Category: Strategy

How to Multiply Your Number of #Leads in Your Existing Digital Marketing Budget

A question that bothers everybody is, how one can increase the number of leads without increasing their existing digital marketing budget. The answer isn’t quite simple, but it is possible to refocus and strategize your digital marketing budget so that lead generation takes center stage. It all started when businesses began to spend more money on digital marketing than on traditional marketing. The influx of smartphones and other portable devices necessitated a completely different approach at the turn of the last decade. Today, digital is far more important than other platforms, and nobody is arguing about that. However, digital marketing budgets have increased sharply in recent years and in United States Digital Spend is surpassing the traditional media spend. It is in digital media that we are able to understand how the visitors are behaving and a number of us work are trying to get more from what we have already spent. A number of clients often ask this and then we go ahead with a 10 step simple guide which helps to multiply leads without no extra cost. You might just have to divert your budget a little to the left, and a little to the right. Audit your database If you haven’t heard already, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is coming soon and will require you to seek explicit consent from all the emails in your database. The regulation focuses on improving privacy and requires you to stop contacting people if you do not have their explicit consent to do so. Auditing your email database and discarding emails that do not explicitly permit you can be a great way to not only comply with GDPR, but also making your database more meaningful and lean. A curated and lean email database will convert at an exponentially higher rate than a large database with no meaningful leads. Redevelop your website To comply with GDPR, you will also need to redevelop your contact forms and call to action forms, so that explicit permission is sought before customers share their emails. In addition, you will have to change your cookies policies and write terms and conditions in layman’s terms, all of which require a little bit of redevelopment and redesigning. Once you do this, you will notice that leads convert quickly because the traffic is more targeted, and those who engage with your website truly want to do so. Though the actual traffic may fall, your lead conversion percentage will drastically increase. Focus on social engagement While most businesses have a lot of money to spend on social campaigns, they forget to engage with their audiences meaningfully. To increase the number of leads, it is important to focus on social engagement and get more personal. Social engagement is an important aspect that is often neglected by even the savviest digital marketers. Whether on Facebook or Twitter, maintain a respectful friendliness that is neither distant nor uncomfortably intrusive. This balanced approach to social engagement will help you to win hearts, as you will not appear pushy or non-responsive. In result, you will see the number of leads soar quickly. Have meaningful conversations Most businesses fail at customizing and doing meaningful conversations and end up talking to every segment of the market in the same tone and manner. It doesn’t work. At best, people may ignore you, and at worst, they may get annoyed or offended. Every communication from your side needs to be tailor-made for your audience. Study your target audience’s psychographic factors and demographic details, and create conversations that are customized for them. Tailor-made conversations feel a lot more intimate and personal than pushy marketing scripts, which will put people off. Be subtle and friendly, and use data to customize your conversations to suit your target audience. Create lead magnets A lead magnet is type of content that will automatically fetch you a large number of email addresses. This kind of content needs to be of top-notch quality, and people should download it even months after you make it available. Creating a series of lead magnets will help you to gain a large number of leads who can be nurtured so that they convert in future. Please do remember that you may have to make your download page GDPR-compliant, especially if you plan to use visitors’ emails in the future for marketing purposes. This means, you will have to seek explicit consent here too. Create stellar content in different formats Most businesses think of blogs and eBooks when they think of content. However, creating content in different formats will help you to generate more leads. A number of people prefer to watch videos or listen to podcasts than read textual content. It makes sense to create excellent videos that urge the viewer to download a lead magnet if they want to learn more. That will be the moment of truth, if they choose to give their consent and download your lead magnet. Such motivated users usually convert sooner or later.  In addition, this also helps you with your SEO, which in turn again helps you generate leads. Revamp your landing pages If you haven’t fixed your landing pages in a while, now is probably be the best time to do so. Even your landing pages will need to become GDPR-compliant, as explicit permissions will need to be sought before visitors share their email addresses. Make changes to the forms on your landing pages, and see a more relevant database whose conversion rates will be very high. After all, it is not a good idea to keep a large number of leads that will never convert to prospects. A highly curated list will make sure that leads convert to prospects, and prospects to customers. Don’t neglect paid ads Re-route a large percentage of your digital marketing budget towards paid ads, as this is where much of lead generation takes place. Though many choose to ignore paid ads and focus on organic marketing, it is not a great idea. Existing digital marketing

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#TwitterChat: Digital-Led Product Innovation In Insurance

