Category: Insights

Development Insights Martech Products SaaS

A Few Things Every Software Tester Should know

Miley Dowling on April 3, 2020

With so much information readily available for consumption, it can be draining and overwhelming. If you are a budding or aspiring software tester that is looking for great material to read online, then you are in the right place. Since you are about to start your journey as an epic tester, as I did at a software development company in Houston or simply planning on learning how to become one, remember that you will have tasks to work around and constantly learn new tools.

Every product will pose new challenges for you as a tester and you will have to be able to adapt to the changing environments. If I were to tell you a few tasks that you will be required to perform as a tester, that would give you a clear idea or an insight into what you are getting yourself into. Remember, they are in no order or necessary, as every project will bring in their own set of complexities for you to challenge and overcome.

So without further-a-do, let us dive into the various activities you should indulge in before starting your career as a software tester.

#1 Why are you interested in becoming a software tester?

Before we even begin our tech-talk, you need to ask yourself this important question. Are you really interested in becoming a tester? What is your understanding of software testing and how accurate it is? Just think about the career path that you are planning to tread on and make sure it is entirely your own decision and not influenced by someone else.

#2 What exactly is software testing?

Software testing has become a vast field and now it is not just about using the product, finding out the bugs, and running quality checks. Testing is a process that starts as early as the requirement gathering phase. From making sure the product is behaving the way it should, the risks involved, user experience, and much more is all part of testing.

Make sure your knowledge is fine-tuned and up-to-date with the latest practices and evolution that software testing has observed.

#3 Meet other testers

Networking has its benefits and what better way to socialize than meeting fellow testers and learning from them? Trust me, it will do you wonders to meet people that are in the same boat as you do or have professional work experience to become your mentors. Either way, you will be able to connect with them and get the much-needed help, guidance or a listening ear during the tough times.

So keep a lookout for all the testing conferences that include TestCon, EuroStar, Agile Testing Days, and many more. You can even join online tester communities and mingle.

#4 What is your understanding of the ‘bug’?

Is it the same as an error? Is it something that crashes the software product? What is it? There are so many definitions online like: Taking Wikipedia for example, “A software bug is an error, flaw or fault in a computer program or system that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways”

Pretty generic, right? However, a bug can be defined as anything that places the value of the product in jeopardy. Now whatever threatens the integrity of the software is a bug. According to this definition, a bug isn’t only present within the code, it could be in the specifications that we overlooked. Hopefully, this cleared much of your concept on what exactly is a bug.

#5 White and black box testing

The two famous approaches to software testing are White and Black Box Testing. White or Glass Box Testing is when a tester is aware of the internal workings like the code. The tester runs test cases that are based on the knowledge of the program’s internal code. This kind of testing tests the lines of code (LOC), branches of code, and focuses on overall coverage of the statements.

The biggest drawback of White Box Testing is that you will never know about any missing functionality. It is purely technical and tests out the code integrity. Another roadblock that tester faces is the constant following of a testing pattern that reduces their ability to detect anything unusual.

To curb all these problems, Black Box Tester plays a significant part. Why? Because they are unaware of the internal working of the product and they are responsible for testing out the requirements and functionalities.

#6 Regression testing

When you are dealing with an agile model for software development, you are bound to do regression testing. The process of making sure everything works together even after changes were made is part of regression testing. Consider the example of when your favorite app gets an update and suddenly a previous functionality stops working? This is why regression tests are performed to make sure that new updates, builds, or added features haven’t broken anything. In a nutshell, it is re-testing the previous features after a change has been made.

The regression test strategies may differ from company to company.

#7 Mobile Testing

Safe to say mobile testing has become a field of its own. You could develop a career out of just being a mobile tester. So this is definitely a strong area you can experiment with and check if it clicks with you. There is a lot of material online to get you started.

Considering that mobile app development has become a lucrative field with millions of apps existing on App Stores and countless under development – Mobile testing is another branch that is an integral part of this area.

Mobile application testing can be defined as a process where apps developed for smartphones are tested for their functionality, usability, consistency, compatibility, security, performance, load, installation, and user experience.

#8 Write about your journey

There is nothing better than sharing your experience and journey as a tester. Writing will center you from all the chaos your work brings and help you reconnect with many others that are a part of the software testing community.

There is much more to tell you but I am sure you have the passion and desire to explore more and become a great tester.

Development Insights Martech SaaS SEO

PREPOSTSEO Tools Review – Access 25 Powerful SEO Tool & Rank Your Site Higher

Miley Dowling on March 31, 2020

There is a big difference between having a website and operating one successfully to get the best business results. A lot of websites having an amazing interface actually fail. For the best business results, websites should have the needed exposure. If people are not landing on the website, it would be hard to generate the best sales volumes.

Why Prepostseo?

Using the correct legitimate tools is the first but most important step of improving the website rank. If you have the correct tools in the bucket, improving the rank would be much easier. Prepostseo has quality tools that can be used to enhance the rank of a website.

The top 25 Prepostseo tools for improving website rank

Domain Authority Checker

Domain authority is a measure of credibility. New websites usually have a low DA score and established ones rank higher on the chart. The scale ranges between 0 and 100. Newly created websites have a score of around 20. Similarly, reputed and established websites have a score of around 70 to 80. If you are a website owner, you can check how things are going by using this tool to check the DA score.

Domain Age Checker

Constructing online business partnerships and opting for mergers is a regular activity. If one online brand is purchasing another, it should check the credibility. With this tool, you can check the domain age of any website. Reputed and legitimate websites use a domain for a long time. Thus, they have high domain age figures. Scam websites usually have newer domains and you can avoid them using this tool.

