Digital Marketing for SMEs

20 Oct 2020 Digital Marketing

The way to succeed in today’s competitive market is by reaching your prospective customers quickly. The majority of the buyers are looking for products online. This presents a huge opportunity for SMEs’ to focus their marketing efforts towards investing in a wide range of digital methods that they can adapt to suit their objective, budget, and industry. Whether they’re trying to grow a construction business or restaurant, digital marketing is necessary. Digital marketing has transformed the way SMEs connect and engage with their customers. SMEs can use digital marketing to effectively put their brand in front of the target audience at the right place and at the right time.

What is Digital Marketing and why is it important?

  • Digital marketing is the form of marketing that relies on electronic media to spread the message across. This mainly includes websites, emails, search engines, social media platforms as well as TV and radio commercials. Investing in digital marketing is crucial for SMEs as both the consumers and the competitors are online. If the prospective consumer is not able to find you online, they are most likely to switch to other brands for fulfilling their needs. The consumer expectation has changed in the digital world of today. They search for products and services online, and if you do not have social media presence or a website, you can’t compete.
  • It helps in measuring the effectiveness and performance of the campaigns- it is possible to monitor the performance of the campaigns in real-time. There is timely data available through various tools like Google Analytics to review the effectiveness and performance of the current strategies and make changes accordingly to refine them to focus on the customers’ requirements. Metrics like engagement and conversions help in measuring the success of the campaign.
  • Drives new inquiries to grow any business, the customer base needs to grow for higher revenue and profit. Customers can be reached through social media channels, websites as well as video marketing. Mobile customers are a rapidly growing market and the above efforts help in attracting these users to ensure you can generate more traffic and capitalize on it.
  • Websites serve as a 24/7 sales representative- For SMEs, having a strong online presence can help in boosting and generating sales and reach the audience more efficiently. A well planned and designed website works round the clock for you to attract potential customers by providing information related to the products and services.
  • It is cost-effective- SMEs sometimes do not have the budget to focus on traditional marketing such as print ads, TV, etc. This can be a disadvantage for them. Digital marketing is far more cost-effective. A well-crafted digital marketing strategy can help reach prospective customers at a much lower cost than traditional marketing methods. Attention should be paid to understanding the results of the data generated by digital marketing tools to increase revenue without spending a lot of money.
  • Maximize ROI- high ROI is the ultimate goal of any business investing money in the marketing campaigns. With digital marketing being far more cost-effective than traditional marketing, it has been more successful in generating higher ROI. Analytics tools help in understanding what is working and what is not to make necessary adjustments ensuring effective utilization of marketing budget.
  • Helps build brand awareness- digital marketing has revamped the way businesses engage with potential as well as current customers. It has served as an effective tool for building trust and fostering long-term relationships. Social media has helped businesses reach the target audience and connect with them. Content created to target the prospective customers can ensure brand visibility and develop trust by addressing the interest and their pain points.

After getting an understanding of what digital marketing is and why it is so essential in today’s day and age, let us look at some digital marketing strategies that SMEs should implement.

  1. Optimization – It is one of the most important steps that any SME should take before going ahead with spending on online advertising. If the customers visit your website and they do not like what they see, chances are that they will never return. There are many aspects to website optimization, with SEO playing an important role in the ranking of the website on search engines. Optimizing helps in online visibility which can be attributed to website design, accessibility, user experience, content, and speed. Minimal designs are known to capture the attention of the audience. With the use of colours and visual content, you can establish your brand and its image. Websites should be designed keeping in mind the functionality to guide users to take action and look for products and services. It should be easy for a user to fill out forms, use drop-down menus, etc. With more and more traffic being generated from smartphones, the websites should be optimized for all different devices. Research has shown that when a website takes longer than 3 seconds to load, the bounce rate goes up thereby losing half the potential customers. Optimizing the size of files, photos, and graphic content will ensure faster loading time. Last but not the least, the content of the website needs to be good in quality and should be informative to encourage a visitor to stay and come back for more. It should relevant to the target audience. Using keywords in the text content, image tags, links, etc will help when people search for your content online as search engines will index the website.

 

  1. Social Media Marketing – Social media is a great tool for online marketing. It is the best way to reach people who are active on social media channels. Marketing on social media helps in many ways for SMEs to get noticed. Ads and posts can be created keeping in mind the target audience to reach the users who are likely to buy the product and services. Social media offers great ways to engage with the target audience and build strong relationships. Emphasis should be on interacting regularly on social media through posts. This not only helps increase the reach but Google also ranks organically as the brand is seen to be popular and worthy of organic ranking.

 

  1. Backlinks – Linking websites on high ranking websites and online directories are referred to as backlinks. Sites with quality backlinks are ranked higher by Google. Backlinks should be added naturally over time. This helps Google in perceiving that the website is gaining popularity and is worthy of indexing for its quality content.

 

  1. Google My Business – SMEs should get their business listed on Google. The profile should carry pictures and up to date information and encourage customers to review and rate the small business on Google. These ratings greatly impact in attracting customers to increase sales and grow the business.

 

To make digital marketing work for your business, you need to have a strategy in place to optimize and utilize all the resources available. An efficient digital marketing strategy means using all digital channels and creating a wholesome campaign. Integrating all the platforms goes a long way in achieving the objectives.

Google Adds AI To Algorithm

18 Oct 2020 News

Each time Google updates its algorithm, it is moving a step forward in making the search experience easy and more relevant to the users. It is imperative to stay up-to-date with the latest features and updates by Google.

As a part of the Search On 2020 event, Google made several announcements related to its search engine which provide varying levels of functionality. These new features aim at explaining how AI is now increasingly influencing the algorithms of its search engine and helping people find the information they need.

• Spelling recommendation improvements -The BERT algorithm being used currently, processes almost all the request in English. With the new algorithm, it will understand the misspelled queries using 680 million parameters which will help in terms of the quality of the search. In other words, Google has improved its spelling predictions to help find better matches for users.