We organized yet Twitter Chat Session on Digital-Led Product Innovation In Insurance. As the discussion progressed we got some immensely relevant insights, trends, and learnings around #InsureTech & #DigitalSuccess Our esteemed panelists were Edmund Dilger and David Stubbs. In a highly competitive industry which is not known for digital innovations, changes in technology, product innovation, and newer business models are creating significant new opportunities for Insurance companies. Let’s us quickly go through this interesting discussion. @industech for me its personalisation — RightIndem (@RightIndem) April 19, 2018 Of course personalisation is a big step forward in terms of innovation in most industries including #insurance. However the current privacy concerns might slow it down a bit in near term. #digitalsuccess — Abhishek Rungta (@abhishekrungta) April 19, 2018 OK, bespoke in that specific risks for that person are covered, pooling for the risks. My worry about bespoke products is that we move away from pooling, which ends up with someone who has a claim being unable to afford insurance next year – the situation before Flood Re — Edmund Dilger (@EdmundDilger) April 19, 2018 The energy coming from the start up sector is incredible, and the growing sense that the industry will change is becoming self-fulfilling — RightIndem (@RightIndem) April 19, 2018 Really agree that there has been a big change in the last 2 years. Also some technical factors – becoming easier to use AI to analyse big datasets, so less "experience" based and more data based decision making — Edmund Dilger (@EdmundDilger) April 19, 2018 A3: Analytics, AI and ML enables predictive alerts and maintenance – which overall reduces the risk for the insured. Thus delivering continuous value through the lifetime of the cover, instead of just paying a claim when things go wrong. #DigitalSuccess — Abhishek Rungta (@abhishekrungta) April 19, 2018 When we talk to smart home device manufacturers one of the most interesting parts is the list of devices connected to wifi, and when they have last been used – proof that the claimant had the item. And also the opportunity to know that devices are working, and set as required — Edmund Dilger (@EdmundDilger) April 19, 2018 As they say People buy stories and not products, user experience is exactly doing this. It is helping insurers create an experience which entices a user to buy and a have a hassle free experience. #Insurtech founders are major drivers of this thought #DigitalSuccess — Syed Zainul Haque (Zain) (@syedzainulhaq) April 19, 2018 For far too long bad user experience has been accepted because legacy systems prevented anything better. Much like the banks. But we have passed the tipping point now, it has to improve to keep up with the customer's experience of other retail products — Edmund Dilger (@EdmundDilger) April 19, 2018 I would agree with your statement, but potentially disagree as to cause. Those systems would never have been signed off if the customer had figured in their thinking! — RightIndem (@RightIndem) April 19, 2018 A good amount of work has been done & within a couple of years we will see it’s global impact. #IoT will redefine the industry experience & if typical insurers lag behind then the todays customers i.e millennials wil do what they did to late digital laggers of #Fortune500 of 2005 — Syed Zainul Haque (Zain) (@syedzainulhaq) April 19, 2018 My favourite big data play at the moment is Concirrus in shipping. They can support underwriting and allow us to support or reject many claims – fabulous customer experience and a streamlined process for the insurer — RightIndem (@RightIndem) April 19, 2018 #blockchain is making its impact felt in every industry. I think with #P2P insurance coming up with companies like @Lemonade_Inc we are optimistic that it will bring a paradigm shift — Syed Zainul Haque (Zain) (@syedzainulhaq) April 19, 2018 Not impressed by P2P in underwriting, but not my areaAs a behaviorist though I find affinity claims groups an interesting tool against claims fraud — RightIndem (@RightIndem) April 19, 2018 That would make a very interesting loop back into underwriting – certain groups rarely claiming, but perhaps if members of a group were to discover that many claims have been made then they feel incentivised to claim as well? — Edmund Dilger (@EdmundDilger) April 19, 2018 Capital requirements and regulation are not going to go away. And in the consumer space we do have to remember that the product is not going to become exciting #digitalsuccess — Edmund Dilger (@EdmundDilger) April 19, 2018 Q9: How can #Insurance and #InsurTech collaborate to breed innovation at scale? A9: #Insurance companies can provide the solid regulatory framework and financial discipline, whereas #InsurTech can bring innovation, new products and experiences. And they collaborate through #API#PSD2 is a great step in this direction in banking industry#DigitalSuccess https://t.co/iOo2zGw1uV — Abhishek Rungta (@abhishekrungta) April 19, 2018 Insurance companies should not only test disruptive ideas, they also need to deliver business value at a lightning-fast pace by putting more focus on adjacent product innovations. Indeed a great session.We profusely thank all the participants for sharing their thoughts. We look forward to having such more power-packed session in the future on #DigitalSuccess

