your site. Not only this helps drive traffic to your page but it enhances your search engine rankings as well. That’s how important social media for small businesses.

As you’re probably aware by now, SEO is an enduring process that lets you stay on top of Google’s search results.

The total number of visits, keywords you’ve chosen, external links, and your website content has a significant impact on how you’ll measure up against your competitors on search engines. It would also help to know key social media data like the number of Twitter users to help with current campaigns.

Social media helps you improve these factors, not only with the direct traffic that you’re getting but with shared links as well through the social media profiles of other users.

4. It helps generate more conversion

With increases visibility on social media, this will provide your business more opportunities for conversion.

Every video, image, blog post, or comment will lead more viewers to your site and boost your traffic. Social media helps your business create a more positive impression because it humanizes your brand.

When you share content, comment, or post updates on social media it helps personify your brand. The thing is, a lot of people would want to do business with other people, and not just companies or organizations.

So, taking the time to develop relationships on social media helps bring positive results on your conversion, and overall sales. The better impression you’re creating for visitors, the more they’ll think of your business when the need for a particular product or service arises.

5. Social media induces loyalty

According to a report, brands that regularly engage with their audience on social media has increased brand loyalty.

When your brand is visible and active on social media sites, you tend to be more approachable and credible in the eyes of your customers.

So, if you can build on creating more personal and genuine relationships with your customers, customers are likely to switch to other brands or with your competitors.

Showing them that you’re human will make you feel more approachable and friendly, rather than just another business that sells goods, and is easily replaceable. It’s because it’s easier to switch to another brand or company, but it’s hard to dump something that is already close to you.

6. It helps improve your sales

A good and solid social media strategy requires a lot of investment. Your return on investment (ROI) needs to be considered. An excellent social media strategy can have a positive impact on your sales, as it helps boost your brand exposure, allows more people to talk about your brand or service, and exposes your business to a much wider audience.

The end goal here, of course, is to convert users into a paying customer and boost your sales. When you interact with your customers, you can form a certain degree of trust in them, and which could translate to more sales in the future.

7. It boosts your business’s search engine visibility

Now, let’s talk more about SEO. Search engine optimization, or SEO, helps boost your brand’s visibility organically. More often than not, SEO plays a key role in your current marketing plan. After all, the majority of search traffic falls on the first page of search engines.

So, if you’re not on the first page, the majority of your buyers wouldn’t come across your page. What they’ll find- is your competitors instead.

Now, that’s where social media comes in. It isn’t just your presence on social media that would help you rank better on search engines. The better the content you share on these platforms, the more linking relationships are created as users share and engage with your posts.

That could be a huge boost in your business on organic search results. That’s precisely why you couldn’t afford to forget all about social media, for SEO purposes.

8. It helps you track your competition

Social media allows you to keep your finger on the pulse, not just for the sake of marketing practices, but also with the strategies used by your competitors.

You can always learn a lot from your competition. What their strengths and weaknesses are, and how you can apply it to your own strategy and improve on it.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, you’ll have a better understanding of how social media could help your small business. Test the types of content and strategies that work on you, learn from it, and constantly make improvements.

Development Insights Startups

Optimizing Your Small Business Office

Miley on June 16, 2020

Implementing minor changes in the office can boost your output levels. Focus on the office environment and its effect on your workers. What can you do to make them comfortable and more productive?

Just use the following techniques:

1. Technology Upgrades

Why should your employees continue to use old outdated computers when there are better versions in the market? You might think that you’re minimizing costs by using older equipment, but you’re actually losing a lot of money due to inefficiencies. Today’s typical worker bee workload requires computers with high processing power. With this in mind, it’s imperative for small business owners to use new technology to their advantage. Doing so boosts productivity, improves employee performance, and minimizes the hassles associated with using outdated tech.

