Daily Cup of Tech

Skills of a Digital Marketing Consultant

Miley on July 20, 2019

Featured image credits by Diggity Marketing

Digital advertising is also called Internet marketing. It can be explained as when the technologies are involved in the business to deliver promotional advertisements to the consumers. It includes promotional advertisements, messages delivery, social media websites, search engines, and online advertising, etc. Are looking for a source to improve your skills in digital advertising?

Networks for online advertising

In the new era, luckily we have various preeminent platforms such as Google, Instagram, and Facebook to enhance online marketing. It helps your business to reach your customers through advertisements and promotions. Though these networks give a wide range of advertisers and offers, digital advertising is one’s own cup of tea. It depends on the interest and potentials to do something outstanding.

The growth rate of digital advertisements

Digital marketing plays a strategic trick to improve business. You can reach millions of people with a laptop and an Internet connection. It helps in spreading your message or product in a matter of hours. 63% of business marketers believe that generating traffic for their promotions and ads is the biggest challenge. Connecting with the right people also matters in advertising. Here is a quick glance at the growth rate of digital marketing:

Email marketing: increases the growth rate by 158% with the help of button clicks.
Social media: helps in doubling the budget over the past few decades
Content marketing: Content marketing strategy increases the growth rate by 50%
SEO Optimization: creates traffic through organic search and increases marketing by 33%
Events: 67% of business runs on event marketing and it is considered to be the most effective strategy

Digital marketing skills

In today’s world, it is highly difficult for you to choose and opt for the right channel with the right plan. To work with a startup or with established firm digital marketing skills are essential. Though it is tough to master all the skills in digital marketing, you can choose the sub-skills and improve in those areas. Here are some tips to learn more about how to improve your digital advertising strategies.

1. SEO – Search Engine Optimization specialist

In the rapidly shifting world, SEO optimization kicks the user experience across the websites. It also helps in driving more traffic to the business via online platforms. SEO helps in adding keywords to the sites with the consideration of border scopes. If you want to enhance your skills in SEO initially you should try to sort and keep track of the important metrics of the selected websites. You should check out these SEO Services.

2. PPC marketing specialist

As the name says “Pay-per-click” is a blog post which operates on three different strategies. If you have to become a PPC marketer then you should have a strong grasp in mathematics and analytics. As it involves huge investments it is said to be highly risky.

Initially, get the money which follows the thumb rule as spend, learn and refine.
Empower yourself with the gathered data and start the marketing
Customer acquisition and keeping yourself upgraded to compete in the market.

3. Become a social media expert

In the current marketing world, social media is growing faster. Almost one-third of the population uses social media platform for various purposes. As there are multiple options like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google, Yahoo, YouTube and so on, the opportunities for marketing is wider. It also includes,

User engagement
Copywriting
Analytics
Visual marketing
Color psychology
Paid marketing

So, if you become a social media expert then you can master the study of marketing.

4. Email marketing

If you have a large number of contacts in your email, then you can master the skill of email marketing. Most business people prefer responsive design for their products along with emails from their campaigns. Writing emails that deliver value, respecting privacy, making unsubscribing easier, creating filters will help in marketing rather than spending hours searching for clients’ every day.

5. Mobile marketing

Writing complicated thoughts, intelligently via an SMS with a responsive design is a way to conquer mobile marketing. The art of mobile marketing overlooks desktop marketing. It also adds real value to the company and also it is less complicated than SEO.

6. Digital marketing analytics

Tracking and analyzing the data is highly important for any marketing strategies. It helps to acquire knowledge about the overall skills of digital advertising. Analyzing different marketing strategies like,

Preparing a report of the intelligence
Product design
Pricing strategy
Pre-post campaign strategies
Marketing ROI

Apart from the above-mentioned skills, there are few more like UX Designing, Desktop marketing, etc.

Final words

The cool fact about digital marketing is that even if you master any one of the above-mentioned skills, you can achieve success in a fast lane. It serves various purposes either for your own business or if you are an entrepreneur for different clients.

Development Insights Martech Products SaaS

Benefits of Developing Mobile Application for Business

Miley on July 19, 2019

Did you know mobile apps are predicted to generate 189 billion USD in revenue by 2020, and right now, the Apple App Store has more than 2 million apps ready to download while Google Play Store has almost 3 million apps? Tools, communication, social media, entertainment, shopping, and health are some of the most popular uses of the mobile application. Individual developers may make some of these apps. Others might be small businesses. Whoever it is, it is evident that certain benefits of mobile apps can’t be denied.

So, here are seven benefits of mobile apps for small business

– Promote Communication

The objective of developing a mobile app is to make mobility more dynamic and communication more efficient. Apps are a useful tool for communication between management, employees, and stakeholders. Additionally, mobile apps are also a robust way to create awareness about company activities, promotional offers, and product launches. Whether it is geo-targeting or direct communication, an app can work miracles.

People also use apps to search the web when they are moving. Besides hunting, apps also enable users to get in touch with the company’s management. It is reasonable to post notifications based on the demographics and proximity of users through mobile apps. Therefore, apps, in a way, help your business meet your customer’s demands and enhance marketing strategies.