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Forbes CIO Summit, 2018

With the rapid progression in the digital space and the advent of emerging technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, robotics and more, it has never been more challenging time to be a Chief Information Officer. It is time for the CIO to take the centre stage. Forbes CIO Summit held on 15-16 April at Half Moon Bay, California brought together the most influential CIOs from around the globe to explore the biggest technological challenges, generate new ideas and to build a better corporate ecosystem to encourage amazing innovations. Here are some takeaways from the Forbes CIO Summit: "A new breed of CIO is rising. They see that we can no longer treat humans as machines to fit into our machines made of business process code, and instead curate human/machine teams that do what each member of the team does best.” -Senior Advisor Mickey McManus #ForbesCIO pic.twitter.com/wfASowspao — Boston Consulting Group (@BCG) April 16, 2018 https://twitter.com/AccentureTech/status/985996146588827648 Before we try to tackle the evolution of work and the future of jobs and automation, we have one important question to answer: How do we put people first? Senior Advisor Mickey McManus elaborates: #ForbesCIO pic.twitter.com/37oJGVCell — Boston Consulting Group (@BCG) April 15, 2018 ~2000 years ago the "Boss" knew everything and then everyone reporting to boss and their reports all knew subsets of what the boss knows. Today as a leader, you have to lead people that know more than you do. Andrew Ng #ForbesCIO pic.twitter.com/SDA5LjBgbp — Stephen Gillett (@stephengillett) April 16, 2018 According to @Walmart CIO, companies need to shift from a project mentality to product mentality in order to deliver rapid values to the business. #ForbesCIO — Victor Thu (@VictorThu) April 16, 2018 Just like electricity has made our lives so much better, AI can transform multiple industries. #AI can make #healthcare more high-quality and low-cost, let every child have a personalized tutor, self driving cars an everyday reality — @AndrewYNg @Forbes #ForbesCIO pic.twitter.com/VccoxXkOyK — Anuneha Mewawalla (@AnunehaM) April 16, 2018 Diana McKenzie CIO @Workday: 4 elements of #datastrategy: leverage org credibility and find functional collaborator, have a revenue based data conversation, make data transparent across the org, don’t lose sight of the business problem being addressed #ForbesCIO @peterahigh — Metis Strategy (@MetisStrategy) April 16, 2018 Tough to find mobile developers 5-10 years ago, orgs creating central Mobile dev teams, now Mobile is mainstream every CS grad can develop on IOS and Android, AI talent like mobile 10 years ago. Design org accordingly -Andrew Ng #ForbesCIO pic.twitter.com/0CmUgGZIZS — Stephen Gillett (@stephengillett) April 16, 2018 One of the two former presidents at #ForbesCIO: @IlvesToomas, who spoke about how he helped turn Estonia into the most digitally savvy country on Earth.Presented by @AccentureTech pic.twitter.com/nHHpz8F4pL — Forbes (@Forbes) April 17, 2018 “Smarter technology empowers people – #AI will be the difference between leaders and laggards” @pauldaugh in discussion with @peterahigh shedding light on what CIOs & biz leaders need to do now to equip their organization to succeed in “The Age of Applied Intelligence” #ForbesCIO pic.twitter.com/u2IhWiPsWY — Anuneha Mewawalla (@AnunehaM) April 16, 2018 https://twitter.com/Anand__Pillai/status/986046360456712193 @JayVijayan: differentiating factor in @Tesla’s approach that sparked his idea for Tekion: seamlessly integrated customer feedback loop that enhances #CustomerExperience and ability for @elonmusk and others to always know what open issues and opportunities are #ForbesCIO pic.twitter.com/RuWtXf1peZ — Metis Strategy (@MetisStrategy) April 16, 2018 Artificial intelligence & machine learning has already begun to revolutionize businesses all over the world, and the time is ripe now to adopt in small and incremental phases, using agile methodology. Read our blogs for more such updates!

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#DigitalSuccess : Why is CRO necessary for a Business?

We have launched a #DigitalSuccess program, where we are sharing lots of interesting ideas, tips, techniques to achieve digital success in your business. We hosted our first #DigitalSuccess Q&A session on 28th March. Our CEO Abhishek Rungta interviewed Arun Agarwal, CEO ebizIndia. Arun is an industry veteran and an expert on Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO). The program was broadcast live on Facebook as well as on Twitter. Here are a few key insights from the session on Conversion Rate Optimization for Businesses.  1. CRO is a blend of Technology and Psychology of the potential customer. Both the elements complement each other to improve the conversions at scale. 2. On the mobile version of the website, you should put a mobile-friendly call to action buttons like tap-to-call, tap-to-text in addition to forms for your potential customers. This improves the customer experience and makes the lead generation process more efficient. 3. CRO experts not only have to plan the strategy taking inputs from the CEO or marketing people but they should also connect with customer-facing people (like salespersons). 4. Instead of relying completely on psychological mind tricks, it’s better to use clear messaging and keep the content minimal in terms of length to attract potential customers. 5. Challenge in CRO is having the volume data. If you get a good amount of traffic coming to the website, then it’s possible to experiment with 10-20% of the visitors to understand the performance rather than risk losing heavily on conversions for a bad sample. 6. On your landing page, talk about the pain and gain of the potential customer. This makes the “engagement” more effective. 7. https://conversionxl.com is one of the websites recommended by Arun Agrawal to follow if one wants to excel in CRO. For more insights, you can watch the full episode here – We are coming up with more such sessions. Stay tuned! Do connect with us on social media (Twitter / Facebook / Linkedin) to learn from other’s success and failure. Also, if you have an interesting case study, do share with us and we will be happy to publish it on our platform.

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#TwitterChat : Segment Of One Marketing – A Thin Line between Brilliance and Ethics

