Category: Strategy

Five Ways to Transform Your Business through Right Digital Infrastructure

September 4, 2018

While most businesses have adopted digital infrastructure to some extent, many still do not have a holistic plan to transform their business using the right digital infrastructure. Studies show that most businesses tend to retain legacy tools while implementing the digital strategy, and what really happens is, there is a complete mismatch between digital and non-digital, leading to subpar organizational performance. In result, companies see results that are satisfying in some areas, while creating new risks and liabilities in others. Businesses need to have a 5-pronged approach towards digital infrastructure. This will help look at their entire business infrastructure as a single entity and build a strategy around it. In fact, the right strategy will help your business to transform itself into a lean and uber-efficient machine that can give your competitors a run for their money. Most importantly, having a digital strategy will help you to focus better on your business and enter new avenues. In this article, we describe our 5-pronged approach to make use of digital infrastructure in the right way and optimize your business to achieve new heights. Evaluate existing hardware and go for a major upgrade One of the first things you need to do in order to assess your hardware situation is to examine how your network infrastructure is. Network infrastructure includes both software and hardware components and is an integral part of IT infrastructure. For your software components to work efficiently, your enterprise network needs to be top notch. Evaluate existing routers, operating systems, network security applications, network operations, IP addressing, wireless protocols, etc. At the same time, evaluate data centers as well, as most businesses use subpar services which are often exorbitant. Consider seeking an external vendor’s help in choosing the right data center for your business requirements. To transform your business using the right data center, begin with creating a strategy. Implementing agile IT organization is crucial to this process, as is virtualization and cloud. Intel’s whitepaper recommends evaluating aging infrastructure by computing various metrics and KPIs. Please bear in mind that agile infrastructure can either be virtualized or nonvirtualized, and this solely depends on your organizational requirements. Nevertheless, virtualization is key to having a successful cloud strategy, which we shall discuss next. Move to the cloud whenever possible Today, you can practically move every legacy technology to the cloud and reap the benefits of reduced costs, increased efficiency, and access to technology which you previously didn’t have. Software as a Service (SaaS) helps you to access and use software programs which were probably out of reach for you if you are a small business. If you are a large business, SaaS is equally important to reduce dependency on physical infrastructure and keep your business agile and scalable. SaaS models offer pay-as-you-go schemes, which allow businesses of all sizes to scale or downscale depending on their situation. In addition, the cloud can also help you to access infrastructure via the cloud. Storage, data centers, and even networks can be used on an infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model. Cloud computing helps businesses to eliminate organizational flab and grow lean and agile. If you are a service provider yourself, consider using PaaS (platform as a Service), which helps you to develop new applications and tools on cloud-based platforms, instead of having to invest in expensive platforms. In short, cloud computing provides the technological impetus required to make your business grow quickly. Integrate what you can With more businesses using tools to automate processes, ERP, CRM, and HRMS tools are almost an integral part of every successful business. However, they create unique problems of duplicate entries, repetitive manual exchange of information, and a continued lack of coordination between departments. Integrating these tools using available APIs is a popular method to reduce duplicate entries and increase automation. Most importantly, data can be shared between integrated tools, leading to richer insight and more accurate predictions. If you have an eCommerce business, for instance, you can integrate your ERP with your CRM, so that purchases made by customers online is immediately reflected the inventory department, which can replenish stocks automatically. The possibilities are endless, and such a heightened level of coordination is only possible when you integrate software tools. Before you decide to integrate, make sure that you have an integration strategy, and that you have spoken to vendors who will be able to do it for you efficiently. Integration strategy also involves training your staff so that they use the new interface effectively. In addition, you will also have to account in for security-related ramifications. Implement Internet of Things, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence These may seem like disparate terms often used by IT honchos, but they are very important for businesses of all sizes. IoT, or Internet of Things, uses sensors embedded in devices to intelligently communicate with servers and perform functions that ordinary devices cannot. These can further be connected to smartphones so that device-users have more control over how they interact with it. In a business perspective, sales and marketing teams can use IoT-enabled devices during promotional events, while logistics and product-handlers can use IoT enabled product tracking. Blockchain is another digital technology which can help businesses immensely. You can use smart contracts to ensure security, and distributed ledgers allow you to process transactions in a safe and secure manner. Blockchain has a number of applications for businesses, right from identity verification to automated approvals. Artificial intelligence is another emerging technology that has now become mainstream for business use. Regardless of the size of your company, you can use AI-enabled chatbots for customer service, social media management, and certain marketing tasks. These technologies are accessible, affordable, and easy to implement. Businesses only need to decide to embrace them before their competitor does. Focus on digital governance and security To ensure business success, it is not enough to have the best infrastructure in place. Digital infrastructure’s success depends on how secure it is against various kinds of threats, and how wisely you are

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How Integration of Sales and Marketing Can Improve Your Conversion Rate