– Grow Customer Loyalty

It is a difficult job to create and manage your business’s reputation online. Here, mobile apps become an online agent. They build an uninterrupted and seamless link between a company and its customers. You can add many features that would let users finish tasks, starting from reminders to offering better customer services. Apps help to spread awareness swiftly about your products, which helps in growing brand recognition.

Additional Helpful Resources:

10 Ways Your Business Can Grow with a Mobile App

Stand Out Of The Crowd With The Best Of Mobile App Development

Top 10 Mobile App Development Trends to Watch Out in 2019

– Boost Company Sales

As already mentioned, mobile business apps that are rich in features can increase recognition of your physical or digital products. You can take advantage of the paradigm shift now happening where people are moving more to smartphones from desktops or laptops when they search online for products. People today do a lot of product browsing when they are either waiting or traveling. Your app allows you to approach a broader audience that contains such people.

Apps also offer easy, interactive, and quick navigation. It makes them more suitable for browsing and shopping when contrasted to websites. Thus, customers prefer mobile apps more to buy products. Sites can facilitate awareness, but mobile apps are more suitable to elevate brands and produce sales. These are some advantages of mobile apps over websites.

– Improve Customer Engagement

Mobile apps are more interactive and engaging than enterprise websites. It bolsters business-to-customer communication by expediting customers to get in touch with the management regularly. Be it reviews, feedback, suggestions, or complaints, users can quickly provide their views and also use your social media accounts for the same. Since you can be in direct contact with customers, an app helps a lot in improving customer engagement.

– Offer Competitive Advantage

When your app performs seamlessly and is visually appealing, you are already way ahead of the crowd. With regular updates that meet the demands of users and address the evolving needs of a business, you manage to retain customers, and this gives you an advantage over your competitors who may not have invested in an app yet.

– Develop Brand Recognition

Customer support, reviews, loyalty program, and integration with social media are among the most appealing and essential features to a user. These features help the brand grow and add to your online marketing efforts. Business mobile apps provide a cost-effective method of promotion. Hoarding, newspaper ads, or paid ads on social media can consume a considerable part of your advertising funds when you want to develop brand recognition. However, with an app, you don’t need to spend a lot on developing brand recognition.

– Increase Visibility

Google has created its mobile-first approach, which it is now more comfortable for you to get noticed and improve visibility with your mobile app business. With a tailored app, you can get word-of-mouth suggestions with sharing on social media. You can reach a larger audience through this, and your online visibility is also enhanced.

There are also other ways to create buzz to enhance visibility. With advancements in technology, IoT, AR, and VR becoming mainstream, many app development enterprises are ready to integrate these technologies into their apps, which offers users an engaging, interactive, and immersive experience.

Conclusion

By extending all these advantages, a mobile app rich in features can take the business to the ensuing level of success irrespective of its scale and size.

Author Bio

Maria Brown is Chief Content Editor, Blogger and maintaining Social Media Optimization for 21Twelve Interactive which is one the top iPhone App development company in India and USA. She believes in sharing her strong knowledge base with a leaned concentration on entrepreneurship and business. She also writes for Top Mobile App Development Companies. Follow her on @Twitter.

Development Insights Martech

Tips for Building a More Engaging Newsletter

Miley on July 19, 2019

An email newsletter isn’t your typical promotional email. It contains a lot of information that isn’t necessarily geared towards directing readers to a call-to-action. To make it interesting and fun for readers to read through, it’s important that the in-email content be engaging.

Newsletters are effective only if they are well executed and perfectly designed. However, marketers are advised not to try and put too much into a newsletter. Often, we get to see examples where product updates are blended into promotional offers and blog posts. This causes the newsletter to lose focus.

According to Hubspot, an email newsletter needs solid ground to hold it together. Your audience needs to know what it is they are reading about as soon as they see the subject line. They also need to quickly identify the focus of the email and understand it quickly. This increases your email’s engagement rates.

If your email newsletter isn’t performing as well as it should, it’s time to take a back seat and revamp your strategy. Your newsletter might even be something you wouldn’t want to read yourself. A good newsletter should be three things: relevant, interesting, and valuable. Try an email builder to be sure you will have a good email template.

First, it should relate to the reader’s interests and the things that they care about. Second, it should delight, educated, and entertain them. Third, it should teach them and give something that they would find useful. Without these basics, your newsletter will struggle to draw an engaged and consistent readership.

Experts recommend coming up with a newsletter strategy at the very beginning. This should include the objectives of the newsletter, a way of identifying target readers, and choosing the newsletter’s visual style. These will provide the right foundation for making it more engaging.

We will share 5 tips below for building a more engaging newsletter:

An Interactive Table of Contents for Better Navigation

If your newsletter contains a lot of content, you can make it more navigable by including a table of contents. This shows your audience what to expect as they start to read your email. A static table of contents works well. However, an interactive one makes things way better. The latter allows readers to skip to a section once they click on a particular topic within the table. This can be done using anchor links.

The table of contents is clickable and when tapped, the page jumps to the exact module. This is one of the best techniques where the business wishes to include tons of in-email content. What’s even better is that most interactive tables of contents are supported across a wide array of email clients. They are easy to implement and do not require any coding.