Hyper-segmentation, targeted and personalized marketing has taken over the world in recent times. We call it the “Segment of 1”. We have seen the extreme of it in case of the Cambridge Analytica situation, which crossed the line of ethics, whereas many marketers use the power of data to deliver the right content, at the right time to the right person in the right context to drive brand objectives. Today we organized a #TwitterChat session between 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM (IST) on this subject, where we discussed the power of data, the power of “Segment of 1” and where should we draw the thin line between brilliance and ethics in terms of marketing. We featured Jeevika Tyagi (@TyagiJeevika), CMO of Unifynd Technologies. Let’s boost up our knowledge by revisiting this interesting session once again : @indusnettech With the cookies and IP addresses, companies can adapt their communication to each person, without even knowing their names #DigitalSuccess — Jeevika Tyagi (@TyagiJeevika) April 3, 2018 Data Mining softwares are being used in processing large amounts of data into actionable intelligence to reach a level of custom contextual #marketing speaking directly to consumers based on their #traits #DigitalSuccess @indusnettech — Jeevika Tyagi (@TyagiJeevika) April 3, 2018 Brand is able to effectively provide messaging or a value proposition that resonates with the wants of the individual customer and at various stages of their brand/buying journey #DigitalSuccessExample: We recently launched our project @NhanceGo @pmcc #Chennai #malls. — Jeevika Tyagi (@TyagiJeevika) April 3, 2018 Example: We recently launched our project @NhanceGo @pmcc #Chennai #malls. We are using Hypersegmentation to identify customer traits and behaviours and then engaging with them. When you enter this mall on your birthday, our screen will wish you a Happy Birthday with your name. — Jeevika Tyagi (@TyagiJeevika) April 3, 2018 It does sound intrusive but is pleasant anyway, for most. some hyper-sensitive people might hate this though. So it is a conscious decision that the marketer has to take. — Arun Agrawal (@ebizindia) April 3, 2018 A3: Few things that set the boundary of ethics in marketing – 1) Intent – Was the intent to help the customer or misguide him2) Permission – Was explicit permission taken to get access to user and user's friends' data, with clarity on the way it will be used#DigitalSuccess — Abhishek Rungta (@abhishekrungta) April 3, 2018 https://twitter.com/AjiTechShu/status/981125548779950080 https://twitter.com/AjiTechShu/status/981128204302856197 @indusnettech @abhishekrungta #DigitalSuccess i think people will be more careful on sharing data but marketers will find ways of reaching the right customers. https://t.co/42XHHSNQnf — Shraddha Patil (@ShraddhaBPatil) April 3, 2018 We are already seeing some feature rollbacks. I think it will slow down segmentation excellence for some time till the dust settles. #DigitalSuccess However, for long-term, media companies need to clarify the data collected and how it will be used. — Abhishek Rungta (@abhishekrungta) April 3, 2018 Creativity is a huge part of marketing, and using other businesses’ marketing messages just passes you off as being creatively bankrupt and fraudulent. Plagiarism of any kind should with punishable. #DigitalSuccess but also — Jeevika Tyagi (@TyagiJeevika) April 3, 2018 Already, Facebook, Youtube and other successful platforms have a prerequisite filtration on the content one uploads which is helping the Marketeers skip an internal step and take the risk #DigitalSuccess — Jeevika Tyagi (@TyagiJeevika) April 3, 2018 A5. There are codes of conduct and there can be more. However, we need to find a way out to reach the right customer with the right message. And nothing better than the segment of 1. The intent must be right though or else, we get caught soon enough. — Arun Agrawal (@ebizindia) April 3, 2018 In the wild-west of #DigitalMarketing, it is very difficult to enforce a #CodeOfConduct, especially when the marketers are becoming more and more faceless. Some genius brains will use it for crime as well, and this is the reality of #Digital world.#DigitalSuccess — Abhishek Rungta (@abhishekrungta) April 3, 2018 It is wrong to assume that a person would like to be mentioned and recognised on any platform, one should have the choice to select #DigitalSuccess @indusnettech — Jeevika Tyagi (@TyagiJeevika) April 3, 2018 Again Data is crucial. When FB started retargeting options, companies would share their data with agencies to create their ads. No tracking was done for what happened to this data that companies took years to create within the agency. #DigitalSuccess One Motto: #Data is Sacred. — Jeevika Tyagi (@TyagiJeevika) April 3, 2018 As consumers? 80% Consumers are willing share personal data like DOB, Address with companies when they receive special offers or data enabled benefits. I think the real question is what will this brand get me in return. Example: #DigitalSuccess — Jeevika Tyagi (@TyagiJeevika) April 3, 2018 Example: How would you effectively use a platform like @Mint without sharing data. Their suggestive spend engine is going to fail without you linking your #bank accounts. #DigitalSuccess — Jeevika Tyagi (@TyagiJeevika) April 3, 2018 @abhishekrungta @indusnettech #DigitalSuccess no brand can be trusted for data. The important thing is what do they do with data. I shared my no yest with one clothing store and today they added me to WhatsApp group. That's annoying https://t.co/2HIPUCfuWt — Shraddha Patil (@ShraddhaBPatil) April 3, 2018 Once majority of content on FB was UGC and now its no longer true. Its exciting to note what companies like @Steemit are doing. #DigitalSuccess … — Jeevika Tyagi (@TyagiJeevika) April 3, 2018 Indeed, an insightful discussion where we got some brilliant knowledge on “Segment of 1” marketing phenomena. Stay with us, we will bring to you more such power-packed sessions in the future.    

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How Dedicated Hiring Is Helping Our Canadian Customers Scale Their Business