August 28, 2018

Across the world, for most people who aren’t part of the marketing and sales teams, these two teams work in tandem, and the words might just be interchangeable as well. “Sales and marketing” or “marketing and sales”, they are just words that can be used together or interchangeably, right? Not exactly. The two words might be related and may help towards getting customers to buy something, but they do vastly different tasks. Studies show that most businesses in the US and Europe do not understand the differences, and when they do, they simply let the two teams do what they want, without much coordination. The result is, missed opportunities and lost sales. Studies show that a lack of communication between sales and marketing teams cost businesses millions of dollars across the world. In this article, let us try to understand what the marketing and sales teams do, and why it is important to integrate the two for an improved conversion rate. What does the sales team do? Though sales and marketing are closely aligned, they are quite different. In smaller companies and businesses, the same person might take care of both the duties, and call himself a sales and marketing manager. However, there are clear differences between the two. Sales department targets individuals and small groups of people who can make a purchase. Sales activity is related to making individual and group purchases happen. Quite typically, the sales process involves converting leads and prospects into orders and purchases. It also entails a shorter duration of following the lead or prospect and does not involve general branding and other activities. Sales activities can be automated too, with the help of CRM and other tools. In fact, a good website or landing page can immediately drive up sales if it is done well. What does the marketing team do? A marketing team looks at the long-term approach of building a brand, an audience, and creating campaigns and content that build awareness about products and services. Once advertisements, content marketing, and marketing campaigns help build audience and prospects are identified, they are passed on to sales department so that they can convert them to sales. In other words, marketing activity generates leads, while sales activity pushes these leads to make a purchase. Marketing also targets the public in general after identifying segments that might be interested in certain products or services. When they express an interest in making a purchase (when the prospect is warm), they are passed on to the sales department. Integrating the two is important While they do similar things, both marketing and sales functions are vastly different. Yet, both the teams (and tools) need to be integrated so that there is cohesion between the two. There are many advantages to integrating sales and marketing teams and applications. In this section, let us take a look at 5 of the obvious benefits that come from integrating sales and marketing tools. Whether you combine the two teams or use an integration tool to integrate sales and marketing automation tools, the results will be obvious. Creates a healthy and trustful atmosphere If your business has two separate teams that carry out their sales and marketing functions, integrating tools can build a healthy and trustful atmosphere. Data and information related to leads, and how they were generated, etc. can help sales teams to approach them better. In addition, sales results can help marketing teams to devise future marketing campaigns specifically targeted at certain groups. Keeping these two entities separate along with their automation tools will not help in data sharing. Integration of sales and marketing tools helps in creating trust. While integrating marketing tools and applications is the technical side of it all, there is also a human side to this integration. Integration can encourage sales and marketing teams to interact more freely (even if they feel compelled to do so, due to data sharing). Communication always helps in forging better trust and a healthy atmosphere, both of which are necessary to identify those important leads and prospects in time. In other words, sales and marketing teams perform better and ensure more leads convert when they work together. Integrate sales and marketing data While integrating people from the two teams can have obvious benefits, there are even more important benefits when you integrate sales and marketing data. Both marketing and sales data need to be understood and looked at in their real context. Without context, data makes no sense, and it is quite useless. When you integrate your sales and marketing data, you can provide context to both and come up with better sales and marketing campaigns. A good CRM should help you to organize sales and marketing data in an easily accessible manner. Salesforce, Marketo, etc. can be used to integrate your data better and help look at data in context. After all, the importance of Big Data cannot be stated enough when it comes to designing campaigns. Integrating ERP and CRM also has its advantages and can be a crucial part in the puzzle. Enhance team performance Integrating sales and marketing data can have another effect which indirectly results in improved conversion rates. When you integrate sales and marketing data, team performance metrics improve too. This is because, when they have access to data that is relevant, they feel less pressure while developing campaigns. For example, if the sales department has access to socio-demographic data and the kind of content marketing that led a person or group to become a warm prospect, they can enhance their sales communication, leading to improved performance. Similarly, when a marketing team has access to sales data, they will have more firepower to create content and campaigns that actually matter in the long term. A lot of content marketing is usually wasted efforts because the marketing team does not have data related to successful sales. Better lead management Successfully navigating through the sales funnel depends on the integration of marketing and sales data. It is

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The Accelerator of Growth – Sales Automation