Grab Attention Using Hero Module

Make your readers feel cheerier and brighter from the very beginning. The perfect way to do this is to build a full-width effect in the hero module using an HTML background color. Sending an email filled with images could increase your chances of landing in the spam folder. This is, especially for readers that have their image-viewing capability turned off. This would mean that your email isn’t read.

The best solution is to cut images with HTML design and plain text. The technique also works if you want to incorporate a certain color into the background of a plain text. This color could be obtained from a product image. Color-blocking concentrates the focus on a single idea and unifies the newsletter’s composition.

Keep Things Interesting by Varying Content Width

Maintaining consistency in each module in your newsletter achieves a certain level of design efficiency. However, you can create more interest, fun, and delight by using varying content modules and asymmetrical designs. For example, you could use bold HTML color to increase the width in your opening module. Changing the width as you scroll down through the content gives the newsletter a playful and dynamic appeal. HTML background colors and large font sizes add an element of visual interest as well.

More and more brands are experimenting with colors, type, layering images, and module designs to take things a notch higher. This results in collaged emails that look like they were handmade. Fortunately, the techniques can be incorporated easily without fuss.

Use GIFs to Animate your Offering

A little animation goes a long way in conveying an offering or product. A static screenshot isn’t likely to achieve as much as what a helpful strategy would using the right web tools and apps. GIFs bring a sense of motion and aliveness to a business’ storytelling techniques.

Before including them in an email, think about the story you are about to tell. Your GIFs should have a purpose. One which is well thought out could blend well with your email to give your audience a good reason why they should act. Remember to keep the file size small so that it does not take too much time to animate. You can do this by removing frames, animating the part that has the picture only, reducing colors, and cropping out what’s not needed.

Make it Personal

The best way to stand out from every other email in your audience’s inboxes is to make a personal connection. While at it, keep it simple. Make quick responses where necessary. According to a study carried out by the Harvard Business Review, waiting longer than 5 minutes to get back to your customer’s decreases your chances of landing a new lead by up to 400%. Go the extra mile while chatting with them. They will always remember how you made them feel. This makes it extremely essential that you provide the best customer service.

Use these tips to increase engagement in your email newsletters. If you have trouble knowing what to say to your audience, make use of an email builder which helps you create and edit email templates. Your audience will soon start to feel as if they are a part of your business. They will contribute more, share their concerns, and make it easier for you to find out what they want. Also, they are likely to refer others to your business, hence, increasing your audience.

Insights Martech Products

Why Is AR A Real Estate Agent’s Best Friend?

Miley on July 17, 2019

Augmented Reality (AR) has been around for ages. It is a technology that allows our physical world to extend by adding layers of digital information to it. Thanks to its immersive capabilities, AR has become one of the best possible partners for a real estate agent. Even though the real estate market was not as quick to adopt AR in real estate as other industries, considering its endless possibilities, millions have been invested by firms to provide simple AR solutions to real estate.

From communicating property features to potential buyers in a more effective way to competing with peers in the market, real estate agents should embrace AR-enabled tools to provide more value to clients and get a good return on sales. Similarly, AR can help potential tenants decide whether they should go for Dubai Marina Apartments for rent or Business Bay apartments, or they should stick to Studio or a single-bedroom apartment. Here’s how AR can be used to facilitate real estate agents:

No More Static Brochures

When a potential buyer looks for a property for sale, it is quite possible that they get engaged with more than one real estate agent. There’s also a possibility that they are going through several property brochures to compare and analyze parameters. This implies fierce competition among agents. The main challenge in this scenario is to provide useful information to a potential buyer in the form of easily digestible chunks and that’s where AR comes to the rescue! AR-enabled interactive brochures can help a real estate agent stand out from the crowd. The brochures can have triggered at various points of the property which buyers can tap and see a 3D model of that section of the property, hence improving the way a buyer interacts and visualizes a property. Furthermore, it can also provide a refreshing and innovative new experience to house hunting. It can also improve the operational efficiency of real estate agents, by reducing the amount of time they spend away from their desks and allowing them time to focus on more important sales work to be done.

No More Single Dimensional Floorplans

For a typical house hunt process, floor plans play an active role in letting the buyer decide whether the property is worth investing in or not. Floorplans, as we know them, are usually single-dimensional, on-page diagrams or structures meant for the buyer to visualize the property. However, with the help of AR tools, real estate agents can show buyers a 3D floorplan and buyers can literally visualize themselves in it. It can help them analyze what they should do in all that space and help them perceive the property better. So, AR has taken this single-dimensional experience to a whole new level.

Stand Out With Window Displays

The power of AR in real estate can be used to improve the way buyers get information about all available properties for rent or sale. Using interactive window displays or overlaying technology on traditional pictorial displays, buyers can now get information on property for rent or sale even when the office is closed, hence redefining ways of engagement with buyers and securing more deals.

These uses of AR can go a great deal in helping real estate agents to gain a competitive edge among their peers. The interactivity and benefits AR brings with itself add great value to buyers and sellers and improve the overall customer experience. As a result, your corporate and brand reputation in the industry gets improved, and you are led towards new business and a higher return on sales.