Canada’s burgeoning corporate scene is often cited as an example of how businesses can function smoothly while also ensuring the rights and interests of employees. Most Canadian businesses depend on outsourcing to reduce costs, focus on core business activities, and access talent locally unavailable, among many other reasons. Yet, outsourcing is a topic that often raises eyebrows in this famously polite and civil country. Let us take a look at how outsourcing evolved in Canada, and what businesses across this northern giant are currently doing to scale and multiply their profits. Evolution of outsourcing in Canada in the last decade Like in most developed countries, Canadian businesses began to seek cost-effective solutions across the world to meet growing IT and HR demands, since the 1990s. Companies have often depended on India, the Philippines, Bulgaria, Poland, and other offshoring destinations to meet their business targets. In the last few years, Canadian banks have sometimes received bad press for embracing outsourcing as a business strategy, with critics pointing out that Canadian employees aren’t adequately compensated for the loss of their jobs. Yet, IDC Canada revealed that its survey found an increase of 45% in outsourcing contracts signed, especially in the area of infrastructure support tasks. IT offshoring is a $3 billion business in Canada and a strategy that has proved to work in the last 10 years. Early last year, CIBC was criticized for offshoring its jobs. However, companies often save between 30% and 40%, when they outsource maintenance and development tasks to India. A Deloitte report suggests that outsourcing is going to witness growth in all areas surveyed such as HR, IT and finance. To find a middle ground and appeal to both sides, Canadian companies are increasingly depending on the dedicated hiring model to access talent, reduce expenditure, and scale quickly. Dedicated hiring offers Canadian companies the proverbial cake that can not only be had but can also be eaten. How the dedicated hiring model is helping organizations meet HR Challenges specific to Canada Much like everywhere else in the world, Canadian companies have had to face growing HR challenges such as attrition, higher compensation demands, the inability to find the right talent and changing employee attitudes. An interesting observation that has been made is that top-level executives have been leaving jobs too, increasing attrition levels among C-level executives. As Canada faces an immense shortage of manpower and as immigration does not suffice HR requirements for more manpower, dedicated hiring has come to be a palatable solution. Dedicated hiring has also impressed the critics of outsourcing as this model does not actually lead to job losses in Canada. Instead, it allows corporations to hire external employees on demand, for a specific duration of time. Currently, Canada faces a number of HR challenges such as: Inability to find required talent within Canada Inability to provide the compensation that local employees demand A growing realization that it is not necessary to hire full-time employees for short-term projects Young Canadians often switch jobs quickly, leading to a state of uncertainty among businesses Inability to scale, because enough budget can’t be allocated for marketing A negative attitude towards a traditional model of outsourcing All these problems can be addressed with a dedicated hiring model, as it enhances the profitability of companies while ensuring existing employees’ jobs aren’t threatened. Dedicated hiring model allows Canadian businesses to sign contracts only for a limited number of hours or for the duration of a project. Such a contract gives them access to full-time employees employed by vendor companies, at a fraction of the cost.  Most importantly, dedicated hiring ensures that short-term tasks and projects which need specialized skills can be completed seamlessly. Finally, dedicated hiring offers a sustainable model to scale for businesses that are driven. There are a number of examples of how dedicated hiring is helping Canadian companies to succeed and grow. Let us take a look at some examples. Digital Marketing Agencies: While every company needs some sort of digital marketing assistance, dedicated hiring ensures that there is always a digital marketing team on the standby to address all requirements related to social media and digital platforms, without ever having to hire a full-time team. A trucker based in Ottawa hired our digital marketing services to provide social customer service to his clients on Twitter. In addition, the client also used Indus Net technologies’ dedicated explainer video production team to publish corporate videos on YouTube, which the client later used as sales collateral as well. IT Service Partners: There is nothing more panic-triggering than having to hire a developer who knows an exotic programming language, but his skills are required only for a few days or months. Many of our clients have hired our development teams for all kinds of short and long-term projects, without ever having to hire anyone full time. A Nova Scotia-based eCommerce store hired our Kotlin language programmers to build and maintain their website. Our dedicated hiring model helped the client finish the project quickly, and do what they are best at doing: selling online. Startups: Startups often have very little money to spare on development, social media, HR and other functions. In fact, many startups are run by just one person alone, and it simply is not possible for one person to execute so many roles. A dedicated hiring model allows fledgling startups to offload their burden on vendors, while they can focus on building and marketing their business. Many Canadian startups hire our dedicated hiring solutions for various reasons. An Ottawa-based public relations startup hired our app development services to launch a time-specific application for their own clients. Our dedicated hiring model ensured that app development was completed in a short time, without having to hire anybody full time. What to expect next? In 1964, Bob Dylan wrote and sang “The Times They Are a Changin”, and we must admit they will continue to change in the future too. To ensure businesses are well-equipped to face the demands

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How CIOs Can Prepare for the Brave New World that 5G Is Going to Usher