Google Indexer

Consider that you have added an additional page to your website but it is not being viewed1. This happens when an added or modified page has not been indexed. By using this free Google Indexer, you can index modified content. When website changes are not viewed by potential buyers, brands suffer business losses. Website owners can surely avoid them by using this tool.

Backlink Maker

Backlinks are integral for a website to grow in terms of ranks. The highest-rated websites have quality backlinks. As a result, people do not have a problem with trusting their credibility. With this reputed tool, you can check the top-rated websites for constructing backlinks. With each recommended website, there would be a link to check Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA). By clicking these links, you can get an assurance that a positive backlink is being selected.

Broken Links Checker

Are you sure that the backlinks on your website are not broken? Links that are broken have a negative impact on the traffic rate of a website. This broken links checker is a commendable tool you can use for this purpose. In addition to that, it has a very simple process. Enter the URL of the required websites and click the button to check links. The output would show all the internal and external links of the website along with their status.

Readability Score Checker

It does happen that websites do not get a good rate of traffic even after published fresh related content regularly. It is not about publishing information only. If the content does not offer readability to the user, he would not spend time on the website. This would increase the bounce rate. Using this tool, you can determine how readable your content is.

Tool to verify backlinks

Are you sure that the backlinks to your website are working properly? This needs to be checked at regular intervals. At times, website owners expect the links to be working perfectly but they are broken. In such cases, users are taken to a non-responsive page. They get the feeling that the website is not working properly. As a result, a negative feeling is created and the user does not revisit the website.

Small text generator

Getting a good count of traffic is all about portraying the content in a different manner. The use of this small text generator helps in converting standard text too small caps, subscript, and superscript. These text forms of text can help in giving an innovative look to the text. For instance, a title on a web page is written using small text, people would notice it because it would have a different appearance.

Keyword Density Checker

It is very important to understand that keywords have to be used with the correct density. The number of times a keyword is used depends on the word count. However, one has to check the keyword density to avoid stuffing. Unnecessary use of keywords is a negative act and search engines apply penalties on such websites. This keyword density checker is a commendable tool because it provides you with an accurate ratio of each keyword. You can upload the content by pasting it as a text or browsing the file directly.

Image to Text Converter

Consider that you view an image and wish to use the written text for your website. This tool can help you in extracting the text through any image. It is a quality tool using optical character recognition (OCR). Once the conversion process is completed, the text can be copied and used.

Reverse Image Search

It is important to use original images but protecting them is the key. Images created from the start get misused when they are uploaded on other websites. If you own an image and it is uploaded on a scam website, your brand would lose its credibility and reputation. With this reverse image search tool, check the appearances of any image. In other words, you can get a list of web pages on which the image can be viewed. This is a free tool that helps in preventing image plagiarism and locating related snapshots as well. Thus, using it helps in improving the rank of a website.

Tiny Text Generator

This tool transforms normal written text into small three forms. These include small caps, subscript, and superscript. These forms of text are effective for marketing purposes. Instead of converting each character to these formats manually, you can use this free tool to get these unique text forms easily.

Plagiarism Checker

Are you publishing original content on your website? This is a very important question. Website owners who are not careful in this relation suffer. If you have plagiarized content on your website, your website would face penalties. In addition to that, it would be very hard to get a good count of visitors. This quality plagiarism checker scans through the content and reveals whether there are originality problems or not. Before publishing the content, it is important to use this tool and determine the originality level.

Article Rewriting Tool

Article writers and bloggers play very important roles in improving the rank of the website. They have to write articles on diverse topics regularly. This means collecting information by surveying websites, journals, and gazettes. After that, they have to rephrase the content. In a limited span of time, it becomes quite hard to complete all these goals. This article rewrite rewords content in an easy, free and instant way. When you are done with content compilation, upload it and click the button to initiate rewriting. The article content would be reworded without any hassle.

Paraphrasing Tool

Almost every writer uses the internet to collect information when they have to write blog posts, articles or web content. Paraphrasing is something that requires focus, attention and time. Usually, writers have less time and they have to produce quality content with strict deadlines. The paraphrasing tool is a great option to get content rewritten. Simply upload the content in the original form. If you have a saved file, you can upload it directly by clicking the button for file selection. The other alternative is pasting the content as text. Original content is a key factor if you want the website rank to rise. Information written from the start means offering more readability to the readers. This is what visitors prefer when they visit a website.

Image Cropper

It is a fact that the right images boost website ranking in a very short while. However, refining the image is an important factor as well. If there is an unwanted image area, it should be chopped off so that visitors do not get confused. An image cropper is a commendable tool at no cost. Once you upload the image, you would see boundaries around it. All you need to do is adjust them to select the needed area.

AdSense Calculator

Google AdSense is a powerful and effective method to earn from a website. The key point is that website owners should have awareness about how much they can earn by applying the correct strategies. This AdSense Calculator provides you with a correct earning figure. Using this tool is very simple. You need to enter the number of impressions, click-through rate and cost per click. In this way, you would get a clear idea of how much you can earn.

Server Checker

A website does not generate any earnings if people are unable to access it. In addition to that, when people are unable to access a website, its rank goes down. Thus, a smart strategy is keeping a check on the server status. This server checker is a recommended tool for this purpose. You can use it to check the status of any website including your own. It is completely free and extremely easy to use.