Martech SEO

4 Exciting Technologies Evolving with AI

Miley on July 17, 2019

Companies in dozens of industries are investing heavily in artificial intelligence to develop more streamlined and cost-effective ways of serving their customers and powering their operations.

What does the future have in store as far as these technologies are concerned? Nobody can say for sure, but we know robots will be a big part of it.

As far as the present-day goes, let’s examine four exciting technologies evolving with AI before our eyes.

Medical Diagnoses

We tend to view doctors as flawless if we’ve received proper medical care. But they’re humans like the rest of us, which means they’re prone to mistakes. According to studies, medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the U.S. What’s more, around 10 percent of those deaths are attributed to faulty diagnostics like missed and misdiagnoses. This is why breakthroughs in AI-assisted medical diagnosis technology carry the most excitement in an AI healthcare market that’s projected to reach $150 billion by 2026.

With AI able to quickly learn a patient’s entire medical history and run several algorithms on the patient’s current symptoms, it can diagnose conditions faster and more accurately. Doctor’s will never be removed from the loop, of course, but AI allows for greater patient-to-patient visibility.

5G Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is an extension of our physical world with layers of digital information laid on top. Data like animations, videos, images, and 3D models are presented to users via devices like projection glasses, head-mounted displays or mobile devices while technology like depth-tracking and location mapping provide a realistic user experience.

Retailers ranging from Sephora and Nike to Ikea and Lacoste have introduced augmented reality apps in the last few years to great success.

According to Business Wire, the augmented reality market is expected to hit $60 billion by 2023, meaning more unique shopping experiences are on the way for consumers. The arrival of 5G technology makes this especially true. Experts say that 5G technology is not only pivotal to augmented technology. It will change the way we live.

Self-Serve Advanced Analytics

It’s no secret the world is creating an enormous amount of data. We only need to look to at our mobile devices, the number of apps we have, and our daily behavior to imagine the global impact on data generation. Analytics isn’t just a way for companies to make more money and offer their customers better experiences, but to also uncover insights related to any initiative.

The power of insights used to be locked away within the data team and required a lot of time to yield insights. But with the advent of search analytics, even non-technical end users can dig into data to inform their workflows. Some advanced analytics platforms, such as ThoughtSpot, are using AI to find deeper insights that even trained professional miss, displaying them to end-users through detailed visualizations.

Robo-Advising

The financial system has been tilted toward the elite for centuries. From savings strategies to budgeting tips, we don’t all start our adult lives with the same advice. The disparity in education is particularly apparent with investing. Investing is the only way to grow money substantially (but passively) over time. Yet, because of the aforementioned equality gaps, many people living paycheck to paycheck don’t know how to start investing, let alone be able to afford a few shares of a tech stock.

Robo-advising makes investing straightforward for everyone. These platforms bypass a financial advisor, a significant expense over time, and instead offer investment advice and strategy via online resources. Some platforms even allow investors to buy fractional shares of stocks and funds, allowing them to continually invest in the market versus having to save up to buy full shares.

There’s no shortage of rousing technologies evolving with the graces of artificial intelligence. However, some developments are more of a reality than others. The best part of these four technologies is that they’re affecting and improving our everyday lives. Isn’t that what technology is all about?

Development Insights Products

What Is Power Dialer Software and How Benefited For Business?

Miley on July 17, 2019

“A Power Dialer is an automated dialing system connecting agents to prospects more efficient with allowing agents to focus on live connections. The system automatically dials the next contact, when an agent is available, based on your desired calls-to-agent ratio.”

So the power dialer increases the amount of time agent spend to real prospector and customer. Power dialer is specially benefited. When a call center which has a small number of sales executive and quantity of prospects.

Power dialer is different from other dialers. The agent is already active on the phone when the dialer being going through the contact numbers. Power dialer only dials the next number when initiated with the agent.

A Superior Option for B2B (Business To Business)

Dialers are usually limited to being a piece of hardware. It makes routine calls. There are different types of dialer, but the most superior option is B2B calling, that is power dialer.

This dialer only calls one number at one time; yet heightens productivity and lower cost of saving leads. This is from the waste that occurs with other types of dialers. Predictive dialer supposed to dial several numbers at once.

With hope, there will enough reps that are available to take the calls on time. And they answered. It leaves the phones agents rushed and less well-prepared. With also allowing many leads lost to over-dialing

How Do Power Dialers Work?

This is contact center type of dialer where the agents are already active on the liner at the time of the call. Usually, the agent stimulates the calling session and when a live answer is detected. He/she answered the call. And the agent is already live here, so there is no call transferring required.

This is ideal for single-person scenarios or in remote agent environment. So, it doesn’t require multiple agents to transfer calls to. The possibility of abandonment cost rules out here. The dialer dials one line at the same time. An individual – line power dialer make around 75-80 calls per hour.

For this power dialer, the agent is always there to take the phone call. If a person picks up. They also get to catch whatever the live person that will say and they pick up. Unlike the other dialer where the agent might not find the hello causing a delay in response.