August 24, 2018

Globally, the sales team is crucial in helping businesses succeed and it is often the duty of top-level executives to breathe life into sales teams. Sales teams are often pressurized to identify and gather leads, make contact, manage opportunities and leads, convert them to sales, and prepare sales reports. In between these dreary-sounding tasks, they also need to make calls, write emails, answer queries and engage in a lot of repetitive manual tasks. In fact, across North America and Europe, manual and repetitive tasks take up sales teams’ time much more than actual core sales activities, which leads to reduced sales and conversion rates. Sales automation helps fix this problem and gives your sales team their mojo back. It helps them to get back on track and plan strategies and implement them, instead of writing repetitive reports. In this article, let us take a look at what sales automation is, and how it accelerates your business growth. What is the sales automation? Sales automation is a software tool that helps your business to automate repetitive tasks such as documentation, sending emails, controlling inventory, pricing, and contract management. It often comes as a part of your CRM or can also be purchased separately, if you want a specialized tool. It helps to reduce the burden on your sales team by automating repetitive and manual tasks so that they can focus on core sales activities. In result, your sales team finds it easier to nurture leads, to interact with them, and to help convert them into customers. The reduced time and effort leads to increased productivity at work, and of course, sales automation has a number of other advantages too. Here are its basic features: Close deals easily: Sales automation helps you to close more deals quickly. You can automate content management, collaboration, and use marketing tools that will help you to find leads as well. It is not a surprise that most businesses use sales automation to manage contacts and accounts and to manage sales opportunities. Find more leads: Sales automation also helps you to find more leads. you can track how well your marketing campaigns are doing, and access sales data on demand. This helps you to send out reports to decision makers quickly so that territories can be planned and campaigns can be launched instantly. Enhance productivity: Most sales automation tools are available on mobile devices, and you can perform sales activities while on the go. You can close deals while on the train or while waiting for your business lunch at a cafe. In other words, sales automation helps you to accelerate productivity. You can easily share files, sync data, and access visual workflows. All business processes can be automated using drag and drop features within a mobile app. Make informed decisions: Most importantly, sales automation tools help you to make informed decisions at the right time. You gain access to reports and dashboards from wherever you are, and accessing sales forecasting gets just as easy as well. With real-time access to your team’s forecasts, mailing to and fro and intra-departmental squabbles are a thing of the past. How sales automation accelerates growth In this section of the article, let us take a look at how sales automation accelerates growth and quickly improves your teams’ productivity as well. Identify your customers Sales departments spend a lot of time trying to identify who could be potential leads and customers. The more time they spend on identifying customers, the less time they can actually use to make contact with them. Sales automation helps identify customers and leads quickly using various metrics. This helps sales teams to quickly make contact and engage in actual sales activity to urge the customer to make a purchase. Businesses often waste considerable temporal and financial resources on customer identification and with a good CRM, that can simply be automated. Access customer information There is little wisdom in developing a sales strategy if we do not understand what the customers want. Knowing how the customers think, where they come from, and what their demographic tends to do are more important than blindly developing sales campaigns. Sales automation provides deep and rich insights about target audience so that intricate sales campaigns can be designed and developed. Targeted campaigns help drive up conversion rates and assist in company growth. Create and edit content Writing reports and documenting sales activities are crucial duties a sales team does. However, these activities can take a lot of time, and result in unnecessary delays in performing other core activities. A good sales automation tool readily creates reports and helps you to focus on more important activities that cannot be automated. Why not generate reports and then make a presentation in person, which has a better impact than just mailing the marketing department cold reports? With sales automation, there will be more time for your sales team to engage in such activities that enhance inter-team communication and collaboration. Follow-up with customers and leads Whether it is writing emails or calling customers over the phone, if you do not do it at the right time, you will not be able to keep a lead warm. To make sure that customers are followed and tracked continuously, and to ensure that leads are kept warm, automate the process of follow-ups. Sales automation can automate communication and help you to remain in touch with them. However, do not automate all communication with your leads and customers as that can have unintended effects. Analyze calls, emails and other communication platforms Call analysis provides valuable information about what customers want, and analyzing email texts can be equally important. CRM tools provide exquisite features that help you to track how email newsletters are read, by whom, and when. They also provide information related to how you can improve your email communication to enhances sales growth. Manual analysis is simply too tedious and sometimes not even accurate. Let us not forget about how important analyzing social media communication is for sales. A

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Digital Success Summit: Learning to Achieve Digital Success in India

August 8, 2018

Digital adoption in India has been phenomenal, and the rate at which emerging technologies are embraced by Indian businesses is equally impressive. Part of the reason why the Indian market is more amenable to digital adoption is the fact that it is the hub of software development and outsourcing since the early 1990s. From those early days of information boom to today’s Blockchain development and mobile eCommerce, India has come a long way and is much ahead of other nations. Yet, digital adoption needs to take place at the grassroots level and most Indian businesses today have not exploited the infrastructure and services available to them to bring their products and services to the global market. There are some important reasons why Indian businesses in general, have not adopted technology to boost their ROI, unlike their tech counterparts who offer technology-related services and products to a global clientele. While the Indian eCommerce industry is growing at a rapid pace, regular businesses, stores, and enterprises are still treading slowly when compared with global peers. This unique dichotomy exists not only in India, but also in other emerging countries where a certain tech-savvy section of the business community adopts digital, while the rest of the business and enterprise community does not make use of the facilities, services, and infrastructure readily available to them. Why are Indian businesses slower in digital adoption? To the casual observer, India seems like the hub of all software and technology related activities. After all, India serves as both the backend and frontend of the world’s technology-based economy. Yet, in its own backyard, businesses are slower in adopting a technology, and a closer inspection will reveal that most small and medium businesses in India’s hinterland are simply not made use of the digital tools available to them easily. This is mostly because : Non-availability of information Much of India is rural, and even in the larger cities, business owners do not have information related to digital technologies available to help boost their businesses. There aren’t many outreach programs for business owners to refresh them about the latest technologies such as IoT, artificial intelligence, Blockchain, or even various facets of cloud computing and automation. The result is, businesses still use outdated marketing techniques, spend more money and time on campaigns that do not fetch the results they seek, and traffic that simply doesn’t convert. Inaccessible services and products While Indian tech companies virtually run much of the global economy, back home, businesses do not have access to services and products available to their international peers. Businesses have still not adopted eCommerce technologies, many still use manual methods in place of automated solutions, and advanced conversion rate optimization techniques, etc. are still unheard of. Making existing digital facilities available to Indian businesses is crucial to digital adoption in India. Both cloud infrastructure and marketing automation solutions are widely available for international businesses, but yet out of reach for most Indian businesses simply because they are not easily accessible. Lack of guidance and support While there are several technical consultants in larger cities of India, the consulting guidance and support available to businesses are not adequate. There simply isn’t a cohesive network of technology service providers dedicated to bringing digital solutions to Indian businesses. Regional digital summits are crucial in helping raise awareness about facilities and infrastructure available to businesses of various statures to lunge forward. Regular summits can help businesses to not only understand the products and services available to help them adopt digital solutions but also to scale quickly. Absence of digital-first culture While lack of information and inaccessibility of digital solutions can be blamed for slower adoption among Indian businesses, there is also an absence of digital-first culture among many businesses. Many businesses still hold on to legacy systems and operations which are not relevant anymore. these methods, tools, and technologies simply hold them back, while their competitors who adopt newer tools and methods achieve success quickly. With this in mind, there need to be more digital events, summits, and conferences which normalize digital adoption among the Indian business community. The Digital Success Summit, 2018 It is with all these reasons in mind that the Digital Success Summit has been organized. The summit brings together a variety of speakers, keynote presenters, and workshops to participating businesses and entrepreneurs, to help them adopt digital solutions quickly and efficiently. The Digital Success Summit 2018 will be held in Kolkata, West Bengal, on the 10th of August. The summit will help business owners to adopt the most useful digital strategies to achieve success and growth. The conference will help businesses to Understand how the internet works and is governed Choosing the right domain name for your business Understanding what cloud computing is all about, and which cloud hosting to choose If you should get a mobile app developed or not Use marketing automation and marketing KPIs to drive more sales Maximize online leads to sales conversion rate Learn how to create viral content and engage in influencer marketing Choosing the right CMS for your website, and using conversion rate optimization (CRO) tricks Using paid marketing to drive eCommerce transactions and creating trust using personal branding How to bring a digital culture shift in organizations, and making sure that every business is safe from cyber attacks Understanding IoT and analytics The Digital Success Summit has been specifically organized to help Indian businesses to overcome the hurdles in adopting digital solutions, and get past their cultural barriers to embrace a brave new world which will lead them along the path of competitive edge, global success and business efficiency. From digital infrastructure to media and advertising, and from business enhancing catalysts to KPIs and analytics, the summit has got all things digital covered for businesses to achieve success.  