Favicon Generator

Favicons help in differentiating your website with competitors. It is an image that appears on the browser tab in which the website has been opened. If there five browser tabs and only one has a favicon, the user would notice it easily. In addition to that, favicons help a lot in shifting between browser tabs. The interface of this favicon generator is quite easy to use and adapt.

DNS Records Checker

Website security is very important because a successful hacking attempt can bring the rank down immediately. This tool helps you in checking your own DNS records. Along with that, you can check the records of other websites as well.

Domain Who Is Checker

If you are establishing business relation with another brand, checking its website would provide you with a lot of information. By using this “Domain Who is Checker”, key details including owner name, country, email address and hosting company? It is an online tool so there is no need to go download or install anything. When you enter the domain name and click the “Check WhoIs details” button, the core important details would be generated.

Reverse Who Is Checker

This tool is amazingly helpful and in terms of functionality. If you have a website owner’s name, it can be used to check the number of domains that he owns. Scam website owners usually have multiple website domains registered against their name. Connecting with such websites can hamper your reputation. Thus, before you establish a business partnership, this tool can be used to check the legitimacy of ownership.

Alexa Rank Checker

This Alexa Rank Checker performs a comparison between your website and other listed domains. In this way, if your website is not performing well, the necessary improvements can be made. There are two factors used to perform this comparison. The local rank of the website is restricted to the country in which it is registered. Similarly, the global rank compares a particular website to all websites listed globally.

HTML Minifier

The HTML Minifier reduces the code length by eliminating unnecessary space. This has an impact on the loading time. Websites that take a lot of time for loading do not acquire a high rank. By using this tool, you can eliminate unnecessary space and optimize the performance of the website.

ICO Converter

The ICO Converter is a tool used to generate favicons. Users can upload images in the PNG, JPEG, and other formats. A favicon is a good move to make your website more apparent. When a company or brand-specific logo appears on the browser tab, more people start recognizing it.

Development Insights Martech SaaS

Why Choose Drupal as Your Website Development Technology?

Miley Dowling on March 30, 2020

Drupal is an out of the box CMS (Content Management System) for custom website development that empowers business leaders to create business-oriented competitive websites. In the modern world, where speed is everything, Drupal allows you to build websites with high efficiency and speed.

Drupal websites are easily customizable that follow the latest industry standards to digital power innovation. The features and module extensions that come with Drupal CMS are unmatchable and give websites a unique identity in this highly competitive world.

In today’s era, where standing out in a crowd has become a challenging mission, Drupal comes with web innovation for business leaders to develop their enterprise solution with high security and scalability.

Business leaders who look for unique branding with web innovations are choosing Drupal management system to develop enterprise solutions for their business.

The growing demand for online businesses with improved quality and smooth workflow has made Drupal number one choice for business owners. It has proved to be relevant to its innovative features.

Essential Points to Help You Choose Drupal as Your Website Development Technology

An Ideal CMS

What is an ideal CMS? A typical CMS allows you to arrange all the content of the website beautifully with the text, images, and page templates that look just perfect to the user’s eye. Drupal is a design-oriented CMS that comes up with around 450 attractive themes. You have multiple options to choose the theme as per your requirement. Modules of Drupal are easily customizable and easy to incorporate.

Themes in Drupal come with complete security, reliability, and better scalability to make enhancements for future needs. So, always go for Drupal development services when you want an ideal CMS for your website.

Open-source Software

Drupal is a free, open-source CMS back-end framework written in PHP that comes with unique capabilities and flexibility to develop your business website. Supported by a large community under GNU general public license, it lets you create large scale web applications with the most secure, stable, and reliable management system. So, Drupal is a great choice when you want to transform your content management system into a robust digital solution.

Easy Integration with 3rd Party Apps

It is the basic building block of a robust functional system to be able to integrate with 3rd party apps. Drupal CMS is designed with a robust architecture that can be easily integrated with third-party and enterprise applications. It can integrate with different OS based mobile applications, numerous e-commerce payment gateways, with automation tools for sales and marketing, etc.

It has found to be useful in social networking apps where multiple language integration is the need for communication. Drupal is a winner once again in combination with 3rd party apps.

Security

Security is vital to any business, and to ensure security and safety to your business, Drupal comes with modules that are equipped with safety features. Drupal can find gaps where security can be breached and notifies you with updates if the code seems vulnerable to attacks. This exceptional advancement in Drupal helps your business to stand apart from others. Give priority to Drupal over other CMS when you want to make a secure website for your business.

Database Encryption

One of the recent studies shows that the average cost of data loss is 141 dollars per record. Every business owner wants to keep this cost as low as possible and plans to have a robust CMS that comes with sophisticated security features. Drupal comes with features that allow application configuration to pass through encryption laws and privacy standards. Therefore, preferring Drupal over others when you want to keep your data safe and secure from any breach that can affect your business is always good choice

Final Words

It allows developers to create exceptional digital experiences that are beyond imagination and empowers enterprises to streamline their workflows. Publishing content online is way easier than in other CMS. Experienced Drupal Development Services can affirm that Drupal allows you to go further than other Content Management System. With its intricate features, it has evolved and has become the first choice of IT professionals and decision-makers.

Insights

4 Challenges Telecoms Must Address to Remain Competitive

Miley Dowling on March 28, 2020

Every industry comes with its unique set of challenges. The telecom world is no exception to this rule. New advances, however, have made the telecom industry more prone to disruption than in the past. Here are four challenges telecoms must address to remain competitive.