Benefits of Power Dialer

With the benefit of the power dialer that eliminates the abandonment rate. This is already a live person on the phone ready to receive a call.
Use of power dialer also goes with some many more quickly than manual dialing.
This is possible for the agent to call over seventy leads in just an hour.
Power dialer like Dialer360 is useful for individual agent businesses. Approximately the technology available today support both predictive and power dialing.
Power dial would be attractive because it gives you a choice depending on your needs for the day.
This is easy to use and very active. Since the assistance available before the call gets connected. Power dialer is a complete clear winner.
With power dialing, the number of calls depends on receiving capability of teams.
So power dialing call center gets quick response and information. Power dialer notches higher in term of customer satisfaction.
This also helps out there to increase your businesses and sales with some methods.
You can save the time if you can make seventy calls in an hour, plow with a significant number of prospects at the day. Some of those leads which are bound to run into decreases dramatically.
Help to skip over number where there is no answer or leaving an auto-message. It happens when voicemail picks up.
An agent can focus exclusively on communication with real people. Rather than on leaving the same voice message over and over until he/she finally reach a live person.

Features of Power Dialer

Must-have features of the best power dialers

Let’s have a look at the characteristics of a power dialer. Here are four indispensable elements.

Customized caller ID

With a fantastic challenge faced by the telemarketer is caller ID. This is to notify or at least make the people suspicious as they are about to receive a sales call. Customizing the caller ID that allowing associating your request with another legitimate number. With using your mobile number instead of your name. The difference between talking to someone and moving on the next call.

One-click voicemails

Some other standard features with the best power dialer are one-click function. Instead of leaving the same message over, wasting time you have prerecorded messages to leave automatic. With the click one single button on the power dialer platform. It also saves you more time than the auto-dialing features all power dialer that has.

Contact info preview

The best power dialer is complete without the contact info preview function. So the power dialer moves on the next call. The information about the impending contact appears on the screen. Give agent opportunity to the personalized invitation best understanding of his/her audience.

Compliance

Some of the other features that integrate with Customer Relationship Management (CRM). As such call campaign, customized email, whisper coaching, and reporting among other things. Suppose the device is missing four essentials and don’t have a couple of other features that consider shopping around.

Final Thoughts

Usually, your company purchases a particular service. They try to figure out if your call has gone through. When you have reached a human being can cost critical time you could be used to make a sale. The power dialer cuts that time sucks out. Moreover, the software allows identifying callers to maximize efficiency and mask. You’re out calling number to discourage potential customers. Those who typically avoid telemarketers, from dodging your call.

This can mean less frustration and more effective calling for your agents. Fundamental, business requires making daily phone contact with a variety of people successful. Its time and level of efficiency can expect to see very positive results from using the power dialer.

Author Bio

Abdul has spent his career developing high-performance organizations. He is working as a chief marketing officer for a leading call center software company Dialer360. As both a marketing executive, Abdul has created and executed numerous programs that build market awareness, drive lead generation and increase revenue.

Development Insights Martech SEO

Get the Best SEO Services in Singapore by Engaging True SEO Expert Can help to Improve Website Speed

Miley on July 16, 2019

SEO has always been very dynamic, and the rapid spread of mobile devices, especially smartphones, has pushed the dynamism to new levels. To engage in any marketing activity is now just enough to whip out the smartphone from your pocket and ahoy, SEO is at your fingertips. Online marketing had become so much mobile that people tend to forget the times when desktop computers were the only means of accessing SEO. Indeed, mobile SEO is the most significant development that catches the eye, but along with it, there has been some other change, which is equally important. To meet the expectations of mobile device users, websites have become speedier than before, thanks to the widespread use of responsive web design.

The progressive speed enhancement of websites has happened in two phases – firstly, WordPress changed the SEO game by creating sites that open faster and secondly, responsive web design took it a step ahead and created even faster websites. To survive the intense competition in gaining high visibility, it has become necessary to ensure that websites are speedy and mobile-friendly. Since all WordPress themes are not the same, you must carefully choose a suitable theme that does not have heavy design elements and provides support in creating websites that open pages very fast besides having the best functionalities and features. Unless websites are speedy no matter how well it functions, it will never make users happy. Remember that the ideal page opening time is just 2 seconds, and the farther your website is from it, lower are the chances of doing well in SEO.

Patience is diminishing

The primary requirement for good SEO services Singapore is that you must keep users always happy and should be aware of what to do to keep them happy. Users call the shots both for search engines and marketers who must find ways of pleasing them by meeting their expectations. Technological advancement is not only raising the bar for SEO but also fueling higher expectations among users. They expect too much too soon, no matter how far-fetched it might seem. That is evident in their love for fast opening websites as users expect websites to open instantly upon clicking the link. The longer time it takes for websites to open, it challenges the patience of users who would not wait but explore some other website. And they would never come back again.

Google goes the user’s way

Meeting user expectation is the top agenda for Google and other search engines because their existence hinges around it. Google is hell-bent to ensure that users get the best experience and continuously work towards it. Following in the footsteps of users who prefer speedy websites, Google has declared that page speed is now a ranking factor. Naturally, it leaves no room for any choice but ensures that websites are speedy or else you are on the wrong side of the law.

Here are some things to do to make your website faster.