With most countries set to start rolling out 5G networks late this year, businesses have wondered what it means to them, and they would need to prepare themselves for the changes. 5G is poised to be at least 10 times faster than 4G, and five times more responsive than its predecessor. This means, consumers are going to download movies, play games, and run complex applications effortlessly. 5G is expected to connect 100 times more devices than 4G did, giving rise to a deluge of IoT-enabled gadgets and devices. C-level executives such as Chief Information Officers will need to upgrade their skillsets in order to ready themselves for an ultra-fast future. In this article, let us understand how 5G is going to affect enterprise IT, and what skillsets CIOs and other C-level executives will need to acquire in order to implement 5G networks successfully and enhance products optimally. 5G’s impact on Enterprise IT With ridiculously high speeds, 5G is set to revolutionize the way internet-of-Things (IoT) is imagined and used currently. With more devices being connected to the internet, the resulting data deluge will be something that businesses will have to deal with. However, this data also provides them with opportunities to access rich insights. In addition, people will be able to use applications that are stupendously quick. This may give rise to security issues, and mobile security will be an issue that most businesses will have to deal with once 5G is rolled out. As 5G enables speed and mobile responsiveness, businesses will have to focus more on upgrading their applications to meet the standards of 5G speeds. This means, user experience and user interface design will be something that every business will have to consider improving. 5G requires complex infrastructure, and many businesses will have to focus on upgrading existing infrastructure or investing in newer networks and systems. Enterprise IT will also need to reassess the skill sets of its IT teams, and probably hire developers with advanced programming skills. It is important to remember that 5G will spur a different kind of mobile revolution where applications will be more complexly built, with a more minimalist UI/UX. The top implications of 5G on enterprise IT are : Cloud-enabled applications Enterprise applications so far have been limited by 3G and 4G devices that aren’t exactly impressive when it comes to speed. Cloud applications have often failed to load or even crashed when network signals haven’t been strong. With more employees using cloud-based enterprise applications on their devices, 5G provides the necessary speed to successfully run enterprise-grade applications. this mans, businesses will find it easier to use cloud-based applications, many of which are subscription-based. This will lead to reduction in infrastructural expenditure. AR and VR technology Augmented reality and Virtual Reality will find an impetus thanks to the 5G network. Both AR and VR technologies are likely to be used in situations outside entertainment. For instance, businesses may begin to use virtual reality in shipping and transportation. With robotics improving alongside, 5G will help in remote management of many tasks that were previously done manually. Being able to remotely control and manage logistics, shipping, and other processes will likely be a groundbreaking scenario for eCommerce entities. Fast-loading applications 5G is likely to encourage developers to create fast-loading applications, which are free from bugs. Launch-time performance will take the center-stage among developers and will be an important criteria while conceptualizing applications. The implication for businesses here is, they will be able to get more users to take action. It is a well-known fact that even a millisecond of delay in app-loading results in the user not using the application at all. 5G will encourage users to engage with an application for a longer time. Smart devices Tremendous speeds will help businesses to toy around with IoT-enabled devices, giving them opportunities to access data that probably wasn’t available previously. businesses may also benefit from Big Data, specific instances of which may be shared via Blockchain. Speaking of Blockchain, enterprise IT will find itself having to worry less about security as Blockchain adoption is going to grow alongside 5G, enabled by its speed. Blockchain, IoT, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies will help build better smart devices, which will perform better thanks to 5G. Mobile responsiveness With speeds come responsiveness, and that is where enterprise IT will need to focus on this year. 5G has the resilience and capacity to support really complex applications while also making sure that responsiveness is not at risk. This means, users get to engage with complex applications intuitively, without realizing that underneath the simplicity, the code is unfathomably complex. This also means, businesses will begin to focus a lot more on UX/UI than they ever did before. Sales and marketing A surprising outcome of 5G rollout will be the effect it will have on sales and marketing departments. This will necessitate enterprise IT to develop better strategies to deal with data that results from customer interactions. Data resulting from social conversations will need to be managed ever more deftly, as 5G will definitely encourage people to interact with companies and product manufacturers/developers more frequently. Security This whitepaper by Ericsson explains why 5G requires additional security aspects to be considered. 5G is not exactly a faster version of 4G. It involves a very different kind of technology, which necessitates a different kind of infrastructure. Consequently, the biggest implication for enterprise IT will be that of security. IT departments will need to plug in all holes to ensure security and privacy are protected. As 5G will encourage more employees to use mobile devices for most enterprise-related tasks, BYOD policies need to be bolstered with adequate security measures as well. With 5G spurring changes with enterprise IT, there will also be a need for CIOs to develop new skill sets or hone existing ones. 5 skill sets that are closely associated with 5G rollout are : Programming knowledge As 5G will herald superfast mobile apps, complex AR and VR enabled

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Attribution Metrics and Performance Marketing in Mobile

Are you reading this article on a mobile device? Going by statistics, insights and the scene at any dining table or college cafeteria, you most likely are. We live in a mobile-first world. In an average day, at least one out of four people with access to the internet, only use a smart phone. Moreover, we freely move back and forth between devices to get things done: Over half of this demographic rely on more than one type of device in an average day, with 1/5 of them using another device while concurrently using a computer (Google Insights).  Due to the stupendous role mobile phones play in our lives enabling us today to conduct all operations on the move, consumers now have the flexibility to develop curiosity, interest, attraction, and craving for a product, even compare it with similar products and place the order, within moments of viewing its ad on Instagram! But, there is an acute dearth of conclusive data on what determines online consumption today. With the advent of Marketing Attribution, we are closer to solving the mystery of what makes up effective digital marketing. Attribution Metrics is the way in which marketers assess ROI of the strategies/channels that connect them to potential customers. These tools simplify the retailer’s understanding of what it takes to make their products marketable, in the absence of any direct communication between the consumer and the seller (save for review forms and online surveys). To learn which marketing strategy is paying off, which chess piece needs to be moved around to generate better results, Marketing Attribution brings you the best system to standardize and monitor consumer behaviour. Why is accurate attribution so important for your business? The holy grail of media measurement is to analyze the impact and business value of all company-generated marketing interactions across the complex customer journey. Settling to remain in the dark—or worse, working under wrong assumptions—is akin to driving without a navigator. Inaccurate attribution will not only hamper your growth rate, it can also throw you off the right track by generating false impression or sketchy information about the complexities involved in online retail. Various marketing channels combine and permute to convert leads to sales, and the number of such channels is increasing every day with each new feature getting added to social media-verse. Facebook Explore, Instagram Live, Snapchat stories, Twitter buttons and Pinterest redirects are constantly revamping themselves to make it easy for businesses to attract and improve their presence for prospective buyers. This also makes it more difficult for these businesses to generate an actionable analysis of which channel is ultimately responsible for their success or the lack of it. With new agents (for mobile online payment like PayTm or Apple Wallet) being constantly introduced to the cycle reaffirms how important it is for marketing attribution to be constantly vigilant about the newest developments in the field. According to Matt Voda writing for The Make Good, “With accurate attribution comes not just more confidence in the strategies and tactics in place today, but most importantly, better decision-making, improved efficiency and effectiveness, and higher ROI. Accurate attribution helps you confidently zero in on your next best moves.” Attribution will be the biggest challenge marketers face this year Besides facing the perennial challenges of piecing together the product’s lifecycle complicated by dynamic ads, there are privacy and customer trust issues which makes tracking every step of the way difficult, unethical, unprofitable and counterproductive. One aspect that attribution metrics have not yet been able to solve is how offline advertising affects the online purchase. This offline to online transition has made one thing difficult for sure: it is now much harder to estimate the impact of your campaign, especially when it comes to mobile marketing. Developers are still struggling to come up with ways in which cross-channel influencers affect the performance of online ads. The rapidly changing scene today demands granular ad-level analytics to drive day-to-day activities of branding and marketing teams. Different Types of Attribution Models : 1. Single Source Attribution: First or last touch-based attribution takes into account only the channels engaging target audience with the product in the very beginning or the end. Upper Funnel Distribution registers the beginning of a customer’s purchase journey as in the case of programmatic display ads, while Bottom Funnel Attribution makes note of an ad’s ability to close the deal, like run search ads. 2. Multisource attribution: Since both touch points work together in driving conversions, most businesses prefer a model that generates insights on all levels of lead engaging. Multisource attribution credits each channel for their contribution to the final conversion; it includes everything from ads and social posts to webinars and e-newsletters. Also known as equal attribution, this accounts for every involvement in attaining a final sale. “It brings a sense of equality to the process, but at the same time doesn’t take into consideration the idea that certain aspects of the conversion have more weight than others – for example, the first time an ad is shown could arguably have played more of a role in the final conversion than duplicate impressions.” In such cases, weighted attribution proves to be more effective because it facilitates and substantiates these insights with by filing the hierarchy of the roles played by each channel in converting leads to sales. 3. Post-view attribution gives conversion credit to the visibility, reach of the ad. However, this is highly unreliable and quite useless at the end of the day, because while a lot of ads are shown to users, not all of them are necessarily seen. This is why post-click attribution is more useful in eliminating unnecessary data, taking into account only those ads which have generated clicks or redirects to the next stage of purchase (to the company’s website or shopping portal, for example). After the initial touch and before the final touch point before the sale, it doesn’t account for any prior website visits and is thus unable to shed little