• Identifying passages of the text – The second new feature is the ability of the algorithm to better understand a passage within a page by indexing individual passages of text within web pages in order to find relevant information hidden in the page relative to a user’s query. This helps with very specific and precise requests. This feature will arrive in November and will improve 7% of search results in all languages from the start.

• Key moments in videos -The videos also fall under the new innovations with a better understanding of the content to bring the visitor to the search engine directly to that part in the video where the answer to the question can be found. Using the AI approach Google has been able to align with YouTube chapters where creators are able to add descriptions relative to each segment of the video via timestamps, which can help Google by providing more context as to the content in each part.

• Hum to search – Something on the lines of Shazam, Google with its audio algorithms is now able to identify popular songs based on humming or whistling to the search app. It is very simple, hum a tune using google assistant and the algorithm will work to identify the potential song matches.

• Subtopics in search queries – Google is adding subtopics to its search queries. It means Google will show the users subtopics as options within the search results which will deliver greater diversity of content when something broad is searched. For example, if you search for home exercise equipment, Google will now be able to give results based on relevant subtopics like budget, small space ideas and show a wider range of content on the search results page.

• PinPoint for Journalist – Google has announced PinPoint which aims to help the journalists. It will be a free tool that will be available in 7 languages allowing them to search for information related to entities like names of people, places, companies, etc.

Additional features that Google will unveil in the coming weeks will be new visual search possibilities in Google Lens, the Knowledge Graph, Google shopping, Google Maps, and Google View. Keep a lookout for more updates from Google to stay ahead and informed.

Four Reasons why Appointment Scheduling is Essential for Every Business

14 Oct 2020 Uncategorized

Your office schedules hundreds of appointments each week. For a good clinical workflow, arranging activities such as negotiating follow-ups, sending reminders, and making new appointments are all key. That said they will suck up a lot of the time of your workers too, which is always at a premium. This is where a good appointment scheduling software comes into the picture.

Software systems for online scheduling reduce unnecessary time and improve medical office performance. Here are the top 4 reasons for considering this the best appointment scheduling software:

Save Time

Without the best appointment scheduling software, you would waste many hours a day on the phone or email simply trying to manage the new appointments, the reschedules and the cancellations. In order to make more out of your time, you would need a free online appointment scheduling software that would help you focus on rendering service, rather than being on the phone.

Stay Motivated

Telephone scheduling calls keep the workers most of the day unfocused and frustrated. Your front office has many tasks to perform during the day, including customer service, welcoming patients, answering questions and clerical errors. Distractions also lead to expensive mistakes and errors. Constant scheduling of appointments also interrupts these significant duties. Streamlining the scheduling process frees workers to complete the work they need. Therefore, a free online appointment scheduling software is a necessity to keep the team motivated so that they can conduct their core tasks.

Save Money

You’re wasting money if you’re not listening to your patients. A large number of patients agree that the opportunity to self-schedule their appointments is a priority. As an example, one can look at the medical industry where hundreds and thousands of appointments are made, adjusted and cancelled every single day. What does this mean for the business and more importantly, what does this mean for the patients? Patients benefit from the convenience of the best online appointment scheduling software. You can cut back on the needless expense of a human appointment scheduler with new innovations and the low cost of scheduling technology. Expand the patient potential of your practice while allowing your current employees to concentrate on more significant tasks. For more productive and effective work, online scheduling also enhances coordination between employees.

Additional Features

Beyond appointment scheduling, an online appointment scheduling software provides many features. With a secure online scheduling system for appointments, your practice can:  Eliminate the need for employees via phone or in-person to plan, shift, or cancel an appointment. Online scheduling of meetings frees workers to concentrate on important issues. Manage all this through the machine – right down to finding open appointments that suit the needs of the patient. Easily mimic patients. Many applications give patients auto reminders, days and even hours before their appointment (via email, mobile, text, or even mail). “I forgot,” is no longer a legitimate excuse. Without an appointment, answer simple questions. Most software provides HIPAA Compliant screening procedures that remove simpler medical conditions and issues. Solve easy diagnoses without having an appointment schedule. Many appointment scheduling software also allow pre-appointment forms to be uploaded by the office. Instead of wasting appointment time, the patient should fill these forms out ahead of time. The majority of patients prefer making their own online appointments. Not alone are you. Most health care providers fail to refine their plan for scheduling. 26 percent of scheduled online appointments are on the calendar for the same day or the next day, filling up vacant spots. Practices can now deliver real-time patient scheduling at any time and from anywhere – even at 3 a.m. with Internet connectivity.

If your company depends on appointments from clients and consumers, you need to make sure they are readily available with the best appointment scheduling software. A perfect way to do that is to use a free online appointment scheduling software. This way, your clients will be able to see exactly which appointments are available and book them immediately.

Unfortunately, in the e-commerce process, appointments are frequently ignored, with businesses tending to concentrate on marketing and outreach. That would be a shame because of an inaccessible (or confusing) framework for appointments.

Moving your appointment scheduler online also ensures that your customers are more open to you. Customers just don’t have time to schedule appointments during working hours in today’s linked and busy world: data reveals that 35% of customers prefer making appointments during non-business hours, and 40 percent of online bookings actually happen after hours. There are substantial amounts. At a much cheaper cost, an appointment scheduler will give your customers 24/7 access to your appointments system.

It is definitely inconvenient for customers to miss appointments, but the implications go far beyond this. And if 5% of your clients don’t attend their appointments, you’re missing out on 5% of your profits. In fact, possibly more than 5%, since high-value customers are typically the busiest, and thus the most likely to miss an appointment with your team. Through submitting appointment reminders automatically and integrating with your customers, the best appointment scheduling software will significantly minimise no-shows.

Converting visitors and engagement into appointments is one of the major challenges faced by online companies. You would miss out on a lot of business without a strong and quick CTA (call-to-action) in any of your marketing materials. A good CTA will increase software sales conversions by 32 percent . Neglecting to verify the CTA is another cardinal sin as well. An appointment scheduling system helps consumers to directly see your accessibility and facilities from your materials for outreach. Of course, you can go much further. Using AI assistants as an alternative to their appointment booking systems, some businesses have had great success. Not only will these assistants allow your clients to see which services and appointments are right for them, but they can also address fundamental questions and even perform customer service duties. An appointment scheduling software is something that can revolutionize the way a business works.