Know where you stand

It is common sense that to improve page speed, you must first know its current speed and identify the causes for it. It should help to set some realistic goal and develop strategies for improving speed. Only when you know what hinders speed that you can address the issue and work for improvement. Google’s Page Insight Tool should help to know where you stand and even point out the areas of improvement. The first lesson is that fewer web pages accelerate page opening time, and there are some other things to do for improving it further. Using optimized images improve page speed as also using fewer ads, compressing codes, and fewer external scripts, all of which add more speed to websites. Besides, improving server response time impacts website speed and opens pages faster.

Image compression

Too many images slow down websites, and you must use images optimally, and only compressed images should find a place on websites. Many WordPress plugins help in compressing images up to 70%, which is significant because images constitute 56% of the page weight. When you compress images by using WordPress plugins, the resolution and appeal of images remain unaffected. Removing unused colors from images and stripping Metadata from it helps in compression.

Server optimization

The server response time affects website speed and slows it down. Check if the server response time supports the website speed or even improves it and if not, then you must think about optimizing the server to reduce the response time and make it faster. The software used in servers is also a factor that affects website speed.

Dedicated hosting service reduces the possibilities of slowing down websites, and it is advisable to avoid shared hosting service. Only if you can ensure that you have resources dedicated exclusively for you in shared hosting that it might work to some extent.

Development Insights Martech SaaS

Best Platforms for Building and/or Creating Mobile Apps

Miley on July 16, 2019

In the recent past, the market for mobile app development has begun to take off. Both medium and large-sized companies are increasingly familiarizing themselves with the mobile world. Now more than ever, there is dire need to rapidly develop and deploy applications on a large scale basis. According to IDC forecasts, the market for mobile development platforms will witness a compound yearly growth rate of more than 38% in the next two years to reach $4.8 billion. Gartner expects over 20 million enterprise applications to be developed in the coming three years. The value is evident in the rising number of acquisitions and investments in the mobile app development space.

Are you an individual or business owner who wants to build a spectacular mobile app? Today, building a mobile app is manageable – more than possible actually! You no longer need any coding knowledge or even thousands of dollars to spend. Numerous platforms are available that make your work a walk in the park. All you need is the right information so that you land the best platform.

Do you want to save energy, time, and money while coming up with your mobile app? Well, you need to use the best mobile application building platform. So who are the key players in the mobile app development field? Which is the best tool to use? The following is a comprehensive list of the best platforms for building mobile applications:

Mobile Roadie

Mobile Roadie allows you to instantly update the contents of your application. It supports all media types. The best attribute about this platform is that users can effortlessly preview their applications while the platform verifies the suitability and quality of the app. Mobile Roadie’s language allows you to pull your data in an array of formats such as CSV, HTML, etc. This platform enables you to enjoy utmost customization ensuring your app has a personalized touch – something that is extremely important online.

The AppBuilder

This platform gives you two options. With the first one, you can use the online toolkit to create your application as you get some side training. With the other option, you can work with the platform to build your app together. The AppBuilder enables you to save time creating an application for all platforms. With this platform, you also enjoy protection through a user name and passwords. Lastly, you can always update your app even after going live.

Appery io

Appery io refers to a cloud-based mobile application builder that is used to create applications for iOS, Android, and Windows phones. It is extremely easy to get started with this platform because you do not have to download anything from the cloud. The platform also gives you a drag and drop option to come up with your user interface. In addition to all these, using Appery plugins can easily enhance functionality. During and after your app development, sharing is very easy using this application.

Good Barber

With Good Barber, you get to enjoy nine customizable and amazing design templates, 500 Google fonts, and 350 icons. What is more, is that Good Barber cuts and styles your application into fine detail without the need for any coding. This platform is perfect for Android and iOS phones. If you have been looking for a platform that accords you immediate feedback with almost all app alterations, then Good Barber is your best bet. Lastly, you can contribute videos, photos, and articles.

AppMachine

Are you a business with the desire to build applications for free and only pay when you want to publish? Well, if this is you, then AppMachine is your ideal platform. Building blocks enable you to link to Twitter, Facebook, and online stores. All through, you enjoy the freedom of colors, styling and so much more. AppMachine ensures you always have access to the Apple and Google Play app store. The app is available at discounted prices.

BiznessApps

This platform is optimized for all types of businesses. It brings with it an array of features such as push notifications, shopping carts, and loyalty programs among many others. BiznessApps has a convenient in-app integration, numerous templates, instant updating, and user-friendly CMS.

GameSalad

GameSalad is primed for gaming on an array of platforms such as OS X, HTML 5, and IOS. Since it is a drag and drop platform, you do not need any coding. GameSalad boasts of a scene and actor editor. With this platform, you also enjoy an active community forum where you can get valuable input from other designers. Moreover, the platform also blesses you with a library of game elements and behaviors for use. For a wider reach, the platform allows you to publish your app online.

Appy Pie

This is another incredible cloud-based application for Android, IOS, and Windows. Appy Pie allows you to instantly publish your app on app stores. You also enjoy enhanced customer interactions, app monetization, real-time updates, and revisions as well as push notifications.