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Creating Better User Experiences and Better Products with Data

In 2018, it almost sounds repetitive to say that user experience trumps features, and designing a better product depends on understanding what it feels like to use it, and best to design a product that can be used intuitively. Intuitive user experience and a great product depend on a number of things including great design. However, there is something far more important and basic than design, which is data. Data in the form of customer feedback, customer expectation and motivations, system performance and errors, and the ability to make sense of data is collected over weeks, months, and years in the right context is what helps develop great products and superior UX. Yet, data is often ignored or given just lip service simply because product designers and developers do not have the resources or interest to process complex datasets concerning customer feedback and expectations. Let us admit it. Customer feedback, surveys, and reviews build up over a period of time, and most companies simply toss the accumulated data to the side, quite literally. Yet, it is this very data that is needed to create better experiences and better products. Why the reluctance to use data when it is so freely available? Every business gathers data, even if they do not realize that they are. However, most companies are reluctant to use the data that is already available on their systems. This data may stem from customer feedback forms, web traffic figures, purchase trends, social media conversations, and just about anything that results due to the intersection of business, customer, and the product. The reluctance stems from distrusting data and feeling overloaded by data that is continuously collected by systems. With many products being “intelligent”, data overload has led to data daze, as a Forbes article puts it. The same article describes data daze resulting in analysis paralysis. The answer is simple. Most companies hesitate using data or downrightly avoid anything remotely related to data because they feel paralyzed by it. How can a business avoid this state of data paralysis, and confront it to make it something useful? 84% of CEOs do not trust the quality of data they have on hand It is psychologically proven that too much information reduces cognitive ability process it. This means, too much data leads to data daze. Overanalyzing data can lead to analysis paralysis, similar to what happens to an individual with psychological difficulties. While distrusting the quality of data and feeling overwhelmed by data that is available is natural, so is feeling paralyzed by over-analysis of data. The truth is, no company can process all the data that it collects. It needs to know what it wants to know with data that is already available, and how it is going to process it. This brings us to the question of processing and placing data in meaningful contexts. How to place data in meaningful contexts When it comes to understanding and using data, context matters more than anything else. Cognitive overload of information results in inefficient use of that information. For example, a boy that is given a dozen books on his birthday may not value them, or even feel intimidated by them, even if those books are classics. However, if he learns to categories those books in a shelf, or is helped to do so by someone who understands those books, he will not only pick up those books, by also put to use what he learns from them. Similarly, every business must put the data that they collect into context. Without placing data in context and simply processing it using analytical tools will result in an analysis that may not be relevant at all, resulting in analysis paralysis. With the Internet of Things, location-based applications, wearable tech, and sensors contributing to the data deluge, one must really know how to place all that data in context. While this may seem difficult, it is not impossible. Ask yourself these questions: What am I trying to improve? What might my customers want? How can make it easier for customers to use my product? Which variables could help me understand what customers want? How can reduce the amount of data that is analyzed? As you can see, asking yourself or other C-level executives in your company will help you to develop a frame of reference with which you can handle data. Once you know what you are looking for, it is easier to find it. Usually, you can find all these answers with the assistance of your customers plus with a little help from your friends (IT department and technology). 3 important sources of data to develop better products and UX As you might have learned to question yourself in the previous section, the answer to your data quandary lies with your customers and your IT department. Collect customer feedback: To make sure that you understand your customers better so that you can design a product that is inherently more intuitive to use, you should start collecting customer feedback. Customer feedback can be collected in umpteen numbers of ways, both online and offline. Customer feedback, opinions, and reviews can be processed using linguistic and data crunching tools so that you understand the prevailing opinion about your product, and how it can be improved. This axiom holds true whether you have designed an application as a product, or an actual physical table as your product of choice. The fewer customers you have, the more opportunities you have to seek detailed and intimate feedback from them. If you have a large number of customers, feedback forms can be statistically analyzed. While this may sound time-consuming, which it inherently is, improving user experience and creating better products are ongoing processes too. Customer expectations, and what motivates them: Next, make sure that the features that you offer alongside your product meet customer expectations and motivations. This is the part that answers “why does my customer want to use my product” question. Knock the door of your IT department:

