Daily Cup of Tech

8 Trends That Will Shape Insurance In 2021

Miley on March 31, 2021

Many sectors have been exploring possibilities on how to personalize their customer’s experience in the effort to cope with the current health crisis. Structural changes across sectors are happening all around the globe. Insurance industry is no exception.

It is known that the most effective communication channels during the pandemic were mobile apps, messaging platforms & chatbots. Several reports from multiple sectors forecasted that AI’s initial impact would primarily relate to improving efficiencies and automating existing customer-facing underwriting and claims processes. Over time, its impact will be more far-reaching; it will identify, assess, and underwrite emerging risks and identify new revenue sources, impacting nearly every aspect of the P&C insurance industry and Medicare.

Demand for tailored products, such as business-continuity cover for small enterprises, pandemic insurance, and event-cancellation policies, will soar. Property & Casualty (P&C) insurance and Commercial insurance will see policies changes. Commercial insurance will face different types of claims resulting from injury or death.

Doing business in the insurance industry will change, as doing business is changing in all industries in all sectors lately. Insurance brokerage will be digitalized, but already there are so many changes that are inevitably leading us to the up-to-date modern insurance agencies. Self-service applications are literally your portal to all policies, documents, pink-slips, etc. Customer support is becoming so customized that you somehow create a really strong bond with your insurance agency (or agent) even though we all seek a digital (and “further”) approach.

These structural changes will interlace, on the other side, with people who use wearable technological devices. From wearables like Google Glass to internet enabled home automation devices like Nest, internet-connected devices will allow insurers a novel personalisation of services.

To rethink the offer is to survive and thrive in the business. Property and casualty insurers will need training to have a deep understanding of new potential threats for small businesses. Similarly the insurance industry will see some significant mergers and acquisitions in 2021.

Let’s see how the sector is going to be transformed from the more advanced use of trigger emails to new technological frontiers:

Triggered email campaigns

Studies show that companies using triggered emails enjoy a 34 percent increase in revenue and earn 53 percent more conversions. Similar to retention efforts, AI can also facilitate marketing efforts to target customers most effectively.

Digital services and phygital experiences

The ability to combine the physical and digital experience is to provide customers unique, highly-personalized experiences while stipulating a contract through mobile devices. Some reports even forecasted that AI’s initial impact will primarily relate to improving efficiencies and automating existing customer-facing underwriting and claims processes. AI algorithms can process data and use this data to identify potential or existing customers for re-engagement campaigns.

The switch to usage-based coverage

Working remotely will change the requirements and specifications of many insurance types. The reduced movement of people will incentivize insurers to create usage based coverage.

Security and privacy

Blockchain technology accounts for the issues of security and trust in several ways. Personal insurance data or health records could be encoded and stored on the blockchain with a private key, so that they are only accessible by certain individuals.

Green sustainability

“Sustainable insurers” will outshine competitors. They’ll strengthen their brand and update fast. Commercial insurance will be impacted. Car insurers are likely to introduce more incentives for their customers to switch to electric cars. Some may advertise their intention to stop providing cover for petrol and diesel vehicles. The fear of “greenwashing” recently started progressing, after several affairs. Today companies can’t just say that they are green, but there has to be a proof of that. Insurance agencies also need to persuade the market that, if they claim the sustainable approach – that those practices are in deed – green.

Bitcoin as a new asset class

MassMutual recently invested US$100 million in Bitcoin for its general investment fund. Plenty of other carriers will start adding cryptocurrencies to their investment portfolios.

Life and health insurances

Carriers that quickly establish a strong presence across the health ecosystem will gain a big advantage over competitors. There will be a wider insight into customer’s needs. Digital health, wellness products and services will be emphasised.

Market expansion

The insurance coverage will expand beyond traditional markets. The flat premium revenues and low investment returns predicted for 2021 will accelerate this trend.

Considering these 8 factors in time will enable insurers to align their businesses to the changing needs of their customers and deliver new lucrative products and services.

We’re living in exciting times where technology will allow us to have a complex tailormade interaction, allowing us to execute operations that were impossible beforehand without not only our physical presence, but also the physical presence of an external entity to validate the desired contract stipulation or change.

Development

How Can Tech Adoption Improve Sustainable Business Development?

Miley on March 30, 2021

Running a sustainable enterprise in 2021 is a priority for a variety of reasons. First, sustainable and frugal often act as synonyms. After all, spending fewer resources to get the same job done will benefit your budget, as well as your eco-friendly image. The second reason for going green is your PR and being able to label your brand as green.

Lastly, from both an ethical and strategic standpoint, you need to acknowledge that our planet is on the brink of an ecological disaster. This means that it won’t be long until government regulations force your business (and your entire industry) to go greener. Why not do this ahead of time and provide yourself with a sizable competitive edge?