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7 Things to Consider Before Having a Mobile App for Your Business

July 24, 2018

A couple of years ago, if we asked around, every business would have expressed interest in developing a mobile app. Even today, businesses are eager to develop mobile apps, motivated by a number of factors. With more than 3.5 million Android apps and close to 2.5 million iOS apps, it might seem like you are missing out on a lot of things by not offering an application to your users. Yet, more than just getting a mobile app developed, assessing customer needs, your market strategy, and industry scenario are all more important factors to consider. A successful mobile enhances user satisfaction and brings value to your customers. Sometimes, enhancing a website for mobile use may be a better option. Even more important is the task of finding the right agency which will help you to develop a winning mobile app. To make your mobile app a success, spend some time assessing your needs, market situation, and your customer requirements. In this article, we help you do just that by listing 7 important questions you need to ask before getting a mobile app developed. Do you really need a mobile app? What started out as a game-changing development soon became a trend, leading to businesses developing mobile apps whether they needed it or not. Playing catch-up, or doing what everyone else is doing, is not the way to go when it comes to technology adoption. There may be a good reason why your business does not need mobile applications. If your product or service is more likely to be accessed over a website, investing in mobile-optimised responsive web development might be a better solution. Progressive Web Applications (PWA) and Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) may prove to be better solutions for your need than a mobile app developed for iOS and Android platforms. Progressive Web Applications are also great when your users are located in places where the internet connection is unreliable or slow. Flipkart’s Flipkart Lite is a great example of Progressive Web Applications. Hastily developing a mobile app to impress your target audience or your competitors may have just the opposite of the intended effect. What is the purpose of your app? If you think you do need a mobile app, and that is a matter of concern for your profitability, competitiveness, and customer experience, explore what the purpose of the mobile is going to be. The app could serve the purpose of selling a product or service, or it could simply enhance customer experience. The purpose of developing a mobile can greatly vary. Sometimes, a mobile app may serve multiple purposes. Spend time deliberating on why you want the mobile app, which problems it is going to solve, and what its long-term purpose is going to be. Developing a mobile app without a purpose may cause long-term damage to your brand, and may result in the wasteful expenditure of resources. Many studies indicate that people uninstall or stop using a majority of mobile apps after downloading and installing them. Who is your target user? For a mobile app to be successful, it should be developed with the target user in mind. Always try to understand your audience deeply, and use data insight to do so. Data analytics helps you to test and retest your ideas for efficacy so that your investment in mobile development is not wasted. A mobile application should suit the lifestyle of your target users and should be intimately tied to their personal identities. We recently developed a mobile game for a US veteran who lost his eyesight and wanted to launch a mobile game for people who are visually challenged. There was a clear understanding of who the target audience was, and the challenges they may encounter while playing the mobile game. To compete with the millions of mobile apps that are out there, make sure that you understand your target user at an intimate level. Otherwise, your mobile app will risk being ignored. Will your app solve a customer problem? Every mobile app should not only help you make profits, but also solve a customer problem. If not solve a problem, it should enhance the user experience. If your mobile app is not going to add value to your target users, then it risks being ignored after being downloaded. To help develop a mobile app that truly solves your customer problems, understand their pain points and explore how your mobile app could address those pain points. If there are no pain points to be addressed, explore if you can bring a “wow” factor to the table. If your mobile app is going to present a revolutionary experience or concept to the user, then it is going to be successful. Sometimes, reducing the duration of certain processes and making your customers’ lives simpler are reasons enough to develop mobile apps. However, you will need to back up your reasons with deep data insights. What kind of app do you need? Before you decide on developing a mobile app, consider how and where it is going to be used. You will have to choose between native mobile apps and cross-platform mobile apps. Native mobile apps are developed for iOS and Android (usually) using programming languages that are native to the device’s OS, such as Objective C and Swift for iOS devices, and Java for Android devices. Native mobile apps offer a better user interface and excellent user experience. They also make use of all the features a platform has to offer. However, they tend to be more expensive, challenging, and time-consuming projects. Cross-platform mobile apps can be used on both Android and iOS devices, and multiple versions of the code need not be written, leading to reduced expenditure and saved time. However, the user experience will not be as great as that of native apps and your mobile app will not be able to make use of all the features that each platform offers. How do you plan to monetise your app? A successful mobile app needs

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Why Marketing Automation Matters for Your Business