How Do You Optimize Your Homepage For SEO?

14 Oct 2020 SEO

The homepage is a company’s virtual show window. When visitors come to your website and do not like what they see, they will leave. A good homepage is not only designed well, it is free of clutter and addresses questions that the target visitor would have. It will also have a call-to-action directing the visitors to take the next step. Homepage SEO can pose a challenge. If you do not optimize the homepage for search, then the likelihood of visitors finding you is low.

Factors that contribute to making a good homepage

  • Simple and clear design-helps in finding the information a visitor is looking for which is presented attractively and makes browsing easy thereby boosting the experience of the visitor through easy navigation.
  • Compelling homepage copy-should speak to the target audience in their language, answer their questions, help in building trust, and include keywords for the page to rank well in search engines.
  • Call to action– helps in leading the users towards becoming your customers.

A good homepage will always have a compelling headline to get the attention of the visitor with subheadings that tell you more about the company and what they have to offer. The visuals should support the text and remember, visuals play a vital role in holding the attention of the visitor so choose the visuals that support the text. Share your offering with the visitor and how it can benefit them. Emphasize on providing a solution to the problem and build trust with the visitor.  Last but not the least, have a call-to-action.

How do you optimize your Homepage for SEO?

In this section, we will focus on listing down tips that will help optimize SEO for the homepage.

  1. State the purpose of the company – The homepage should serve as a welcome center for all the visitors giving them a short insight into the product and services you offer and the distinguishing features that set you apart from your competitors. Managing the content on the homepage will help briefly put across the best traits and linking other pages for detailed information to help visitors navigate smoothly.
  2. Selection of keywords – You should focus on selecting multiple theme-based keywords to spread the reach. If you have stiff competition, target non-branded keywords which can give you a higher chance for SEO and generate interest amongst the target audience.
  3. Optimize the title – The webpage should carry an SEO-friendly title which includes keyword/keywords. When people link your homepage, they may include the whole title as anchor text. As the homepage carries the most links, you can rank for the keyword in the title. There are some tips you can keep in mind for optimizing the homepage title tag
  • Include target keywords– one of the most commonly missed SEO elements on the homepage is the title tag. The title tag should carry keywords that state what the business is all about.
  • Do not just focus on keywords– use creativity to come up with a title that includes the keywords.
  • Keep it relevant-a well-researched term brings traffic to the website. Keep an eye out for competition, keep it relevant, and use it throughout the homepage copy text.
  1. Optimize the meta description – The meta tag description can strengthen the click-through rate and drive people to your website. Effective use of meta description act as a sample for users within the search engine result page that helps in getting their attention even before they get to the homepage. This is the opportunity to write briefly about your company that appeals to the target audience. Remember, the meta description should carry the brand name and the targeted keywords.
  2. Optimize the H1 tag – H1 headers are a prime spot for keywords. You need to strike a balance between catch headlines and high-value keywords. To leave a lasting impression on your visitors, the focus needs to be on placing the keywords strategically.
  3. Link carefully – The homepage is the ideal place for internal linking. This not only improves navigation for the visitors but also helps in establishing site hierarchy. The homepage serves as a hub and google requires it to sort out the site architecture. The footer can act as an additional menu with internal links that directs the visitors to other pages on the website. Footer has known to help generate traffic to the most important pages.
  4. Offer a good experience – Make sure the homepage is optimized to generate a positive experience for the visitor. This can be achieved through the use of subheading and graphics to put across a point. Try and avoid large blocks of text and focus on content that addresses the target audience.
  5. Optimize homepage loading speed – Page speed is the most important element for optimizing a homepage for SEO. 1 second delay reduces the page views by 11% and decreases customer satisfaction by 16%. Page load time is also important for improving positioning in organic listings as google now prioritizes based on mobile-first indexing. Page speed leads to a greater return on investment as an improved user experience helps in retaining its visitors.
  6. Create an appealing content flow – In the process of homepage SEO, the focus should be on creating content that engages the visitor with information regarding the company and its product and services. A good way to do this is by creating a menu. The homepage content should reflect the menu and site architecture. Separating different sections helps the visitors find important information easily. Place the core content in the first few sections to get the attention of the visitor immediately. The visitors should be able to transition from one focus to the next effortlessly with the use of interesting visuals and impressive site design. Remember to include a commercial keyword or several keywords while creating the homepage content as it is the most promoted page.
  7. Add an SSL – An element that plays an important role in optimizing the homepage SEO is the security feature. An SSL certificate is the first step to making any website secure. This feature is crucial for an e-commerce website as it helps make the potential customers feel more secure about making transactions.
  8. Optimizing main keywords on the homepage – Optimize the homepage for the most relevant and important keyword and then support it with other internal pages that are relevant.
  9. Use branded anchors as your keyword tags – The focus for any webpage should be on branded anchors. This helps in keywords being ranked naturally.
  10. Optimize around branded terms – To optimize the homepage for SEO, the focus needs to be on optimizing around branded terms. Optimizing for the company name or the product name is essential and an opportunity for optimization for the homepage. Additionally, research keywords that the target audience is using to find the company’s product and services and terms that the competitors might be using and capitalize on them. Strike a balance between the branded and the non-branded keywords.
  11. Homepage image SEO – Search engines do not give any weightage to visual and videos. So when optimizing the homepage for SEO, complement the visuals with appropriate alt text as it helps the search engine understand the content of the homepage better and rank it higher.
  12. SEO audit tools – These are important for site auditing to identify SEO issues that may exist on the homepage. These tools regularly crawl the website and check all data points and let you know of any issues that need optimizing and how best to fix them.
  13. Call to action – Having a good call to action is as important as having rich content, keywords, heading tags amongst other things for homepage SEO. While the call to action does not fall in the SEO but they do help in achieving the overall SEO objective.