Differentiating from Competitors

The telecom industry is complex. There’s a ton that goes into building such an enterprise — and it’s extremely difficult to manage these sprawling organizations. Beyond that, telecoms need to find ways to make consumers think they provide better services than the other, often similar, options out there.

Currently, telecoms are in a situation where they’re looking for ways make themselves appeal to customers. One strategy for this has been building strategic partnerships, or making strategic acquisitions. Content is a huge factor here. This is possibly most evident in AT&T’s massive purchase of Time Warner for $85 billion. The theory behind this is that Warner’s deep content library will provide AT&T with unique paths of monetization, such as streaming services and bundles.

No matter the differentiation, it’s essential that telecoms find ways to set themselves apart from others if they want to stay competitive.

Choosing the Right Investments

While the AT&T purchase of Time Warner is undoubtedly impressive when it comes to dollars spent, there’s no guarantee it’s going to live up to expectations. All that money is a massive investment. Even though management is relatively sure of their decision, it’s still too early to tell if the deal will ultimately benefit the telecom giant.

Going forward, it’s going to become increasingly crucial for telecoms to invest their money the right way. Why is this? Because telecoms can’t rely on their legacy businesses and investments to sustain them in the same way they did in the past. Think about this: Many telecoms have built up satellite TV and fiber optic Internet infrastructures. These were massively expensive endeavors that couldn’t have been taken on by smaller businesses. Big spends like this are much more likely to pay off if consumers don’t have a better option.

As technology continues to become more advanced at an evermore rapid pace, it increases the likelihood of big-spend investments becoming irrelevant. Therefore, telecoms need to ensure they’re making the right decisions every step of the way. This is one reason data analytics in the telecom industry is becoming even more integral to decision-making. With the power of data, telecoms can make better predictions about their investment returns and identify areas for improvement.

Staying Agile and Evolving, Even Though It’s a Challenge

As mentioned in the previous point, there’s an inherent challenge to telecoms in making smart investments for a few reasons. Telecoms gravitate toward a sort of behemoth-like nature. Their natural tendency is to have big, immovable legacy infrastructure. In the past, this was a huge advantage—but not so much in the world of today.

In the modern economy, telecoms need to find ways of staying ahead of the curve. They need agility and the ability to pivot like never before. To do this, telecoms need to be open to changes—both in terms of structure, and ow they make money altogether. Businesses such as Netflix, Amazon, and Uber have shown that disruption is the new normal. Telecoms need to embrace this idea in order to compete with the newest waves of change.

Getting Ready for the Internet of Things

Consumers and businesses are anxiously awaiting the full-blown arrival of the Internet of Things (IoT). This is going to lead to a huge change in how people interact with technology. But this kind of interconnectivity is also going to lead to challenges.

One of the big challenges is going to be ensuring that customers receive the connection and data speeds promised by their providers. The IoT is bringing about an unprecedented need for data usage and consistency. It’s the role of telecoms to accurately deliver what they promise so enterprise and consumer products work the correctly, expediently and securely.

Telecoms play an important role in everyday life. But things are in a state of flux in this industry. It’s important for telecoms to keep these concepts in mind when looking toward the future.

Insights

9 Amazing Tricks To Get The Most Out Of Your Healthy Teeth

Miley Dowling on March 27, 2020

Planning to step up your beauty and self-care regime? If you are, then you must know that your dental and oral health is an aspect that you must also pay attention to.

Here are some tricks and hacks that you may want to note to fulfill your goals:

Brush your teeth twice a day

Brushing your teeth is a must if you want to take good care of your dental and oral health. It must also be done twice (even thrice!) a day for much better results.

Aside from keeping your teeth and gums healthy, brushing every day will keep the cavities away. Hence, the risks of degradation can be largely omitted even as you age.

Once you wake up in the morning, especially after you eat your breakfast, brush your teeth. And you must also do this at night before you go to sleep.

Limit sugary foods

Dental and oral health care practices, like brushing, is not the only trick that you can do to keep your teeth and gums healthy. As it happens, the foods and drinks that you consume every day also play huge roles in the condition of your dental and oral health. So, you must also pay attention to your diet.

It is a must that you limit your sugar and sweet intake. This is because they contain properties that cavity-causing bacteria love so much. If these sit on your teeth and gums, it will certainly damage them.

Limit acidic drinks like soft drinks, cordials and fruit juices

Just like your sweet and sugary foods, acid-rich consumables, especially beverages must also be limited. The reason being is that acid corrodes the enamel or the protective layer of your teeth.

When this happens, it will deteriorate the condition of your teeth and gums, which will eventually cause complications in your dental and oral health. Also, if you are using a teeth whitening kit, the effectiveness of the product may be affected since acidic and colored drinks normally stain the teeth.

As much as possible, stay away from acid-rich drinks like juices, soft drinks and carbonated drinks, and instant coffee. But, if not, make sure that these consumables will not sit in your teeth and gums for so long.

Drink water instead of sugary drinks

Instead of indulging in sugary and acidic drinks, try to opt for water more. Indulge and treat yourself with lots of water every day. While it may not offer treats to your taste buds, water will certainly provide several benefits, not only to your oral and dental health but, to your physical health as well.

It is largely recommended for you to drink eight to ten glasses of water on a daily basis. Make it a habit that you drink enough water anytime and anywhere.

Rinse or chew gum after meals

Rinsing and chewing gum after you eat is a very beneficial practice that you can do to eliminate food debris and plaque build-up. This is because, every time you eat, debris and small particles will always end up in the spaces between your teeth and gums.