ShoutEm

ShoutEm is billed as one of the simplest mobile application makers of all time. Its drag and drop option allows you to add event places, news, photos, media streaming and so much more. ShoutEm offers countless customization tools, seamless publishing and monetization options. Updating your content is real-time and easy. Its e-commerce feature makes it perfect for businesses.

AppMakr

AppMakr is a free DIY app that allows you to build IOS, HMTL 5 and Android apps for free high-quality applications as well as unlimited updates. This platform consistently shows your application’s AQI (App Quality Index) which enables you to improve the quality of your app. AppMakr offers you features galore such as chat rooms, video streaming, live updates, full autonomy, customization, push notifications, etc.

The above platforms guarantee nothing short of the best environments for building mobile apps. Now that you are informed about them, go ahead and make maximum use of them. You will surely not regret it.

BuildFire

BuildFire is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Platform that does for mobile apps what WordPress did for websites: enables non-technical professionals to rapidly build mobile apps with a minimum of custom coding or development. Anyone can operate, manage, and administer our applications, no special training needed. Organizations from Fortune 500 companies to neighborhood community associations have used BuildFire to develop, publish, and maintain thousands of apps that reach millions of users every day.

Martech Products

Why Artificial Intelligence (AI) Is The Next Best Thing Real Estate Industry?

Miley on July 11, 2019

It’s 2024 and we are still surrounded by the charisma of artificial intelligence. If anything AI has been doing new wonders in almost all the fields of life. When it comes to the real estate industry, AI has not been implemented in this industry to the fullest of its potential and still, it is doing an amazing job. In this blog, you are going to find out, why AI is the next best thing in the real estate industry.

Here are some of the reasons which are shouting about the potentials and offerings of the AI in the real estate industry in the years to come. Give the following a read and we are sure that you’ll be convinced that AI is definitely the next best thing in the real estate industry.

Reduced Human Resource

Although, the real estate business is not the kind of business which requires a lot of manpower, however, you still very efficient and experienced people as real estate agents because it is not an easy job. It is also true that such people are not very easy to find and those who are good at their jobs are really expensive and if you are running a real estate company from scratch, then there is a huge possibility that you might not be able to afford them. However, you should not worry about experienced and efficient resources anymore because AI is going to take cover for your business from all sides. You can have AI Consulting Services for your business and it will take care of all the communications and dealings. It will deal with the clients according to their requirements with the help of the big data.

Increased Business Efficiency

AI is all about incorporating high-end efficiency to your business. Therefore, getting AI/ML-based software will make your real estate business more efficient and on top of that, it will make sure to provide a satisfactory experience to all the clients. We all know the importance of customer satisfaction in any business. This importance increases in the real estate business by many folds as they have plenty of other options in the market. Therefore, realize the importance of AI now and make it a part of your business and it will be worth every single penny of yours.

Long-Term Relation Ship Building

With AI, you can build a long term relationship with your clients by using different features. You can keep in contact with them with the help of AI so that whenever they need to buy or rent again in the future, your company’s name pops up in their heads first.

Business Hours 24/7

If it’s after midnight and your potential client just got the time to search for the new apartment and they have a location in their mind, you can target that client at such a strange hour of the night with the help of AI. Yes, it’s not only possible but very much practical. In order to understand it better, let’s take an example of a client who is searching for “JLT apartments for rent”. Now, your AI-based software comes into play. They will not only communicate with the client but also they can seal the deal if it comes to that. Pretty amazing, right?

Conclusion

With all the advancements in the tech world, it is almost impossible to run a business in traditional and outdated ways. Therefore, you have to be very conscious of new tech trends if you want to ace your business game.

Development Insights Martech SEO

8 Low-Cost Marketing Strategies for E-commerce Businesses

Miley on July 11, 2019

For most e-commerce businesses, the competition is fierce. Thus, knowing what will set you apart from the rest of your competitors is crucial. Ideally, you must equip yourself with e-commerce marketing strategies that focus on capturing people’s attention when looking for products. You should also be using several outbound strategies that will make it easier for people to find you. There are different e-commerce strategies out there in the market. However, in this post, we are going to focus on the eight low-cost marketing strategies that will set you apart from the rest of the competition, and help you land you more sales.

Cross-promotion with other businesses

You probably know the feeling of diving into a business partnership full of hopes and ideas. But eventually, you would know that those trends wear off quickly. Then, you are left wondering where would your next brand collaboration is headed. Well, that is where the cross-promotion techniques of your marketing strategy will help you out. Remember that partnerships are not only great for business development. It also gives you the chance to cross-market your products and services, as well as provide something valuable to you and your partner’s customers’ needs.