Homepage SEO involves many things that are required for a homepage to rank higher. Quick load time, using keywords in the title tag, H1 tag, meta description, SSL certificate all contribute to making the page mobile-friendly and load quickly. Follow the steps mentioned above to achieve success in optimizing the homepage for SEO.

 

5 Reasons To Revisit Your Website Content

12 Oct 2020 Web design

The worldwide web is the best and the most effective way to promote and market your business.

What is most important is not just developing a website, but to update it to keep it relevant, fast, and safe. Trends in web design are always evolving so are the trends in the products and services you offer. Updating content is crucial in staying relevant for people searching for you. Additionally, search engines like Google are constantly updating their algorithms to provide the best possible search results. Hence, it is critical to revisit your web design and content to stay relevant and maintain your site rankings.

In this article, we will look at 5 reasons why we should revisit website content

  1. Updated content leads to more traffic – The first impression of any website is the overall look, but a visitor is also looking for information on your website and that is why they are there. Keeping the content of the website updated helps in determining the effectiveness of the website and building trust with the customers. It also helps in building the domain authority of your website in your niche. It is the content of the websites that is crucial for its success. It should be simple, on-target, and effective to engage the visitor in the 2 to 4 seconds window and hopefully convert them into customers.
  2. Keywords Trends are evolving – Monitoring keyword trends and updating content is important for Search Engine Optimization. Updating the copy of the website regularly ensures that the outdated keywords are updated with the current relevant ones to drive traffic to the site. How people search and the way they search has changed drastically over the last few years with the increasing use of mobile devices. Keeping tabs on search trends will ensure that the website delivers the most relevant information to your audience.
  3. Updated content leads to frequent indexing – The more frequently you update the website with new articles, updated content, new pages, or downloads, the more frequently the search engine will bring up your site. This helps in achieving higher rankings based on content. A website is indexed based upon various factors like incoming links to the site, the keywords used and how often is the website updated. With every update, the search engine notices and re-arranges the site ranking. Thus, updating the content regularly increases the chances of a higher ranking of the website. Quality content is the key.
  4. Customers problems have evolved and so have the solutions you provide – The content on the website should empathize with its audience and help in providing a solution for their problem. It is important to get a clear understanding of what the audience is looking for by getting into their shoes. The problem they face now may be very different from what they have faced in the past and the website needs to reflect that. E.g. COVID 19 has presented companies with the challenge of setting up and managing remote working. The problems evolved overnight and the focus shifted to providing cybersecurity for home setups. The websites providing solutions had to address these issues with the content on their website to stay relevant and present themselves as experts. As the business grows and expands, so does the consumer demand in your niche. The content on the website should be updated to reflect the needs of the clients and how best you can meet them.
  5. The competition is way ahead of you – It is important to stand back and look at your website and do a comparison of it with your competitors’ websites to see how they address the problems of the audience. Do they present themselves more convincingly with their offering? What makes them more trustworthy in your niche? Or are they simply better in providing the product and services? A critical analysis of your website will help you in reorganizing the content, focus on providing the solutions which the audience is looking for in a more empathetic manner and redesign the site layout to get ahead of the competition.

A website is a very important tool. It gives an overview of what your business is about. Investing time and money and thought into its content should be one of the top priorities for your business. Hope this article will help you relook at your website and its content and make the necessary changes to gain the maximum out of your website.

 

10 Podcast Editing and Recording Software

9 Oct 2020 Podcast

There are now over 800,000 active podcasts with over 54 million podcast episodes currently available worldwide. Because of a low cost of entry, in the first ten months of 2019, a record 192,000 new podcasts have been launched. According to the Internet Advertising Bureau, and PriceWaterhouse, ad revenue is expected to reach $679 million this year, increasing to $863 million in 2020 and over $1 billion by 2021. Popular podcasts can charge advertisers between $10 to $50 for every 1,000 listeners, approximately two or three times the ad rate for broadcast radio. Many blue-chip online advertisers now sponsor podcasts and a growing number are producing their own.

Podcasts have found their way into our daily lives. You can find just about any topic, idea, or niche on the platform, and yes it all for free. Due to the high demand, every celebrity (be it a chef or an author or any other specialized field), TV shows, websites now have a podcast. Anyone can start a podcast – all you need is a topic, a good quality microphone, and a way to record it. There are many software products available in the market for recording and editing podcasts. Which one you select will depend on the budget, your goals, and the audio editing skills you have. We will explore some of the best podcast recording and editing software products, with the aim of helping you find the one best suited for you to attract the attention of the audience.

Before we list the options for recording and editing podcast software, let us understand why we would want to use podcast editing software in the first place.

  • Recording – podcast editing software also serves the purpose of recording software. This works well as it means that you only need one platform to record as well as edit the podcast. Though there is one exception in the case of recording remote conversations with a co-host or an interviewee. You will need to use dedicated recording software to later import into the podcast editing software and put it all together.
  • Editing – podcast editing software is mainly used to edit the podcast of any mistakes and unwanted sections.
  • Fixing the volume levels and cleaning up – editing software is used to clean out any background noise, ensure the consistency of the volume throughout the podcast and ensure that the volume level of the podcast is at the acceptable level.