One of the best ways to achieve this is by adopting new tech trends. Some of them are meant to make your business model more efficient. Others can outright reduce your enterprise’s carbon footprint. Let’s check some of the most relevant green tech trends to adopt in 2021.

Remote Work is Reducing Carbon Footprint

In the era of COVID-19, many people were forced to work from home for the first time. Still, even before this unfortunate series of events, there was a large and expanding population of telecommuters out there. Now that they’ve seen all the benefits of the business model, the chances are that many entrepreneurs won’t fully return to the old ways, even after the pandemic is over.

Employees who telecommute don’t have to be paid commute reimbursement. This also allows them for a larger potential talent pool, seeing how reasonable commuting distance is no longer a factor when hiring. From an environmental standpoint, this makes a huge difference since private transport is one of the world’s biggest sources of greenhouse gasses. Since most business interactions in the digital world are paperless, this is another item in favor of this business model.

Accounts Payable Automation Helps Create a Paperless Business World

Old-school invoices heavily depend on the use of paper. However, with the help of processes like accounts payable automation, it’s a lot easier to make a paperless business world. An average company may send hundreds and thousands of invoices annually, which significantly contributes to the enterprise’s carbon footprint. By digitizing and switching to eco-friendly, paperless alternatives, going green becomes a lot easier.

Fortunately, this is far from being the only benefit of going for AP Automation. This high-tech accounting process also helps elevate your accounting’s reliability to a whole new level and ensures that your enterprise always makes its payments on time. In a modern enterprise, an accountant’s involvement in business processes goes past their traditional role. Many of them hold tops spots in small and medium enterprises, while some are getting actively involved in digital marketing. Keeping an eye on everything with the help of accounts payable automation will help increase their efficiency.

Cloud Storage and Green Hosting

Another way to ensure sustainable development in the business world is to turn towards cloud storage. For starters, it reduces the cost of doing business. Compared to the alternative, storing information on these servers is a lot greener in nature than the alternative. Sophisticated as they are, additional HDD and SSD drives are costly (for the user) and take resources to produce (from the manufacturing standpoint). When compared to servers that the cloud storage runs on, this option is quite power-hungry. If the server in question is also using green hosting options, this solution becomes even more environmentally-friendly.

Employee Training and Development

The concept of employee training and development has drastically evolved over the course of the last decade. Online courses and webinars have introduced a revolution in the world of e-learning. These concepts have evolved alongside tech trends that made them possible, efficient, and accessible. Some are even using webinars to drive their sales or get feedback on their products/services. The key thing is that this form of learning doesn’t require printed materials and a commute to the conventional classroom. Materials like e-books, whitepapers, case studies, presentations, and instructional videos are eco-friendly.

Digital Marketing

The concept of digital marketing is superior to its traditional counterpart in two significant aspects. First, it’s measurable in a way that old-school marketing never was. John Wannamaker, one of the pioneers of modern marketing, once said: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” With present-day analytics, this is no longer the case.

Another advantage of digital marketing is the fact that it has a significantly lower use of paper. Email marketing and social media marketing are paperless. The same goes for blog posts. What do you think happens to billboard posts once they get worn out and have to be replaced? Promotional materials of all kinds (eventually) create waste, and not all of them are recyclable. Simply put, digital marketing is both more efficient and eco-friendlier.

More Efficient Local Collaboration

When talking about the benefits of hyper-connectivity, the majority of people focus on the bigger picture. What about being able to connect to other local businesses effortlessly? With the help of local SEO and business databases like Google My Enterprise, it is a lot easier to find local partners. In the case of local suppliers, the carbon footprint of all interactions is drastically reduced since goods and raw materials need to be transported over shorter distances. This concept also strengthens local economies, which is a significant benefit on its own.

The Breakthrough of VR

VR has all but revolutionized many industries, and one of the most prominent examples is real estate.Instead of traveling long distances to visit a home that they are interested in, people can just put on a headset and have a virtual tour of the place. This lowers the carbon footprint produced by the traffic within the real estate industry.

In terms of training and education (something we’ve already discussed), VR can provide trainees to experience simulations without any use of resources. For instance, pilots can fly without spending tremendous quantities of fuel. Furthermore, heavy construction machinery operators can practice without the risk of damaging any materials that they’re handling in the simulation. Overall, as VR technology further expands, we can expect these benefits to grow even further.

Wrap Up

By adopting new technological trends, companies are gaining a significant competitive edge. However, they’re also making their contribution to the good fight. All of the above-listed trends have more to offer than being just eco-friendly. This creates that unique win-win scenario where an entrepreneur gets to do the right thing and gets rewarded for it. Still, this is a never-ending process. There are always new ways to innovate and make your business more sustainable. Therefore, you should always be on the lookout.