2. Change the Décor

The office can inspire or demotivate your workers. If there are things everywhere, it will just seem too crowded and unnerving. While it’s best to hire someone with knowledge and experience in workplace interior decoration, there are several things small business owners can do themselves. Remove clutter from the office space. Put all files in the organizer. Add plants to the workplace to purify the air and bring nature inside. Plants can also motivate your employees because they have a calming effect. As a result, your workers will be more relaxed and productive. You should also move the desks closer to the windows since looking outside and being exposed to natural light can reduce stress.

3. Provide Healthy Snacks

A healthy and nutritious breakfast in the morning can leave you satisfied for the rest of the day. Have an assortment of fresh fruit and other healthy foods ready in the morning and for meetings. That way, workers get a healthy start to their day and a mental boost during otherwise difficult to follow meetings. Your workers get up early in the morning to get to the office and serve customers. Some of them don’t have time for breakfast. The least you can do is provide them with healthy snacks that will give them the energy to serve your customers well.

4. Marketing Analysis

Your business cannot make money if you don’t market yourself. You don’t have to spend big. You can use paid advertising and word of mouth. Interestingly, not all of your marketing efforts will be successful. There are some that will lead to more sales than others. But how do you know them? It’s simple. Use the analysis tools provided by the search engine. Find out how customers find your business. Is it through social media or organic search? How can you improve the website layout to increase inquiries and sales? Which SEO optimization tools should you be focusing on?

5. Better Financial Management Techniques

Don’t assume that you can keep track of all the business finances because you’re a startup. Hire a professional bookkeeper from the beginning. If they’re too expensive, hire a freelancer because they are more affordable. When you keep proper records, you avoid cash flow problems. You should also keep up with the latest news in financial management because you could learn something new that could help your business.

Since your employees are still working from home, you can use this time to reorganize the office and implement the suggestions mentioned above. For example, if you take a better look at your finances, you’ll find the loopholes that make you lose money. You can optimize your business and increase your earnings by avoiding risky and wasteful financial behaviors.

Development Insights Martech

How to Create ROI in PR and Marketing in 2020

Miley on June 12, 2020

For the layman, ROI (Return on investment) is a way to measure and evaluate the efficiency of an investment. However, it is not used to measure any form on investment on a small scale, it is looking at an investment’s and company’s long-term gains. It can be difficult to calculate ROI on that scale, so this guide will show the best ways to measure it and how to use it in your digital PR strategy.

What is ROI in PR?

It is important to understand that ROI is generally split into two categories; monetary gains like sales revenue increases and earned media gains that increase a startup’s reputation and credibility. Businesses are quite familiar with a company’s monetary gains because it has existed before social media and technology. However, nowadays it is important not to neglect earned media gains if you want your startup to be successful. If you want to achieve an accurate ROI for your PR strategy, it is important to understand both.

ROI for PR today

What is a press release and what’s its purpose?

In order to understand press releases, you can take a look at the Media Coverage press kit to get a detailed understanding and step-by-step guide to write a press release. Basically, the goal of a press release is to gain media coverage by sending it to media outlets. It is one of the main components to a well-balanced PR and media strategy. Take a more detailed look by looking at “How to pitch to journalists”.

ROI’s can be a bit difficult to measure and while impressions and media mentions can provide a sense of efficiency in a PR campaign. However, they can be meaningless if you can’t contextualize the numbers around well-defined strategy goals.

It is important to understand that you need to constantly be checking your metrics because things are constantly changing whether in a negative or positive way. Just judging and analyzing your initial PR gains can be a big mistake if you are only considering site sessions or publication appearances. Metrics could lead you to believe that the PR campaign is going better or worse than it actually is.

If your site creates content designed to build social proof, looking at the metrics and amount of content impressions would be pointless because there would be another way to measure its industry credibility by lead conversion rates.