10 Podcast Recording and Editing Software

  1. GarageBand – It is a free Digital Audio Workstation known for its audio recording capabilities featuring a versatile set of audio recording tools. The software interface is easy to understand and get used to and is a great choice for anyone who wants to create podcasts with ease. The editing tools are as remarkable as the recording tools. It allows the users to clean up and remove any mistakes and control the volume. What makes this software more attractive is the fact that it is iOS based which means it is accessible from an iPhone and an iPad and you can record the podcast in the app without having any access to a Mac computer. Some of the other advantages of using GarageBand are that it is free and is included in all apple devices, offers a portable podcast recording and editing tool for on-the-go podcasting, and allows users to share their audio recordings on social media.
  2. Audacity – Many popular podcasters started with Audacity for their initial episodes. It is a free Digital Audio Workstation that works with macOS, Windows 10, and Linux. Recording your podcast, music or any other type of audio material through a microphone or a mixer is a smooth and easy process that even beginners can use it. Having said that the editing tools of the software are powerful enough to meet the demands of professionals as well. This cross-platform editing software supports many plugins that allow its users to apply audio effects to their recordings. Many online tutorials can be found on how to use this software.
  3. Alitu – Is a perfect software for people looking to make podcasting as easy as possible. This software removes background noises from any and all the audio clips you import and improves the overall quality. It also merges the audio files automatically which allows you to create a new episode quickly and reduce the postproduction time. One of the attractive features of the software is that it has a theme music maker that can be used to create intros and outros for the podcast. Post-editing, the podcasts can directly be exported on to the podcast hosting platforms like Buzzsprout, Libsyn, or Speaker.
  4. Hindenburg Journalist – Specially designed Digital Audio Workstation for podcast, interviews, and radio, this software works on Windows and macOS and has an easy interface. It allows you to record and edit and the software automatically sets levels for you based on loudness. Post recording and editing, you can upload the podcast directly to SoundCloud or Libsyn. It is one of the best podcasting solutions available at the price in the market.
  5. Adobe Audition – Professional podcasters are well aware of the Digital Audio Workstation made available by Adobe as it has set the industry standards for years. This iconic recording and editing software has everything you need to record and edit your podcast. There are many templates to choose from and one can set up multitrack recording sessions if several voices are to be recorded at the same time or you can access the software library for royalty-free sound effects to make the podcasts more interesting and entertaining. The Essential Sound Panel allows for audio levels to be adjusted with precision.
  6. Pro Tools – This Digital Audio Workstation has every possible tool imaginable for recording, editing, and mastering the audio. Pro Tools supports collaboration in the cloud and enables the inclusion of other Pro Tools users in the project. It allows you to add plugins to apply audio effects or create high quality reverbs. ProTools when connected to a number of control services help in speeding up the mixing process and even allow audio and video mixing. It can be challenging for newcomers and needs good sound engineering experience to work with this software.
  7. TwistedWave – It is a simple podcast editing software that also offers audio recording options for all-new episodes of the podcast. It requires you to push a button to add markers to parts of the recording that you want to edit and reduce the postproduction time. Compression and limiting are some of the editing tools that help improve the quality of the podcast. This software can be used through a web browser or on all Apple devices. Some of its additional features include automatic silence detection and metadata support.
  8. Zencastr – This software provides a mix of features that make it a very attractive option for long-distance solution for podcast recording and editing. It can feature unlimited guests, records each one of them in a separate lossless WAV track, and saves the file on the host’s local drive or cloud services. Zencastr has a soundboard that can be used by the host while recording which leads to less editing later. It is easy to add intros and outros music, sound effects, and clips to the podcast while recording. In the end, the finished audio is processed in a single mixed track with adjusted levels. Some of its additional attractive features include a sleek web-based interface, up to 3 hours of recording time per session, the free version offers users 8 hours of unedited MP3 recording for 2 guests.
  9. WaveLab10 – This software is designed for professionals to perform the most challenging audio editing tasks. WaveLab10 is used to process recordings before they are published in the digital format. It features restoration tools that help recover damaged or inaudible sections of the recordings. You can use the software to create stereo and multitrack recordings of the podcasts and apply the professional tools to add a finishing touch to each new recording made in the audio editor. Some of its additional features include powerful batch processing tools, excellent sound design features and offers industry-leading audio analysis options.
  10. Fission – This podcast editing software has a varied set of audio editing tools that makes the editing process easy and simple. It integrates with Audio Hijack software that can be used to record the podcast and then edit in fission before uploading it to the hosting platform. It allows you to fade, cut, or merge multiple files without any quality loss, and chapters for the podcast can be created. All audio files edited using Fission can be uploaded to SoundCloud directly which makes it a perfect choice for podcasters using it as their hosting platform.

The quality of the audio you share with your audience through your podcasts can play a major role in the popularity and its success. It is imperative to find a podcast recording and editing software that preserves the quality of your material and helps you in establishing yourself as a success in the podcasting niche. Which podcasting software you select will depend on your experience and your expertise in podcasting.

Retargeting on LinkedIn

7 Oct 2020 Social Media

Retargeting is a great way to increase the impact on users who have shown an interest in your company. Retargeting also referred to as remarketing, is a form of online advertising which helps your brand stay in front of the bounced traffic after they leave your website. Retargeting is a tool designed to help companies reach out to the majority of users who do not convert on their first visit. However, how you use will differ across the different digital channels.

Let us look at a step-by-step guide to LinkedIn retargeting which includes:

  • Retargeting and how does it work on LinkedIn?
  • What are the different types of retargeting on LinkedIn?
  • How do you set it up?
  • What are the best ways to use it?

Retargeting and how does it work on LinkedIn?

Retargeting is a cookie-based technology that uses simple coding to anonymously follow your audience all over the web. Small code is placed on your website which drops a browser cookie anonymously when you have a site visitor. When this same visitor browses the web, the cookie enables the retarget provider to know when to serve up information, ensuring that your information is served to people who have previously visited the site. LinkedIn uses the same concept of retargeting that is used across other digital channels. The user visits your website from a LinkedIn campaign and leaves. The website drops the cookie, and the same is used to show the same visitor more targeted ads in LinkedIn. There are some ways LinkedIn offers for retargeting. Let us take a look at them.