While brushing your teeth can help you resolve such concerns, rinsing and chewing gum will make it much more effective and efficient as they can immediately take away small particles and debris inside your mouth every after a meal.

Practice flossing with your eyes shut

Aside from brushing your teeth twice or thrice a day, flossing is also a good practice to keep the cavities and plaque away. Although, keep in mind that your flossing routines will only be beneficial and effective when you do it properly.

Unfortunately, improper flossing might cause problems as well to your oral and dental health. So, be sure to practice and know effectively how to do it the right way.

Some experts and dentists recommend shutting your eyes as you do your flossing session. As per statements, it helps you sense more the areas that need flossing.

Choose the right dentist

While you may be loyal to your dental and oral care routine, there are some cases that this won’t be enough if you have the wrong dentist for you. Accordingly, you must ensure that you have the best care from your dentist.

Choose the right and proper dentist for your condition. And make sure that he or she knows your oral and dental health well.

Without proper guidance and assistance from the right dentist, it can be quite challenging for you to maintain and keep your teeth and gums healthy, in the long run.

Eat calcium-rich foods

In relation to eliminating sugar- and acid-rich foods from your diet, in conversely, you must encourage yourself to eat more calcium-rich foods. Keep in mind that your teeth are basically bones as well that need calcium for strength.

With this at hand, it is quite safe to say that you must be mindful of your diet and meal consumptions. While calcium can be taken efficiently from certain food sources, you can also take calcium supplements.

Rinse with alcohol-free mouthwash

Rinsing with mouthwash every after brushing your teeth is a very effective and beneficial practice to keep your teeth, gums, and tongue healthy. The reason being is that mouthwashes are great in securing the protective layer of your teeth.

However, you must opt for non-alcohol mouthwashes since the other might be too harsh for your oral and dental health.

Final Thoughts

These are some of the best hacks and tricks that you may do to get the most out of your healthy teeth. If you haven’t included some of these on your daily routine, then start now and see the difference!

Development Insights

How Companies Are Using Voice Bots to Drive More Leads

Miley Dowling on March 25, 2020

Finding exactly what you’re looking for and finding it fast is important in today’s age of technology. Companies that want to drive more leads to their business are taking advantage of the latest in lead generation and that includes implementing voice bots as a strategic way to land those leads. Whether a company offers auto transport services, restaurant equipment or any other merchandise or service, voice bots are here to stay and can help ramp up a business to new levels. Best of all, these bots can make finding information quick and easy for potential customers.

How Voice Bots Help Drive Leads

In today’s market, voice bots are a primary source of lead generation. Companies today often rely on a wide range of gathering leads. These include:

Social media ads
SEO on websites
Static landing pages
Gathering lead contact information
Email blasts to leads gathered
Telephone calls to leads

While using these platforms is an effective way to gather leads, companies inevitably find that they chase not only leads that are valid, but often they find that many of the leads gathered have provided invalid email addresses or phone numbers and they waste valuable time reaching out to people who have zero interest in the product or service they offer.

With voice bots, these quandaries are often left off the table.

Market Segmentation

Companies use market segmentation to divide customers into specific categories based on a variety of traits including age, personality, behavior and income level. Segmenting your audience is an ideal way to boost leads.

For instance, if you are gathering leads to build an auto transport database of customers that need transport services now from the U.S. to locations overseas, you would want to ensure that your demographics are set for U.S. based customers seeking services to international locations. The voice bot will segment the audience to include specific data that the company is seeking based on travel plans, shipping interests, income and more. If customers have precise inquiries based on types of automobiles that can ship on certain carriers or inquiries about seasonal shipping options, this will all be sent to the company database for salespeople to access.

Knowing Your Audience

If you need to buy dinner for your best friend or your significant other, it may be easy to do because you know that person well enough to know what they like to eat. It’s not so easy, however, if you’re in the restaurant industry and trying to determine what your customers want. You don’t know them personally but thankfully the voice bot handles your audience for you.

With questions, surveys and more, the voice bot gathers information when people speak to it and through this, companies learn about their customers.

When people speak to the voice bot, it builds lead generation. As the voice bot asks questions, people can let it know what foods they like best, which wines they enjoy with their meal and whether they want food delivery or to dine in. Once the voice bot has gathered enough information, the bot can then recommend specific wines, dinner selections and more. This is also a great way to build relationships with customers. The more that a company learns about them, the better capable the company is of taking care of them.

Learning Opportunities

When people chat with voice bots, they can learn more about the company. Whether by asking direct questions or asking to be guided through information, this is an opportunity for companies to be able to show people who they are, what they offer and why the people should trust them to shop with them, use their services or work with them when they need something.

Forms

Not many people enjoy sitting down to fill out forms. Let’s face it, forms can be boring, and they can drive people away from a website. With voice bots, people can engage with the bot to learn what they need to learn and to provide information that the company needs to know about the person. Using a voice bot to collect lead information is a great way to keep your audience engaged in your website and it offers an interesting way to gather information without relying on customers to fill in the information.

Companies don’t need to let voice bots take over as their sales representatives, but they are a great way to generate leads to help boost business. Voice bots can offer round the clock customer care that can alleviate the need for 24-hour sales staff while keeping audiences engaged and building an effective lead database.

Development Insights Martech SaaS

BMW, General Motors, Ford to Start Testing Blockchain Payments in Cars

Miley Dowling on March 24, 2020

Five famous automakers- General Motors, BMW, Renault, Ford, and Honda- announced they would begin testing with blockchain payments using payment and car-identification systems.