In order to correctly use metric, you would need to give the data obtained a framework that describes your PR strategies’ purpose. Here are some that you may use to measure the ROI of your PR campaigns:

Page Impressions – Every time a page on your site appears on a Google ad or SERP.
Page Views – Every time a page on your site is clicked on a Google ad or SERP.
Page Click Through Rate – The ratio of page impressions to page views
Social Media Likes/Shares – The amount of interactions visitors have with one of your social media posts.
Bounce Rate – The ratio of single-page sessions on your site to multiple page sessions.
Average Page View Duration – The average time visitors spent on a particular page.
Goal Conversions – The number of measurable goals completed, such as scheduled calls.

USE S.M.A.R.T GOALS!

How to measure PR ROI

At the moment, there are two strategies to measure ROI in PR

Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles

The Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles has shown the importance of measurable goals and places emphasis on achievements and it does it without letting go of the less attainable metrics because there are many components of success.

It also takes into account new technology such as social media and understands its role in ROI PR and it deserves the same attention as any type of monetary ROI for PR strategy.

However, what the principles lack is that they do not make perfect and concrete steps towards a framework for ROI calculations

In spite of their clear support for quantifying returns on PR in a meaningful way, the principles don’t enable startups with a mathematical formula to draw objective conclusions from their PR efforts.

Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE)

A more simple way to measuring all ROI activity, it multiplies the amount of ad space or “seconds” mentioned on a broadcast network by a medium’s advertising rate.

The only problem is that it can be considered to be an outdated system of measuring ROI

How are we measuring PR ROI?

Here are some of the factors that people use to measure ROI in their PR campaigns, You can also get a detail look at this at “The Ultimate Guide to Paid, Earned, and Owned Media” where I discuss the important types of media and how using the combined PESO model to create a successful PR campaign.

Social Media Posts

Social media PR is key when it comes to creating a buzz around your startup.

In addition to being key to any PR campaign, social media platforms give startups:

Increased organic visibility
Improved traffic to the website
Heightened brand awareness
Faster and easier communication

For a more detailed look at how social media can be a great help, make sure to check out “The Ultimate Guide to Social Media PR” where I discuss how important it is and how to measure it through earned media.

How do we measure social media posts’ ROI?

If you’re posting to encourage people to sign up to a newsletter or webinar, then consider the following metrics your key indicators of success:

Signup conversions
Impression of signup conversion rate

If your posts are more focused around increasing your site’s reach and increasing your brand awareness:

Impressions
Click-through rate
Estimated Reach
Social Media Mentions

How to track PR ROI long term?

There are individual measures of ROI in your PR strategy, but how does it work in the long run?

There are three fields that can indicate real ROI in a PR campaign:

Brand awareness and loyalty

A continuous look at metrics like traffic and social media shares can show long-term increases and improvements in new business opportunities. It also shows the possibility of securing additional business.

It can also see the sales activities like blog posts, guest articles, social media interactions, and other forms of media outreach through the process of site engagement, becoming leads, and converting.

Industry credibility

You need to be seen as somewhat of an industry expert so that consumers of your startup believe that you are reliable and trustworthy. Trying winning earned media because it will build social proof and attract new business.

Increasingly positive reputation

Increasing your positive reputation relies on good customer experience and how that’s transmitted to the world. Getting good feedback from existing customers, for example.

You might make some short-term gains in traffic and bringing in leads, but this doesn’t necessarily convert into long-term startup prosperity.

In terms of PR ROI, we look at the social media shares/likes on positive customer experience stories and audience engagement in press release announcements regarding customer milestones.

Conclusion

It is important to see the ROI of your startup frequently so that you know where your company stands. Whether you are using the 2 strategies listed above or using social media and earned media, monitoring your business not only shows that you know what you are doing, but that you are interested to see what the future holds for your business.

We at Pressfarm pride ourselves in having the ability to create an effective PR strategy and provide people with additional knowledge of the world of PR. If you are interested in having one of our PR professionals create something that can get you business visibility, check out our pricing and packages to take the headache out of something great.

Development

What Are VoIP Softphones and Web Phones?