Different types of retargeting on LinkedIn

  1. Retarget by website – Matched audience can be configured to directly impact the users who clicked on the LinkedIn ad and were directed to your website but did not convert. This kind of retargeting can only target the visitors coming from LinkedIn.
  2. Retargeting by video or lead generation forms – To retarget video viewers, it is important to select the appropriate completion quartile. If the video is less than 30 seconds, choose 50% completed or higher else select 25% completed or higher. For targeting visitors with lead generation forms it is important to select the right action. To generate new leads, retarget the ones who opened the lead generation form but did not submit. For nurturing the existing leads, the focus needs to be on retargeting those who submitted a lead generation form.
  3. Retargeting by List uploads – The set up allows for the list of leads and customers from other sources to be uploaded. Care should be taken to ensure that the lists adhere to the LinkedIn formatting guidelines. Contact targeting can also be done by setting up data integrations with supported partners of LinkedIn. After the lists are uploaded, LinkedIn matches them with their database. This way they are able to find leads and customers who have a profile on LinkedIn.

Setting up Retargeting

Having looked at the different kinds of LinkedIn retargeting, let us get into the details of how each one of them is set-up

  1. Setting up the Insight Tag – For website retargeting, you need to set up an Insight tag that will help track conversions, retarget and help in gaining real-time insights on the professional traits of the website visitors.
  • Start by adding a lightweight javascript code to your site
  • Ensure that there is just one Insight Tag per domain and it is installed in the global header of the website. In cases where it is not possible, tag the individual pages of the website.
  • While the tag takes time to build the audience, set up your website targeting segments right away.

Important things to keep in mind during the set-up stage

  • The audience will not be matched unless the Insight tag is correctly installed.
  • Provide enough time for the website traffic to build. It may take up to 48 hours for the audience to build. It may even take longer depending on the traffic to the website
  • There should be 300 members in the audience before the campaign can begin serving impressions.
  • Once 300 members are matched, the campaign will automatically start delivering if u have activated the campaign.
  1. Retargeting by video or lead generation forms – This retargeting impacts people who have taken some action on the website by watching a part of the video or submitted a form. In this, details of the specifics like retargeting the audience that viewed 25%,50%,75%, or 97% of the video ad or opened or submitted a lead generation form and specifying which campaign needs to be retargeted should be provided.

Important things to keep in mind during the set-up stage

  • Provide enough time for the audience to build which may take up to 48 hours.
  • There should be at least 300 members who must be targeted before the campaign can begin serving impressions.
  • Once 300 members are targeted, the campaign automatically begins delivering if the campaign is activated.
  • When setting up the campaign, exclude those who have submitted a lead generation form for awareness or consideration campaigns.
  1. Retargeting by list uploads – In this retargeting, you learn how to import or integrate email lists for contact targeting. The idea here to use an already available database of users who have shown interest in the business and take the advertising impact to LinkedIn. There are two ways to get started with contact targeting. One through uploading a contact list and second through connecting data integrations.

Important things to keep in mind during set-up

  • Use the template provided by LinkedIn for proper formatting. Check spellings for accuracy to help get the highest match rate.
  • Larger lists are likely to have better match rates. Consider uploading a list of at least 10,000 contacts or more for optimal results.
  • When selecting contacts, target influencers, or decision-makers for optimal results.
  • Avoid hyper-targeting which can limit the scale and delivery of the campaigns.

You may have a list of target companies that can be used for retargeting on LinkedIn.

In this, the focus is on reaching the decision-makers at the target accounts.

Important things to keep in mind during set-up

  • Use the template provided by LinkedIn for proper formatting. Check spellings for accuracy to help get the highest match rate
  • Larger lists are likely to have a better match rate. Consider uploading a list of at least 1000 companies or more for optimal results.
  • Avoid hyper-targeting which can limit the scale and delivery of campaigns.

LinkedIn Retargeting is a very powerful tool that can be used to make a second impact on people who have shown interest in your company.

Top 10 UX Design Principles

6 Oct 2020 Web design

Design principles are widely accepted guidelines, laws, and design considerations that the designers apply with discretion. In other words, they are fundamental pieces of advice for the designer to make easy-to-use, eye-catching designs. These are applied when creating, selecting, and organizing elements and features in the work. In a UX design, it is crucial to find ways to improve usability, influence perception, increase appeal, teach users, and make effective design decisions for projects.

Top UX design principles to keep in mind while designing the website

  1. Know your user and their needs – A website is only as good as its user’s experience. The focus of all UX design principles is on users throughout the design process, understanding their needs, expectations, motivations, and frustrations thereby making it clear that the website design should work on providing and improving the users’ experience with the product and services. A clear understanding of these will help the designer to build and focus on the personas throughout the design process. It is important to know what the users are looking for in a design.
  2. Content is supreme – To give a website a more meaningful direction, it is important to focus on crafting a story of a brand or a product before getting into the visual design phase of a website. Telling a story can connect people to an idea or a product or service. Start with planning the content and then move around designing the website.
  3. Have a clear hierarchy – It is one of the best tools for designers to help a user smoothly navigate throughout the design easily. There are two different hierarchies involved in UX design for a website.
  • The first hierarchy relates to information with the focus on how the content is organized across the website. This mainly refers to a primary navigation menu that includes the main sections. This is the menu which you notice when you arrive on a site. As you click on each item, what you see is the secondary menu that gets more specific moving you down the information hierarchy.
  • The visual hierarchy is the way the designer helps the user navigate more easily with a section or a page. Visual hierarchy requires the more important content to stand out like for instance, headings are typically larger than the body text and often use a different font. Similarly, interactive elements use different colours to draw attention to its interactiveness.
  1. Consistency – Users expect products to be consistent with similar products they have used in the past. The more familiar the product, the more easily the users will learn and have a better experience without any additional learning cost. This consistency makes the design process easier for the designers as they don’t have to reinvent new designs with every project.
  2. Understand accessibility – An important rule to keep in mind while designing a website or an app is accessibility. It is for the designer to make sure that the design is usable for as many people as possible including people with disabilities. Accessibility can mean many things at the interface level. From the ease of keyboard navigation and speech input technology to controlled animation for photosensitive user amongst other things. Remove any hurdles in the design layout for easy navigation.
  3. Begin with mobile in mind – A “mobile in mind” approach should be adopted to cater to the needs of the users and not face any issues when scaling up the design. Designers should focus on designing mobile and desktop wireframes at the same time to test the breakpoints.
  4. Experiment with animation – Interactive web design and animation can add movement and make the website come to life. Animation, when done well, has been known to help educate the customer about how the website or an app function. It is usually seen that users respond positively to small, unexpected, and playful elements.
  5. Ease in finding the right information – The most important information should be the easiest to find. Once the user is acclimatized with the site, more advanced features and technical details can be unveiled. For many sticking to the principle of being minimalistic and showing only what is necessary has proven to work well.
  6. User control – Focuses on providing greater flexibility of use and control of where a user is within the design, enhancing UX. An essential part of providing user control is to allow users to backpedal or recover from any errors. For instance, when a user is creating a new item like an email or an event, a cancel button should let them abandon the task. An undo button also comes in handy for reversing an unintended or undesired action. Another way to improve user control is by providing users with ways to improve their efficiency. Keyboard shortcuts are a great way to do this and so does advanced searching help users find what they are looking for more efficiently.
  7. Tree-test the prototypes – Tree testing exercising is done to evaluate the performance of the site’s architecture. It helps in understanding if the navigational paths are intuitive, and do they lead the users where they expect to go quickly without any confusion. For example, while browsing for something unique on an e-commerce site is the user able to find it easily, or is it a challenge? The answers to such a question can be found once tree-testing is done.