July 19, 2018

If you are late to the party, marketing automation is a force to reckon with and is the fuel that is driving small and medium-sized agencies and businesses to compete with the top players in the industry. Marketing automation helps a small team to put its marketing strategy on steroids, and use Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions to automate both basic and complex marketing tasks to achieve stellar heights. There are a number of software tools and cloud solutions that help businesses to automate various marketing functions, right from understanding a target market to capturing lead-related data and nurturing long-term customers. While implementing a thorough marketing strategy used to be expensive and time-consuming, it is now accessible even to the smallest of companies thanks to SaaS subscription models. SaaS solutions provide efficient, affordable, and accessible marketing tools on different subscription models. Both big and small businesses have begun to use these SaaS marketing tools to automate various marketing functions, and have begun to see exemplary results. Regardless of the size and nature of your business, the axiomatic truth is, you need marketing automation. To explain why marketing automation matters so much for your business, we have listed 7 reasons. Let us take a look at each of them briefly. Understand your market better Most businesses fail to achieve traction because their marketing strategy is not in touch with the actual realities of the market they are targeting. This is only possible when campaigns are tied around behavioral and demographic variables that are often easy to miss. Marketing automation tools provide rich insights into the market in question and help businesses to design campaigns that are effective. When you subscribe to a MarTech solution, you will be able to compete with large businesses who probably have better resources to conduct market research. Market research can get quite tedious and expensive for those who do not have the resources to carry out large market research campaigns, Data analytics, combined with marketing automation tools can help you to arrive at marketing predictions that are useful and effective, at a fraction of the cost. MarTech is increasingly being used to conduct market research by a large number of companies and is encouraging a metrics-driven culture. Curate high-quality leads New GDPR rules and privacy-related restrictions have severely curtailed most businesses’ ability to capture high-quality leads. Yet, the new developments are positive in nature when assessed objectively. Marketing automation tools can now quickly detect and predict which of your web visitors are going to be hour leads, and which of them will convert to customers. Data analytics and marketing automation tools can be integrated and programmed in such a way that you automate the curation of high-quality leads. There’re a number of tools already available to help you automate both lead generation, and filtering of those leads. However, partnering with an agency which will help you to integrate data analytics with marketing automation tools will help you curate a list of high-quality leads. After all, communicating with high-quality leads, even if they are fewer in numbers, is a better sales strategy than coming up with a digital marketing strategy that involves targeting an exponentially higher number of users. Shortlist the best distribution channels Once you have the list of leads generated and curated automatically, you will also need to assess how you should communicate with them. This decision was earlier left to managers or staff who used their own methods (both objective and subjective) to list the preferred distribution channels. Unfortunately, this is not an effective strategy and is mired with loopholes. Inbound marketing can easily be automated, and a digital marketing strategy should be built around actual facts and figures related to which platforms, social media tools, and channels your target users prefer to use. As such, a strategy that involves marketing automation and data analytics will reveal the cold hard facts about where to reach your target audience, and how best to communicate with them. Use marketing automation to choose the best distribution and communication channels, and to base this choice on insight derived from data analytics. Understand different buyer personas To engage in successful marketing, you need to understand your target audience at an intimate level. This is only possible when the most minute of their behaviours are statistically analyzed. Automating the process of studying user behavior will help you to group them under various buyer personas. Right from what they tweet to how they respond to certain images or news feeds, you can predict exactly how you should develop your marketing strategy to win them over. As consumers tend to be a diverse group, you can develop different marketing campaigns for different buyer personas. Understanding personas are closely linked to creating winning digital content as well. Automating the process of collecting information and using data analytics to process this information helps you to arrive at useful insights related to different personas. Use this insight to create a successful agile marketing strategy. Take personalization to the next level There is a misconception that automation implies lack of personal touch. Any Chief Marketing Technologist (CMT) will tell you that automation, in fact, enhances more personal communication. Automating content distribution and basing content creation on various buyer personas help you to personalize all communication at the micro-level. For example, MarTech products can help you to target communication individually, based on various tastes, quirks, behavioral patterns, personal details, etc. While content distribution and communication can be automated, you can use your free time and man-hours to enhance customer interactions and build valuable relationships. Creating a more personal approach used to be expensive and required hiring more in-house staff. Automating such a personal approach will reduce the need for hiring more employees, and will help you build more meaningful relationships with your customers. Save time and money For most small and medium businesses, marketing is the single most expensive business process. Not only does it cost money, it also requires time and effort, all of

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Social Media for Small Brands: When to Shut Up

Why should you consider having an Offshore Software Development Partner?