The goal is to take each car owned by these brands and assign them with an individual ID. It is linked to the ownership and the service history of the vehicle. Blockchain payments will use a wallet that allows the car to pay the fees automatically, without using any specific hardware specialized for that action.

Coming next is what we could find about this project to blockchain payments in cars and what conclusions did we draw.

What Is The Main Purpose of Blockchain Payments?

According to the information we have from the alliance, they reportedly envision that this payment system will help mainly the electric vehicles that are connected. Create blockchain payments for car-related expenses that can mean purchasing items at a rest stop, paying tolls, or even pay the meter at the electric chargers.

One of the blockchain accounting benefits of this is that a universal system will allow more dedicated assistance and control over the entire operation. Another benefit of blockchain payments would be that human supervision could no longer be needed, as every part of the process can be completed automatically and independently by the end-user.

Who Will Develop Blockchain Payments?

If we are to quote the Nikkei Asian review that was reported last year on the 14th of October, the blockchain marketing strategy would be to start testing a new vehicle ID system that was developed by the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative.

In fact, in the summer of 2019, Mercedes-Benz announced a partnership with Riddle & Code, a blockchain firm that is capable of producing a hardware wallet to be used in automobiles, giving a new sense to blockchain trading. They are looking for some long-term solutions that can impact the self-driving cars industry and the car-sharing platforms.

Once you get bitcoin blockchain explained to you, it can help you get the big picture as well.

According to a Coindesk review, Daimler – the parent company, is interested in creating a cryptographic identity for each car that has a wallet installed.

Being estimated that, by the end of 2035, we will have 2 billion running cars on the planet, and we can see why blockchain payments are a serious opportunity and have the potential to become a huge industry, like PayPal casino.

India Has Shown Interest As Well

Tata Motors, an Indian automobile manufacturer, has made public a statement in which they announce their plans of integrating solutions based on blockchain payments straight into their internal processes. It is a part of the recently-launched program designed for startups.

Another important point in their statement was aimed at the vision of including a marketplace and demanding an on-point prediction algorithm.

The blockchain payments project has great potential on the side of fuel quality, which will be monitored in real-time, thus creating opportunities for cutting costs and improve the overall driving experience of the users. It was right before Daimler AG, the Mercedes-Benz parent company, together with a mechanical engineering firm, has successfully conducted a pilot transaction of blockchain payments system of finances.

Conclusion

The technology is growing exponentially, and now it’s going to impact the car industry as well, with the implementation of blockchain payments. Five of the biggest automakers in the world have seen the potential of this new technology and opted to start researching the benefits immediately.

Given the fact that electric cars have started to be a more and more viable transport option, it will only make sense for the blockchain payments to change the rules of the games.

We can say that we have high hopes in the direction this is going and what scientists should be able to get to in the future is that assigned vehicles will be storing data about the history and ownership via its unique identity.

What do you think the levels of impact will be when the blockchain payments system is optimized and stabilized? We would love to hear your stories about what experiences you had using blockchain payments. You can engage with other readers that are interested in this topic, right in the comments section.

Author’s Bio

Thomas Glare is an accomplished tech specialist that worked in several companies, which later on found the passion of dedicated journalism. Among his favorite hobbies are horseback riding on the weekends, and running sessions in the morning, through the park.

Insights Martech Startups

How Influencer Marketing Campaigns Transform Startups

Miley Dowling on March 22, 2020

When employed correctly, an influencer marketing campaign can transform your startup. Influencer campaigns represent the future of digital marketing strategy. Influencer marketing is a multi billion dollar industry. Still, it is accessible to entrepreneurs with smaller budgets. This makes influencer marketing an ideal choice for startups. These campaigns bring your product or service directly to the right demographic. They do this through a channel that consumers already trust. If you are considering partnering with an influencer for your next marketing campaign, here are five ways that this strategy can transform your startup.

Deploy The Best Automated Tools

Influencers are in the business of marketing themselves. They are thus well versed in the deployment of tools to do this effectively. Automated tools mine the web for social data. They connect you with partners that match your brand identity. You can use these tools to match with an influencer based on a variety of criteria. Search topics include conversation topics, social metrics, and audience demographics. Automated tools can also be used to analyze content post performance to optimize the effectiveness of your campaign. Influencer marketing campaigns deploy the best automated tools to transform your startup.

Improve Social Media Strategy

Partnering with an influencer on a marketing campaign will help improve your startup’s social media strategy. Influencers help your company build and maintain a relevant audience. Create relationships with influencers with an active social network whose views align with your company. Build these relationships by commenting on their posts or on platforms like Scalefluence. Reach out to them directly regarding a potential campaign. A partnership with the right influencer will help you find and build a social media following. You will work together to set up a social media calendar and plan content promotion and distribution. They will use their audience to build yours. Influencer marketing campaigns will help improve your startup’s social media strategy.

Drive Traffic

Influencer marking campaigns help drive traffic to your website. There are a variety of different ways that these partnerships achieve this. One way is through link building. Influencers use audience engagement in posts to link back to your website. A popular form of this tactic is referring to the “link in bio” on Instagram. Have your partners run contests or giveaway events with their followers or readers. This works as a strong call to action on social media as well. In order to opt in, have them follow your startup on social media or follow a link that directs them back to your page. Influencer marketing campaigns successfully drive traffic to your profile or website.