You want users to come back to your website for the products and services that you offer. The challenge than any web designer faces is to make the experience unique and as smooth as possible. The above UX design principles can surely help you in the right direction to achieving that.

Top 10 Affiliate Marketing Programs

5 Oct 2020 Content

How does the idea of making money while sleeping sound to you?

Affiliate marketing is how you get started. The main idea behind this kind of marketing is to promote other people’s products through an affiliate network, earning a commission if people buy these products thanks to your marketing efforts. This is a revenue-sharing model where if you have a product and want to increase the sales, then you offer the promoters a financial incentive through an affiliate program. Let us now look at the definition of what affiliate marketing is. “Affiliate Marketing is a process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s or company’s products. Choose a product that you like, promote it to others, and earn a piece of the profit for every sale that is made by you. In today’s online scenario affiliate marketing programs provide you with offers that can be promoted online. People can sign up for these programs online, use the existing marketing material and/or links with a unique URL, and convince others to click on it. In the event that someone signs up for the product or service using the URL, you can earn a commission.

Some of the best known Affiliate Marketing Programs can be found below:

  1. Amazon Associates – Amazon is a great platform for affiliate marketing and especially for beginners. The vast marketplace takes care of most of the sales process, bringing the leads to you. Signing up for the Amazon Affiliate program is an easy process and is free of cost. Once accepted, you can sell any Amazon products, including third-party ones without getting into individual programs. It is a great way to make money without having a strong background in affiliate marketing.
  2. CJ Affiliate – One of the largest affiliate networks since 1998 with expertise that shows in every aspect of their work. It is a great program for experienced marketers, featuring 300 brands. It has a very stringent selection process where you need to apply with your website which needs to be found worthy of becoming a partner based on traffic, quality of content, and optimization. However, this is just the first step. The next step involves applying individually to each vendor for their products to sell and you may or may not be accepted. The program has shown a 43 percent year-on-year growth in commission making it an attractive option.
  3. ShareASale – It has been in business for nearly two decades and is also one of the largest affiliate networks with a lot of trust in the industry. It is a well-loved program due to the user-friendly interface, easy free sign up and supports for the affiliates running multiple websites. A major advantage for this program is the standard and digital payout options with digital payouts being rare among the popular affiliate programs. With over 5000 vendors, you get a huge library of products to choose from. The only drawback with this program the pay-out threshold of $50 may be difficult to reach for newer websites who are still struggling to build their traffic.
  4. ClickBank – With 6 million digital products across 20 categories and with a reach of over 200 million people worldwide, ClickBank is an attractive choice for affiliate marketing. It offers a very high commission and has a reputation for regular payouts. The product base is easy to navigate making it easy to find products to promote. Unfortunately, they do not offer digital payments.
  5. eBay Partner Network – Offers a great way to tap into the massive affiliate potential of the eBay market. The sign up to this program is simple. As an affiliate marketer, you need to advertise eBay products through your social media, blog, or website to earn a commission for every product sold via your link.
  6. JVZoo – Relatively a newcomer with only 6 years of experience using the SaaS approach. The products can be listed in the marketplace for free and JVZoo earns a 5 percent standard commission on anything that sells. The affiliate marketers are paid instantly as the item is sold. Affiliate marketers stand to make more money when affiliates that they recruit sell products. Another advantage of using this program is that when a buyer referred by you purchases another product that may not have been referred by you, you get the commission for that sale as well.
  7. Fiverr Affiliates Program – It pitches itself as one of the world’s largest digital service marketplace with over 11 million users spread across over 190 countries. It offers a substantial commission plan and has no limit on referrals. It is user friendly and has an attractive portfolio of creative resources to promote.
  8. Shopify  – It is one of the leading e-commerce programs used by online retailers and bloggers. It offers a great partnership for affiliate marketing and you can earn a lot per referral. Shopify is known to be the leading contender in its space with very few other eCommerce platforms coming close to it. While the pay-outs are good, the audience needs to be selling things online for the platform to be relevant to them.
  9. PartnerStack – An affiliate program that focuses on promoting software products and tools including well-known popular software. 30 percent of the software sales can be attributed to the channel partners so if there is an audience for a particular software, then it has great potential for an affiliate marketer. PartnerStack focuses on building partnerships between the product owners and the affiliate marketers which is an advantage.
  10. Affiliate – This is a top choice for affiliate marketers looking to have access to many verticals which means a large variety of products and offering to choose and focus on to get the best results. Once accepted to the program, it gives you access to your very own affiliate manager that helps in optimizing the traffic and create a bonus program to gain the maximum.

No two affiliate programs are the same. Depending on your niche, your audience, and your personality different affiliate programs may be better suited for you. The different affiliate programs covered here offer a range of possibilities for a beginner to an advanced affiliate marketer.