Miley on June 10, 2020

This guest post was provided by VirtualPBX, a developer of business phone plans for small businesses to enterprises.

Two primary versions of software-based phones exist in the world of VoIP telephony: softphones and web phones.

Today’s blog will discuss the difference between those two types. You can learn about their benefits and disadvantages to make an informed choice for the next type of software-based phone you’d like to use in hosted business phone plans.

Softphones

Softphones are computer programs built to run on specific devices. They allow you to make and receive calls from any device they have been programmed to run on, including a laptop or smartphone.

Because they’re created to run on specific devices and operating systems, they gain native performance and have easy access to the features provided by a device. This makes them fast and, for example, capable of using a device’s hardware keys (such as a computer’s number keypad) or software features (a smartphone’s touch keyboard) to better control the phone.

Softphones can easily go by another name – an app – to make them more recognizable to newcomers. A softphone app for an Android phone is similar to what’s expected from other apps. It can be found in the Google Play store and downloaded to immediately work on the user’s phone. Packages for any device and any type of operating system can be downloaded by customers to work with their chosen hosted business phone plans.

This convenience of simple setup, however, also shows the greatest drawback of softphones. Every different type of device must have a softphone built for it. Even though VirtualPBX offers its Android softphone to customers, it must also offer an alternate version for iOS users in order to address that audience.

Similarly, separate versions must be created for all the devices and platforms the VoIP provider wants to address. To capture the majority of the user base, typically five versions of softphones are created: one each for Android and iOS smartphones and one each for Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.

Keeping pace with changes in device specifications and operating system versions can be intensive. It requires a lot of work on the part of the VoIP provider. Still, the rewards for creating a smartphone can be great for the end user because softphones often run smoothly and require little setup.

Pros:

Often available for smartphones and computers
Integrates with native device features like Siri commands
Syncs with the device’s contact list for easy access to identified contacts
More in-depth settings control allow you to fine-tune your experience

Cons:

Intensive for VoIP provider to develop and update, so support for a specific operating system of device may be missing
Like all apps, softphones take up storage space on a device
Desktop versions typically incur a license fee

Web Phones

One growing alternative to the softphone is the web phone, which runs inside of a web browser. Typically, web phones take advantage of the WebRTC project that simplifies communication between two users of browsers like Chrome and Firefox.

Hosted business phone plan developers see a shift in responsibility from creating softphones to creating web phones. With softphones, developers shouldered the tasks of creating a specific software-based phone for every device and operating system they wanted to support. As was discussed in this article’s previous section, this process could be time and labor intensive.

With web phones, much of that burden is lifted because standardized practices and protocols allow developers to need to build only one web phone. The creators of web browsers build their products to work on most available operating systems. This allows any Firefox users, for example, to find a copy of that same browser that runs on Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, or Linux devices.

Moreover, web browser creators also build in capability for WebRTC support and, of course, to support HTML standards so websites can be accessed.

What this leaves for VoIP developers to do is build a single website that uses WebRTC to connect to their phone system. Developers at VirtualPBX can focus on creating a single entry point where anyone with access to a capable web browser can make calls.

All you need as a user is a browser and a set of login credentials.

Pros:

Web phones run on almost any device
Expansion of web capability gives web phones access to hardware (like keyboards) and software (like notifications)
Updates are experienced immediately and universally since there is only one version for VoIP companies to maintain

Cons:

Lacks native performance that softphones achieve
Requires a web browser to run

Which Software-Based Phone Fits You?

Many softphones and web phones that work with hosted business phone plans have similar capabilities. For end users, the biggest questions about which ones to choose concern availability and overall performance.

Do I need native performance? Do I have a web browser that the phone will work inside?

A brief discussion with the VoIP provider will be able to assist with answering these questions and better guiding users toward a model that fits them best. Keep in mind that businesses of all sizes can benefit from both styles of software-based phones and that it’s always worth asking the service provider about the capabilities of their specific models of softphone and web phone.