Search engine optimization

According to Local SEO Search Inc., “A powerful tool that will drive traffic to your site other than social media is SEO. It will not bring you instantaneous results. But your marketing strategy should not be built on short term goals. Instead, it is all about planning how you will grow in the long-term.” Some online retailers make the mistake of focusing on instant gratification when growing their online stores. So, they focus on Facebook ads, instead. However, if you want to keep your acquisition costs low, then you should concentrate on SEO. But you have to realize that SEO is not just about choosing a particular keyword in your chosen niche. Instead, it is about going broader. For instance, you sell running shoes. You should not just focus on keywords about “running shoes.” You can also target keywords related to weight loss and fitness. Remember that SEO is about driving new traffic, and not just sticking to your current audience. When crafting content about weight loss, you can still introduce the concept of running while losing weight. That way, it is easier for you to reach a more extensive group of audience that is potentially interested in your products and services. Here are some marketing strategies for SEO:

Always create fresh content. It has probably been a while since you updated the old content on your site. But you have to do it to stay relevant. Delete the parts that are already outdated, then update them accordingly. That way, you will shoot up in the top of search results, boosting your traffic. Updating your content is just as crucial as crafting new content.
Utilize SEO tools. These tools will notify you of any SEO errors that you made. Using tools like SEO Manager and Plug-In SEO lets you do quality checks on your site’s SEO.
Build more web pages. You can do so by adding new products to your online store. You can also produce daily blogs. Moreover, you can come up with other forms of content like e-books, landing pages, and other web pages that boost your odds of getting more traffic. Ideally, each web page should contain at least 2,000 words (on average) to show up on results.

Take advantage of pay-per-click ads

Pay-per-click ads are costly if you are targeting high-traffic keywords. However, some platforms and niches are budget-friendly, making it an excellent option for start-ups. In Facebook, for instance, you can pay as low as $1 a day on particular ads. However, if you want to get better results, you need to invest more.

Plan email marketing campaigns

For a lot of online retailers, email marketing gives one of the fastest results when it comes to sales and web traffic. You can start building your email list by asking your audience to subscribe. You can put the opt-in form on your homepage, blog, or other popular pages on your site. Here are the top email marketing tactics that you can use:

The easiest way to boost your email marketing strategy is to create a more extensive email list.
Build email funnels. Email funnels are made up of a set of sequenced emails, which can include your best selling products. An email funnel may start featuring some blog posts in your niche that helps boost user’s familiarity with the brand. Later on, you can send an email about your weekly best selling products to help generate sales. But remember, you have to send the conversion email after the non-sales email is sent.
Segment your email list. Personalization and segmentation have become more and more important as your email list grows. You will be encountering users that have ordered various products in your store. When you personalize your emails, you can show your buyers products that they will probably be interested in (via their past browsing history). That will make them more likely to purchase your products because it is catered specifically for them.

Smart use of social media platforms

Social media is not just about posting content once a day. You need to be able to come up with a plan that works. Every social media channel has a particular target audience. If you are in the online fashion niche, you probably will not thrive on LinkedIn since it caters to a B2B audience. But you can boost your sales by focusing on highly visual platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. Your highest engagement would probably come from Instagram. Your best performing ads can be on Facebook. Similarly, you can also drive a lot of traffic from Pinterest. Once you find out the specific platform that is right for you, it is time to focus on your marketing strategies. How often should you post? What tactics do you need to incorporate to boost your growth? Here are some online marketing strategies that you can incorporate on social media:

Share user-generated content on social media. Your customers and loyal followers will probably share content on social media. Ensure that you share their content with your own audience (with their permission). Over time, that will help boost your customer loyalty, and even lessen your workload a bit.
Take a closer look at your demographics. If you have target users who are female, ages 22-45, then they will probably have different needs and interests with females ages 45-65. Moreover, they will be more likely to have a different social media network.
Build a social media calendar. What type of content are you posting, and how often do you post each day? For instance, let’s say that it is usually Friday evenings that you get the highest engagement. Once you know the type of content that your audience better responds to, you can maximize your social calendar for optimal results. The pre-planning stage allows you to ensure consistency and balance your marketing activities at the same time.

Enhanced website layout and design

Having an excellent web design and appearance makes an excellent first impression. But design is not the only factor that contributes to a business’ success. Having a site that is designed nicely is not going to drive traffic and land you more sales. Your site’s overall performance, page loading speed, content, and payment methods contribute to the website’s overall success as well. That’s why it is crucial for your site to be impressive, that it works well, makes navigation a breeze, and features quick and easy payment options. It is going to negatively affect your business if your website takes too long to load, has incomplete product information, or the online payment options are not working.

Retargeting

In its most basic form, retargeting is the practice of sending highly targeted ads to specific users who have interacted with your products or visited your site in the past. Usually, it includes targeting users who:

Have recently visited particular pages on your website
Have bought something from you before
Are your email subscribers
Are your previous customers before, but are no longer engaged

Note that when it comes to retargeting, Facebook will always be king. But Google AdSense has excellent retargeting potential as well.

Guest Post

You can also expand your reach through blogs and other publications by placing your content in front of a new audience. Then, getting a few important links back to your site. Remember to only submit to publications with high authority.

Over to You

What are the low-cost marketing strategies that you have used in the past to market your business? While there are a lot of e-commerce marketing strategies out there, these eight low-cost marketing tactics are the most reliable and effective. You will also find out that while you creatively look for ways to connect with your target audiences online, you will see a boost in your traffic and sales! So, why not try these low-cost marketing ideas? Then, see how these can help you grow your business and boost your overall marketing strategy. In the end, here is a comprehensive list of some of the most fascinating statistics and facts about the internet. 100+ Statistics And Facts of The Internet[Infographic] by the team at Hostingclues