Engage Followers Effectively

Social media influencers engage followers to sell your product or brand effectively. When searching for a partnership, look for influencers who interact with their posts. If people are commenting on a post that mentions your startup, you can be assured that they are aware of it. Engaging influencers resonate with their audiences. They are trusted and thought of as an authority on certain subjects. Their audience thus trusts that they will point them in the right direction. This relationship connects your product or service to a receptive audience of willing users. Influencer marketing campaigns engage followers to transform your startup.

Create Content

Social media influencers are in the business of creating content. One way to use influencer partnerships for your startup is to pay for sponsored content. Pay for your brand to be featured on a blog or social media channel. Often times this means that an influencer will create content for you. They know their followers better than anyone. They know what their interests are and what they want to hear. Influencers are thus able to create content marketing campaigns that both sell your product and resonates with their audience. This appeals to consumer emotions and is an extremely effective way to sell a product or service. You can also partner with an influencer to create content for your own website or a third party site, depending on your marketing goals. Use influencer marketing campaigns to create content for your startup.

Influencer marketing campaigns are an effective way to transform your startup. Utilize automated tools to search for an influencer who matches your brand identity. Influencer partnership will help you build and maintain your social media following. These marketing campaigns use link building to drive traffic to your website. Influencers interact with their followers to connect them to your product or service. They create content specifically for your target demographic to help you achieve your marketing goals. Using these tactics, influencer marketing campaigns are able to successfully transform your startup.

Development Insights Martech SaaS SEO

Key Software in the Telehealth Industry

Miley Dowling on March 19, 2020

Any client-based industry must adapt to the changing times to better serve those in need. That often means embracing new technology, which medical providers have continued to do over the past decade. Paper charts and binders used to litter desks and offices, but now everyone can upload paperwork and client information onto their computer.

It’s made people wonder how else technology can make doctors more accessible to patients. Those who can’t leave their home or only need to ask a few questions have found the answer in new telehealth software. Depending on which programs are available at local clinics, patients can use their computers and tablets to reach the medical help they need.

Key software in the telehealth industry makes life easier for medical professionals and patients. Read on to learn about some of the most widely used software programs and discover what they offer.

1. Simple Practice Video Chat

The best programs present solutions for more than one type of medical provider. Doctors, therapists, nutritionists and more handle client paperwork and information every day, which takes up time that could serve more patients.

Simple software can solve this problem and give providers more time with the people who need them. SimplePractice is an example of this kind of program. It’s an easy solution for health and wellness experts who need to reach patients and streamline paperwork.

After a free trial, users pay a small monthly fee to access SimplePractice benefits. The program allows medical providers to schedule appointments, message clients and chat via video calls with patients who need to speak with them quickly or talk for an extended session.

2. MediPortal Records Software

MediPortal aims to serve corporate medical communities and clinics. The software makes paperwork faster to reduce administration work and put more focus on patients. Along with video calls and appointment scheduling, the program assists with medical records to ensure effortless record-keeping.

3. TheraNest Encrypted Tools

Counseling centers, faith-based groups and solo practitioners can use TheraNest to upload all client notes and forms to an encrypted program. It only takes a few moments to save years of paperwork and learn how to conduct billing through the software. TheraNest is a HIPAA-compliant solution.

4. ZyDoc Medical Transcription

Another critical aspect of telemedicine is getting professionals to understand the essential specialties like internal medicine, radiology and pediatrics. Software programs must consider the high physician demand in these fields, which is why ZyDoc has a unique focus on medical transcription. It cuts out the extra hours of documentation and paperwork by offering HIPAA-compliant transcription services to any medical professionals looking for automatic EHR insertion.

5. Secure Spruce Telehealth Communication

Seamless communication builds a clinic’s reputation with clients and makes life easier for medical experts. Spruce is an all-in-one platform health care workers use to access calls, texts and voicemails during and after clinic hours. Additionally, the program has a chat feature for patients to reach doctors from home and e-billing options.

Look Into New Options

There are always new telehealth features in development that offer something different. Look into every option to explore the key software programs in the telehealth industry and get the most out of modern technology.

Development Insights Martech

Best B2B Marketing Tools for 2020

Miley Dowling on March 19, 2020

According to a joint report by Act-On and Econsultancy, 98% of B2B marketers agree that marketing automation tools are a necessary prerequisite for business success.

Anyone with a background in B2B can see why this is the case. B2B marketers have to perform a whole range of demanding tasks on a regular basis. From executing deliverables, meeting deadlines, developing strategies, and measuring results, they have their work cut out for them.

Fortunately, these tasks become much more manageable with the help of B2B marketing tools. Not only that, but B2B marketing tools also enable you to implement more effective marketing strategies, and they can help you optimize the performance of existing ones as well.

To learn more about B2B marketing and the tools that make it happen, check out our carefully curated list in the remainder of this post.

1. SEO Tools

These tools enable B2B marketers to generate organic reach through search engines such as Google.

Source: unsplash.com

Moz Link Explorer

Moz Link Explorer is a tool for evaluating link profiles and discovering new backlink opportunities. It enables B2B marketers to research a site’s backlink profile and explore competitive backlink data.

Link Explorer gives you access to a link index that rivals that of Ahrefs and Majestic. This also ensures that the domain authority figures you get are extremely precise. The index is updated on a regular basis as well.

Link Explorer has a clean user interface, making it a good choice for beginners in B2B SEO. You can try out Link Explorer for free for 30 days, or you can get it as a part of the Moz Pro tool-set starting at $99 per month.

SEMrush

SEMrush is a collection of tools for competitive online SEO analysis. It comes with features for evaluating keyword performance, domain vs. domain comparisons, backlink auditing, and more.