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Top Reasons why video marketing should be part of your 2018 strategy

Chris Anderson in his igneous TED Talk said, “What Gutenberg’s printing press did for writing, online video did for face-to-face communication. That primal medium has now gone global; it’s like reinventing an ancient art form.” The audio-visual medium helps shed a bright light on potent ideas, thus creating an intense desire for learning and response. It is perhaps the most powerful way to communicate your brand story, explain your value proposition, and build relationships with your customers and prospects today. Digital Video Marketing has slowly become a larger piece of the content marketing pie. Tech giants and venture capitalists around the world have predicted that video marketing is the future of online content marketing and 2017 has truly been the year of video marketing. According to Forbes, “An insatiable appetite for video among users, paired with better technology for making, posting and targeting social updates, sees companies now spending more money on social and digital ads than on TV advertising.”       Looking back at the year that’s been: 43% of prospective customers want to see more video content from marketers 9% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI 85% of businesses now have in-house production teams and internal resources to shoot promotional videos 35% of businesses are using intermediate or advanced analytics to measure video performance Personalized videos retain more viewers till the very second than non personalized ones People spend on average 6x more time on pages with video than without People have always been drawn towards moving images. Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% while reading the text. Even until a few years ago, we could send and receive only text messages on our mobile devices. But today, we send and receive animated GIFs and short videos on WhatsApp. Videos are; undoubtedly, much more effective than text and it is no wonder that video digital marketing has taken the world by storm. The advent and popularity of YouTube have changed the way how we watched videos. Today, with almost all the social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) having video hosting platforms and live features, video consumption has increased astronomically and has become a large share of internet traffic. A new way of looking By 2018, Cisco predicts that 82% of all consumer Internet traffic will be video. It also forecasts that Consumer Video-on-Demand (VoD) traffic will nearly double by 2021. Here are some of the evolving trends with respect to video marketing to make a splash in 2018: Live Video and Stories on Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat are set to occupy a major fraction of online video content. Trends show that video consumption is at least two times more when it comes to videos recorded live as compared to those pre-recorded. Facebook today is giving YouTube a run for its money with its new and more accessible video recording and uploading features such as Live Video and Lifestage. Video stories enable entrepreneurs to add a personal touch to their value proposition; the stories have a daylong lifespan which can also be capitalized because it helps enterprises showcase their dynamic and evolving nature, driving them to spin new stories out of their products or services every day which again affects engagement. Video can now be consumed on mute and in square aspect ratios, making video sharing, hosting and watching more flexible and novel than ever before. Around half the videos on Facebook are streamed without sound. Just like in films, messing with aspect ratios in promotional content on social media too garners special attention from the mass. 360-degree videos and Virtual Reality (VR) projects are being increasingly used by business enterprises, especially the B2C sector, to present their products in a more attractive fashion. Video mapping is also creating a visible impact when combined successfully and unobtrusively with online marketing strategies. Last October, Facebook unveiled Oculus Go, a new VR headset that is reputed to be very user-friendly and an easy option for developers to be introduced to VR. Forbes expects you to see AI and related tools play an ever more important behind-the-scenes role in sharing audio-visual messages. Advancement in technology will soon enable proprietors and entrepreneurs to test social media Ad variations in huge numbers at the same time. Analytics becomes an important part of online marketing, in determining which images and text will get the most clicks. In the near future, users will soon be able to “automate campaigns so that the best-performing posts are instantly boosted to the biggest audience”. Integrating video marketing into your business plan is no longer a luxury but a necessity to keep up with the global revolution that has been brought about by the emergence of the online video. Today, videos generate global recognition which drives huge amounts of effort and attention either indirectly through comments, ratings, word of mouth or directly by the number of views. Bandwidth has exploded a hundredfold and the intricate network of innovators, commenters, mavericks, skeptics, superspreaders, and trendspotters catalyze the process of making a video viral. Brian Halligan from Hubspot recommends that at least 50% of your content mix be video. Video platforms within apps and embedded videos within the website have managed to engage more users today. HubSpot says, 96% of B2B organizations use video in some capacity in their marketing campaigns of which 73% report positive results to their ROI. Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users. If you’re worried about a massive hit to your budget, remember that your video content doesn’t have to be highly-produced. Live video is quickly becoming a tool that gives brands a high level of reach and engagement on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, so take full advantage. Here are four reasons why you should include video marketing in your marketing plan and how videos can be effective for your business. Videos build trust Videos encourage social sharing Videos boost search engine

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