July 2, 2018

Earlier, one of the major reasons for outsourcing software development to offshore development partners was to reduce operational costs. Now, as the demands for IT resources have increased and the service providers are now more concerned about quality, software development outsourcing has become an acceptable norm. Not only does this minimize the burden from your internal staff but it also lets you enjoy much greater control over the resources you are spending. Moreover, you also acquire a valued strategic business partner in the long run. What exactly is software development outsourcing? It is a practice where you collaborate with an offshore development partner to benefit from their expertise. You can hire them as a part of any project (both long-term and short-term) or simply assign any software development process.  Apart from outsourcing services, these partners have experts to deliver innovation without introducing any increased risk. These strategic partners let you access the resources and tools to improve and expand your business. Advantages of outsourcing to an offshore development partner High-Quality Work You will get access to highly qualified professionals who follow the highest standards in software development. If you want to build a team of professionals with the same level of efficiency, you may either have to hire expensive resources or train young professionals for years. You Don’t Need to Develop Infrastructure Probably, this is the best advantage of hiring offshore outsourcing services. Having an in-house team doesn’t only mean hiring experts. You need to build the required infrastructure and buy all the necessary tools. These are all an integral part of the development process and are expensive!  On the other hand, an offshore development partner will have all the required tools and infrastructure. So, the software development partner can start the work quickly.  Also, the partner is likely to take less time to complete your project. Eventually, your total project cost will further go down.  You can focus on your business goals Are you into the non-IT business? If so, dealing with IT-related things may increase your operative cost. Moreover, if your team is not skilled enough, your options get limited.  An offshore development partner can take care of your IT and software development related issues. Thereby, you can focus on your core business and plan to expand it further.  Bring down your time-to-Market Customer demands are evolving with time. You have to come up with innovations quickly and be the first in introducing them to the market. This is a critical factor in determining your success.  With an offshore development partner, you will have control over the speed of software development. You can quickly scale the overseas team to work faster. Thereby, it reduces the time-to-market of your product and ensures its success.  Better Product Quality The development partner will have the infrastructure for building and testing robust software. So, you will always get a stable product that gives a better user experience. This will generate value for your company and protect your investments as well. Reduce Cost Cost reduction is one of the main concerns taken into account when companies decide to outsource work. You don’t have to invest in building the infrastructure, buying equipment, and of course, paying salaries to full-time employees.  You will have to pay the software development partner for only the project you will assign to them.  Things to remember before selecting an Offshore development partner  Here are a few factors that you need to consider before choosing an offshore partner for software development.  Time Zone Differences The difference in time zone can be challenging while working with offshore companies. But it’s not impossible either! You have to plan it accordingly. For instance, to minimize confusion, communicate using only an established channel (like a single email id) or keep weekly meetings. To bring more transparency, use project management tools. In this way, time zones won’t be an issue. The Culture Consider the culture of the outsourcing team or company you will be working with. You will have to work together for an extended period. So, having a similar work culture and ethics is crucial. Also, see how they are dedicated to communicating the progress with you and keeping you in the loop so that you are aware of everything. Changes in Team/Developer It’s important to know who will be leading the team and who will be working on the project. Do they really have the experience needed to meet your objectives? An experienced team often makes this transition process easy and can employ creative solutions to get the work done. Outsourcing Software Development Process: Why Choose India? When it comes to outsourcing, India is an undisputed leader in this category. No other country can match the number of highly skilled experts in India. According to a recent Statista report, India tops the list of countries in offshore business services worldwide in 2021.  The IT sector in India boasts rapidly developing software and technical capabilities including disruptive technologies such as data analytics, cloud computing which is critical to the growth of new avenues across all verticals. According to Economic Survey 2022, IT exports drive 18.4% growth in India’s services exports between April to December.  Here are the best possible reasons that make India the one-stop destination for outsourcing, like: A large pool of English-speaking skilled manpower Cost-effective workforce World-class infrastructure Digital-First, Innovation-Ready Environment Technology efficiency  Conclusion:  Outsourcing to an offshore development partner has always been a key to success and a key factor in growing a business. You can leverage their experience and expertise to overcome tough challenges. Contact us right away for your needs and support solutions if you truly want to make your company stand out to your consumers!

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Are You Wasting Your Marketing Budget on SEO or PPC

June 26, 2018

Every business learns that investing in marketing is the only way to scale a business and to keep the bottom-line healthy. While most businesses are right to keep aside a large percentage of their marketing spend on SEO and PPC ads, it is quite likely that a lot of it being wasted due to the adoption of the wrong strategy. Businesses make a number of mistakes while running SEO and PPC campaigns, but fortunately, adoption of the right strategy can eliminate missed opportunities, unwise spending, and poor performing campaigns. In this article, let us take a look at some of the common SEO and PPC strategy mistakes that cause businesses to lose a lot of money. In the second section of the article, we suggest tips and tricks that help you to optimise your marketing spend and strategy, so that you get the results you need and deserve. Wrong choice of keywords A number of surveys point out to the fact that businesses often run their PPC campaigns around irrelevant keywords. Just because a keyword seems relevant doesn’t mean it is going to fetch you leads or business. Instead, it might help competitors to gain ground in places where you have missed out. For this reason, keyword research is a very important aspect of PPC campaigns. Typically, SEO and PPC teams should work together to identify strategic keywords that help in directing traffic that matters. haphazard choice of keywords in content and ad copy results in poor marketing campaigns, and wasteful spending. Targeting the wrong demographic Without adequate data insight, it is easy to keep launching campaigns after campaigns targeted at a wrong demographic. Many businesses notice that clicks from outside their target demographic results in wasteful PPC spending. A similar problem occurs with SEO campaigns too. Not strategising content around the right demographic and not setting the right tone results in wasteful content management strategy. Data insight helps businesses to discover who their target audience really are, and ensure that both PPC and SEO campaigns are tied around audiences that actually matter. Improving visibility by enhancing brand awareness and running coordinated PPC and SEO campaigns helps in ensuring clicks from the right target audience as well. Low ad scores Marketers often notice that conversion rates are lower than they expected, even when they spent quite well. Here lies an important lesson to learn, for spending too much doesn’t necessarily mean good ad scores. Good ad scores depend on a number of metrics, and focusing on each of these metrics before a campaign is launched is crucial for its success. Mere creativity without a solid basis in analytics will not fetch the kind of ad scores that are typical of optimal ad relevancy. Again, having a strategy in place and using the right analytical tools are important to enhance ad scores and conversion rates. Inefficient handling of campaigns Running a PPC or SEO campaign has dramatically become more complex in recent years. Not only has the technology changed, but psychographic and behavioral metrics have changed too, necessitating an approach that involves data analytics. Without adequate expertise or knowledge, complex PPC and SEO campaigns cannot fetch the results they claim to. Unfortunately, many businesses work with teams that are subpar and thus miss out on advanced data insight. In addition, an agile approach to marketing campaigns is very important for both PPC and SEO campaign success. Agile marketing is based on agile framework and methodology and provides consistent results across marketing processes. A strategy that helps you spend less To make the most of your marketing budget, begin to develop a strategy that works for you. Adopt a strategy that has been tried and tested by agencies across the world. Such a strategy depends on successful implementation of data analytics, improving landing pages, enhancing content, and focusing on mobile environments. Let us take a quick look at these four pillars that help build a solid marketing strategy. Getting data right The world has changed radically since the advent of artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and data analytics. Data analytics is single-handedly helping IoT and AI to move further, resulting in the insight that has far-reaching marketing implications. User-behaviour can now be scrutinised to intimate levels, but how one uses all this insight depends on the kind of team you work with. When you choose the right data analytics team and use insight to fuel your SEO and PPC campaigns, you will begin to see that you need to spend less on your campaigns. Optimising landing pages Most landing pages are not optimised for SEO or PPC campaigns, and they are directed to generic pages that do not fetch results. To enhance conversion rates and ad scores, landing pages need to be optimised on multiple fronts. The focus should be given to CTAs, graphics, and also to mobile optimisation of landing pages. Most people visit landing pages after clicking on ads displayed on their mobile devices, and optimising landing pages is an important task. Landing pages also have an important SEO function, and that is to help your services and solutions appear in organic results. Enhance content Existing content needs to be enhanced with specific keywords to help build your SEO. This step does not require fresh content to be written and can help your website in multiple ways. In addition, using data insight to create content that actually matters to your target audience will help you to fetch better results. Most marketing companies build their content strategy around irrelevant keywords, and that is only going to result in ill-advised marketing expenditure. Focus on mobile environments It doesn’t need to be reiterated that web traffic today mostly depends on mobile usage. Yet, a lot of PPC and SEO campaigns are centered around desktop devices and are not optimized for mobile devices. This results in wasteful expenditure, especially when it comes to PPC campaigns. Make sure to hire a team that is well versed with mobile optimisation of PPC campaigns, so that