SEMrush enables you to see find related keywords to the one you specify, and get an estimate about its search volume, historical trends, and a difficulty score. You can also find out the keywords a website ranks for, as well as the ads it’s displaying.

SEMrush provides all of its features from a unified user dashboard, make it easy to run SEO campaigns and track progress. It comes with a free trial, and the Pro subscription costs $99 per month.

2. Social Media Tools

These tools enable B2B marketers to manage social media profiles and organize social media marketing campaigns.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management solution. In addition to post scheduling and publishing, it also enables you to gauge your social media content is performing. Sprout Social also allows you to track brand mentions so you can participate in conversations involving your brand on social media.

Sprout Social’s content scheduling and optimization features will enable you to boost engagement while saving time. The tracking feature allows you to track social media campaigns, referral traffic, and conversions in real time.

Sprout Social has an effective user interface, and if you ever run into issues you can contact customer support at any time via email, live chat, or phone. Sprout Social has a free trial, and the basic subscription costs $99 per month.

Source: unsplash.com

Buffer

Buffer is a social media tool for automating social media posting. B2B marketers use it to post content on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

Buffer’s drag and drop calendar makes it easy to schedule all your social media posts with a few clicks. It also lets you see how your posts are doing at a glance, and it can create reports based on the data.

Buffer offers a free analytics tool as part of the platform, but it only offers basic features. Buffer comes with several subscription tiers, and the basic one starts at just $15 per month.

3. Customer Service AI Tools

These tools enable B2B marketers to equip a website with smart, real-time customer service.

Imperson

Imperson is an intelligent AI chatbot platform for enterprise-grade chatbots. Chatbots built using Imperson support text, video, audio, and VR.

Imperson’s conversation navigator feature utilizes relationship memory, user intent analysis, and deep dialogue context to create convincing conversation algorithms. Imperson supports websites, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Kik, and many other platforms out of the box.

Once you sign up for Imperson, a bot implementor will guide you through the process of setting up chatbot from start to finish. To get a price quotation, you need to reach out to the company directly.

Source: unsplash.com

Botsify

Botsify is another platform for making intelligent chatbots. B2B companies use it to create chatbots for channels such as Facebook Messenger or Slack.

Botsify offers an easy to use, drag-and-drop bot creation interface, and it utilizes machine learning to create smart chatbots for a variety of purposes. Bots created using Botsify can also collect information via built-in forms.

Botsify can be further expanded with plugins for integration with RSS feeds, Google Search, and more. The basic self-service plan costs $50 per month, and you can get full support starting at $300 per month.

4. CRM Tools

These tools enable B2B marketers to accomplish a variety of marketing tasks such as lead segmentation, marketing automation, and project management.

Really Simple Systems CRM

Really Simple Systems CRM is a complete marketing solution aimed at small B2B companies. It comes with features for managing sales, marketing, and customer service.

Really Simple Systems CRM helps you keep track of leads, set up task automation, and acquire relevant customer data. You can use it to build marketing campaigns from scratch using a convenient drag-and-drop interface.

Really Simple Systems offer 24/7 customer support, and the software suit is fully compliant with the GDPR. There is a free trial available, and the starter pack subscription costs only €12 per month.

Source: https://www.discovercrm.com

5. Market Intelligence Tools

These tools enable B2B marketers to gather and organize marketing data from a variety of sources.

HotJar

HotJar is an intelligence tool for analyzing website visitor behavior. It enables you to optimize your website conversion rate with actionable insights.

HotJar uses features such as heatmaps to show you where visitors spend most of their time on your website. It also allows you to view recordings of on-site behavior, giving you a glimpse into the way visitors experience and use your website. HotJar can also be used to inform your decisions in terms of website design and aesthetics.

HotJar offers a version with limited features completely free of charge, and the basic business version costs $89 per month for sites with up to 20000 page views per day.

Source: https://www.clearboxseo.com

Clearbit

Clearbit is a top lead enrichment tool for B2B marketers. It allows you to turn anonymous website data into customer profiles.

Clearbit is an indispensable tool for traffic-heavy B2B websites. It works by scraping the web for information such as employee size, segment, industry, location, social media handles, and more.

Clearbit has a simple layout and integrates seamlessly into the rest of your marketing tech stack. The price is based on your CRM database size, monthly web traffic, and monthly contact creation.

6. Content Marketing Tools

These tools enable B2B marketers to create and publish content with high conversion potential.

BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is a web-based content planning and discovery tool. It enables B2B marketers to analyze top performing content around a particular topic.

BuzzSumo web scours the web for the latest online content, most-shared articles, and content creators based on keywords you specify. This enables you to find trending content ideas to use as inspiration or to keep an eye on your competitors. You can sort the content you discover according to date, which makes it easy to find evergreen content topics.

BuzzSumo offers a free 7-day trial, and the basic subscription costs $99.

Source: buzzsumo.com

Feedly

Feedly is a news aggregator that helps you stay on top of trending conversations online. Feedly utilizes RSS feeds to gather content from a variety of sources online.

Feedly enables B2B marketers to keep track of multiple social media accounts, blogs and news sources from a convenient user interface. This enables them to keep in touch with industry trends and develop their content strategy.

Feedly is built with integration in mind, WordPress and Google Docs included. You can start using Feedly for free by creating an account, and there are different pricing plans to unlock advanced features.

Wrapping Up

This concludes our list of top B2B marketing tools on the market. Add them to your tech stack today, and take your business to the next level in 2020.