 

Top 10 Payment Gateways

1 Oct 2020 E-Commerce

Having safe online payment methods is one of the crucial elements of running a successful online store that can achieve its sales objectives. Multiple and reliable payment methods significantly impact the volume of sales and engagement. If the payment gateways on a website are not reliable, it impacts a business negatively by increasing the bounce rate on the store and drives away a large number of customers who can purchase on the store. Hence it is essential to be aware of all the top online payment gateways and companies that provide good payment services to deal with to enhance and boost the online store, make the process of payment smooth, fast, and secure and gain the confidence of the shoppers. A payment gateway should allow merchants to accept multiple transaction facilities like debit/credit cards, wallets, etc. securely on the website as well as a mobile app.

How does a payment gateway work?

The customers while shopping on the website or app adds the product or service to the cart and proceed to the payment page. The customer is prompted to provide the details of the credit/debit card to make the payment which is the 16-digit card number along with the name of the cardholder, the expiration date, and the CVV number. This information is then submitted and securely passed to the payment gateway based on the integration type. The payment gateway encrypts the card details and after the security checks, the card information is sent to the acquiring bank. They further send these details to card schemes like Visa, Mastercard, etc. It is for the card schemes to ensure another security check before sending the payment information to the issuing bank. The issuing bank authorizes the transaction after security and fraud check. Whether the payment is approved or declined, the message is sent to the payment gateway which further sends the message to the merchant. Based on the message from the payment gateway the merchant either displays the payment confirmation or asks the customer to try again. Some of the top payment gateways provide smooth transactions and the whole process runs in the background in real-time within a few seconds.

Having understood how the payment gateway works, the next step is to look at the factors to consider when choosing a payment gateway.
• Security- the payment gateway security standards should meet the PCI Data Security Standard and should be integrated with 3D secure. This ensures protection against fraud and hacking activities.
• Easy Website Integration- the payment gateway integration should be simple and the customer support should be good. Any issues that you may face should be resolved quickly and with ease.
• Payout time- some of the best payment gateway service providers have taken a reasonable timeframe for payouts. It is important to check payout time frames before the integration process.
• Multi-currency option- if the business is global, then the payment gateway provider should support multi-currency payment.

Here are the Top 10 Payment Gateways

1. Paypal – It is one of the leading online payment companies that help people and companies to send and receive payments without the hassle of providing any financial information using just an email address. Paypal operates in 203 countries and has taken over most of the auction sites as well as e-commerce sites for businesses that rely heavily on PayPal e-payment services. The differentiating feature of PayPal is that it accepts electronic payments in more than 25 currencies in the world and supports most of the widely used credit cards like Visa, American Express, Mastercard, etc. Some of the other important features of PayPal are that it has a mobile application that makes it easier for the customers to manage their accounts via a mobile phone, provides advanced protection from fraud, and that you do not need a merchant account to use Paypal. It is PCI compliant, offers Express checkout, and also provides the option of bill me later.

2. PayFort – This is an Amazon Company, operating in Arabic speaking and surrounding countries such as UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, and Qatar. Payfort’s payment gateway accepts and proceeds multiple online payment methods with high security in order to minimize transaction risks in your site and boost your revenue.

3. Stripe – It is a cloud payment gateway platform that helps in accepting and managing online transactions anywhere in the world. It is a complete solution for online payments with features like custom UI toolkit, consolidated reports amongst other things. It ensures a smooth movement of funds for any business while preventing frauds offering great security, managing revenue, and drive sales. Since it offers an open API that helps in integration with the ecosystem of the business. Some other important features are that it provides a mobile customer interface, allows multiple- currency payouts, offers payment options, has a dispute handling feature.

4. Skrill – One of the well-known payment gateways that understand the modern payment demand in terms of payment processing and money transferring. It has many top companies as their customers owing to the use of innovative business solutions that they offer. It is one of the successful UK-based payment gateways that supports 30 different currencies and has been recognized and awarded by many top companies like Deloitte Technology and several others. Some of the important features include email transactions, provides quick access, and offer a free account.

5. Authorize.net – A global payment gateway providing strong infrastructure and security for smooth, fast, and secure transfer of transactional data. It manages the routing of transactions in an online setting without the installation of any specific software just like in the case of swiping your card. With a merchant base of 370,000 around the globe, it accepts payments securely ensuring a smooth experience. It has a fully integrated checkout payment system that accepts and processes payments from other bank accounts through the Authorization.net virtual terminal or the user’s website. Some of the other features that it offers are e-check processing, customer information. Manager, retail payment, Mail/phone payment, advanced fraud detection.

6. PayTabs – PayTabs is well-known for leading-edge payment processing and fraud prevention system. This flexible and secure online payment solution enables e-businesses to make or receive payments online with ease, create and send invoices through agile and unique technology. Moreover, PayTabs’s innovative layers of security management are certified by both Visa and MasterCard.

7. Telr – Is one of the most well-known payment gateways, which supports multiple popular payment methods. It is accepted in more than 100 countries, and constantly updates more payment methods. There are three payment levels: Entry, Small, and Medium, which are great for startups, SMEs, and e-commerce businesses in the emerging market.

8. Cashu – Cashu is considered the first and the largest online payment solution company in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This secure payment gateway applies modern fraud prevention and AML systems to avoid all risks associated with online transactions. Every transaction is guaranteed without any risk of chargeback. With Cashu, you will have a lot of opportunities to grow your business across markets on both a local and global scale.

9. 2Checkout.com – Whether you’re tapping into international markets, looking to boost conversion rates, or running a subscription-based business, 2Checkout can help you tackle the complexities of digital commerce, globally.

10. Payoneer – One of the world’s leading online payment company offering its services to individuals and businesses around the globe. It has its presence in more than 200 countries enabling businesses and individuals to send and receive money in a safe, simple, and low-cost way.

To be successful in e-commerce, many factors need to work simultaneously. If you provide products and services online, you need to understand how these work for the success of your online business. Your choice of the payment gateways can either lead to success in business or its failure. Choose wisely.

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