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Talent as a Service: Accelerating the Trend towards a Flexible Workforce

June 13, 2018

What happens when a project requires a particular skill or talent which you don’t have? Or want on your current payroll? What are your options as a Project Manager then? TaaS is the answer to such situations. After Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS), Talent as a Service is the latest disruption in the human resources sector that will soon replace the workplace as we know it. TaaS has brought a whole new dimension to crowdsourcing, bringing about an uberisation of the workforce. TaaS sources labour from the crowds by opening the workplace for grabs people best suited for a particular project. In other words, this gig economy will help propel talent across projects and organisations based on the former’s interest areas and the latter’s demands. It heralds a new generation of workers with highly specialized and directly relevant skills towards a better allocation of peripheral work. How TaaS can Transform your Business Liran Kotzer writing for The Huffington Post candidly states, “…with the economy in an uncertain state the pressure on these [small and micro] businesses to keep other costs in check is high.” That would explain why companies are now rushing to embrace the TaaS model. It not only enables them to enjoy flexible access to the right talent at the right time for the right price but also lowers the cost of retaining skills by a considerable margin. The scalability offered by TaaS, to roll out projects based solely on demand, is creating ripples in the world of recruitment as we speak. Given the steady invasion of the demand hiring culture into the modern workplace, blending the traditional Full-Time Employee (FTE) business model with a regular rotation of contractual workers don’t need to be as daunting as it sounds. TaaS is here to simplify the workspace, to deliver your timely needs and it inarguably costs less than hiring a new employee. According to The Economic Times, a lot of Indian IT companies including Infosys and Wipro are exploring the idea of an uberised workforce, with their own flexi-staffing models. The article speculates the possible reason that is catalysing this trend today : “What is driving this trend is the changing preference of the young workforce more than the market uncertainty and political situation in their largest market, the US.” Here are the three tenets of TaaS explained with hypothetical use cases : Flexibility and Expertise A fashion logistical company wants to rebuild their business plan and pitch an attractive deck to their prospective investors. None of the existing employees have ever drawn up a business plan before. At the same time, they will have better insights into what needs change and what stays, more than any consultant or new employees. At this point, the firm can recruit a designer with a background in fashion, retail, logistics, and design, to curate the deck for the company. Minimising the cost of FTE A firm has an AI and IT engineer on board but he has very little knowledge of UX design. It makes little sense to recruit a developer at this time for a short-term project. So the firm can hire a UX designer at this point to develop their website design. Increased Efficiency with Time Consumption A company is redesigning its brochures but their in-house team has very little knowledge of graphic design. An intern from the marketing team is willing to give it a try but it will take her a couple of days at least to learn the basics of Photoshop and even then it won’t be the same quality of an expert. There is no justification for hiring a full-time designer at this juncture; instead, it would be best in the company’s interests if they reach out to the designer designed their visiting cards once before. Things to keep in mind while adopting a TaaS model Incorporating Talent as a Service will sound as good in your company’s portfolio as it does on paper. To adopt it in your daily operations and for a seamless merger between the traditional and modern workplace, here are a few key points you must bear in mind. According to Rob Biederman, co-founder, and CEO of HourlyNerd, the model is especially suited for marketing, operations, and finance: these departments would be your best bet if you want to test the waters. While trying TaaS out for the first time, start with a small pilot project to gain experience in hiring and managing talent before investing in a large project with a lot at stake. While working with a flexible talent pool, allot and carve out distinct chunks of work and establish clear deliverables and deadlines with strong communication. Before and during talent acquisition, do your research and only recruit from a reputable source/agency/recommendation and follow it up with a strong vetting process. It trends set to improve Taas According to a report by Intuit, the number of on-demand workers in the US is expected to double in the next four years to almost 9.2 million. It won’t be long before the brick and mortar office is a thing of the past as where and how people work will change due to emerging Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud phenomenon and mobile technologies. Working in the cloud will increasingly shift work lives away from corporate office altogether and toward an in-my-own-place, on-my-own-time work regimen. “Gen Y will continue focusing less on physically spending time at a job site and more on getting the job done. Connecting through the cloud will allow Gen Y to success on the move and approach the work/life balance they desire.” As cloud computing keeps extending to every job sector, businesses are increasingly recognising that Cloud technology can be taken further to tap a virtual, global labour pool. This will in turn increase productivity, maximise the elasticity of their existing workforce and reduce labour costs.  To effectively minimise fixed labour costs and maximise productivity, enterprises of the future must be ready to work with

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GDPR – Will This Four-letter Word Change the Digital Economy?

May 29, 2018

It’s been a confusing few weeks this month, especially with most people learning about the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) only now. The GDPR aims to empower European citizens with data privacy rights and personal information privacy. It applies to not only the citizens of the European Union but also to residents of the EU. GDPR also applies to companies that may indirectly deal with the residents of the EU one way or another. In this article let us learn what GDPR is, what the implications of the new regulations are, and what you can do to comply with it. What is GDPR? With rising concerns about data privacy and rights regarding personal information of individuals, the framework for GDPR has been around for quite sometime. However, the regulators rolled the new rules last week, and almost all businesses that deal with data have to comply with them. The GDPR seeks to empower residents of the European Union with rights related digital information and personal data. It specifies how long data can be stored, how it can be used, with whom data can be shared, and how that data is going to be used. As personal data is used by almost all companies and businesses for a variety of reasons such as marketing, product development, client service, etc, every department and business is going to be affected. The most important aspect of GDPR is its insistence on consent. Not just any consent, but GDPR requires companies and businesses to posses affirmative consent. This means, individuals have to provide affirmative consent for their personal data to be used and there needs to be documented evidence for the consent that is procured. GDPR also requires all companies to update their terms and conditions in simple language that can be understood by everyone. Legalese and jargon will no longer be allowed while seeking consent for using personal data. The purpose of GDPR is to make it all transparent, ethical, and safe for individual users. In short, GDPR seeks to: Enforce restrictions on how personal data can be used Makes affirmative consent mandatory for data to be used Privacy terms and conditions should explicitly state how data is going to be used, for long, and with whom it will be shared Larger companies may have to hire a data control officer Immediately notify authorities when there is a breach of security to personal data If the breach of security is huge, the data control officer needs to work with the business concerned Cookies, and other forms of technology and software tools that track behavior or personal information need to have consent form too How is it going to affect businesses? Most businesses will feel the effects of GDPR in the near future. Software companies, marketing agencies, companies that take up outsourced projects, etc. will be affected by the GDPR. E-commerce industry will be affected too, as they collect information related to their customers, behavioral statistics, and web traffic information. In short, any business that uses customer information will need to comply with GDPR, especially if the company uses English or other European languages such as French, German, Spanish, etc. Each company or organization will need to seek explicit consent from each customer and document that consent for possible audits. What about the grey areas? Yes, there are many grey areas involved in GDPR. Most legal experts aren’t sure how GDPR is going to play out, and what its implications will be on Blockchain, artificial intelligence, data analytics, machine learning, data generated by the Internet of Things-enabled devices, etc. It is also unclear how actively the regulators are going to pursue companies that are based out of the EU, unless they are bigwigs like Google or Facebook. Moreover, there are rumors that many legislators feel the GDPR cannot be easily enforced outside the European Union, giving rise to greyer areas within the already grey areas. What businesses need to do now It is not all doom and gloom, and businesses can quickly comply with GDPR regulations. It takes little effort to understand how GDPR is going to affect each company, and working with a lawyer is aware of data usage rights should be able to help business owners. There are many things that businesses can do in order to comply with the GDPR. In short You will need to stop using email lists that have been purchased Contact all customers, email contacts, and leads to seek their permission for their data to be used Redevelop and redesign website forms and contact forms Hire a data protection officer if necessary Document consent of your contacts to prove you can use their personal information such as gender, age, email address, contact information, etc. Seek legal help all along. A lawyer specializing in data privacy is your best friend at the moment. Looking ahead Though GDPR seems like a scary and confusing situation, it is an opportunity for you to revisit certain terms and conditions, and ensure that you are dealing with your customers in a transparent manner. It is also a great time to get rid of unwanted data, remove unwanted or useless contacts, and become a leaner organization. However, make sure you seek legal help. Also, speak to web developers who can help you update your website forms, content, and terms and conditions. If need be, hire a data protection officer as well. Meanwhile, the Internet is littered with hilarious memes and tweets regarding GDPR. Here are a few that we found funny, but realistic nonetheless. Take a look at them, while you work on your GDPR compliance goals. When you’re the only person in Britain wishing you could receive emails about GDPR pic.twitter.com/ZEAxbpEKlD — Mo' (@mocent0) May 23, 2018 https://twitter.com/_Katenip/status/999312682829443077 Happy GDPR eve pic.twitter.com/5nnRiczHGV — TwistedDoodles (@twisteddoodles) May 24, 2018 https://twitter.com/darylginn/status/999232167732445185 Sorry I couldn't hang out this week, I was reading the updated privacy policy from every website I've ever visited — Zack Bornstein (@ZackBornstein) May 25, 2018 Want to know more about GDPR? Here’s what experts say about

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