Development Insights

How to Maintain Your Brand on Social Media

Miley on March 26, 2021

90% of Instagram users say they follow a brand
1.62 billion people visit Facebook daily
92% of companies will tweet at least twice per day

Maintaining your business’ brand was never an easy task, but as social media has reached new heights in popularity, it’s another piece of your brand that you’ll need to take very seriously. Social media sees billions of users log on every day, and that means you have an incredible opportunity to reach many of those users – or at least the ones who will be interested in what you have to offer.

So, this is not a situation to be taken lightly. Having a strong social media presence can give you the edge over your competition, but it’s not as simple as logging onto Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to make an occasional post. That’s why hiring a digital marketing agency Miami is often the right move, but first, let’s take a look at some social media branding tips to get you started.

Make a Policy

This is crucial. Having a social media policy that details everything that needs to be followed can save you from dealing with a not-so-fun digital marketing situation in the future. You’ll need to figure out what kind of voice to use and how to handle numerous different types of situations.

Plus, since you’ll have everything in writing, you’ll have a consistent guideline for dealing with anyone who decides to take things a little too far. Your social media policy should include topics such as:

Security
Copyright
How to handle a crisis
Privacy

Keep Your Voice Consistent

Having a consistent voice across your social media platforms reinforces that these pages fully represent your brand. This doesn’t mean, however, that everything should be the same across these platforms. People expect to see a different type of post on Facebook than Twitter, even if it’s basically about the same thing. Use emoticons (check Kaomoji); they can help you out to emphasize the things you want and show some personalization.

This might involve a little bit of trial and error to discover what you want your business’ digital voice to be, but having the help of a digital marketing agency can help streamline this process.

Work on Your Bio

When it comes to digital marketing, even the small stuff counts. As someone browses through social media, they’ll be seeing many posts, but one of yours might catch their eye. It interests them so much that they decide to check out your profile to learn a little more. This is the moment you’re waiting for. This is your time to shine. A well-crafted bio can lead someone to make a purchase.

What should you include in your bio? That can be up to you, but it’s always important to highlight these areas:

What you do
Where you are
How to learn more

This is also a great space to show some personality, so users aren’t bored by another generic profile.

Communicate with Your Followers

Communicating with your followers – or anyone – on all social media platforms is necessary, but putting the focus on Twitter can give your brand a lot of positive recognition if you handle things well.

Twitter is where people tend to go if they have a question or complaint. They see it as a more natural way to communicate with someone who can help them or take care of their problem directly. If you have someone or multiple people from a digital marketing agency dedicated to solving these problems on Twitter, it will help maintain a positive image for your brand.

Be Prepared for Backlash

As we briefly discussed the importance of creating a social media policy, not everything will be a positive experience in the digital marketing world of social media. Something you tweet might be considered offensive. Something outside of social media might’ve happened that negatively shines a light on your business. It could be anything – and you have to be prepared for anything.

Having a strategy to handle rough times and customer complaints consistent with your overall brand image can prevent a rough time from becoming awful. Mistakes happen. It’s how you respond that’s important. Having a digital marketing agency Miami on your side can help in these situations.

Your Social Media Voice Can Bring Positive Awareness to Your Business

Some businesses just have digital marketing locked down on social media. They always have the right thing to say. They still have the funny but appropriate reply. They always show they care about their customers. These businesses have made an online name for themselves through a fantastic social media presence. By setting a plan and getting some assistance from a digital marketing agency, your business might be able to reach these heights.

Insights

Website Vs Mobile App: What’s Better For Your Business

Miley on March 24, 2021

Every business strives to reach a wider audience with its digital presence; in trying to do this, both mobile apps and websites come as irreplaceable solutions for most enterprises. Though they have their respective value propositions, both have significant mutual differences as well.

While websites represent a basic solution addressing a larger audience’s needs, mobile apps are more specific solutions to user problems. Though most businesses gradually extend their digital presence to a mobile app starting from an enterprise website, many companies avoid building a website instead of building a mobile app as their critical digital facet. Other enterprises prefer building Progressive Web App (PWA) to incorporate both the attributes of a website and mobile app.

In recent years, in remote corners of the world, having a mobile app presence and a web presence has become essential to address the increasing mobile audience. When it comes to app development Ireland startups across all niches are increasingly preferring native apps to share their digital footprint. The same can be found across other countries as well.

Now the question is whether you should choose mobile apps or websites for your digital presence. Well, here we are going to explain the critical considerations for choosing between these two.

Budget consideration

The first and foremost consideration will be the budget for shaping your digital presence, whether through a website or a mobile app. Depending on your budget, you have a few credible choices like the ones mentioned below.

● Mobile web: Mobile website representing a highly mobile optimised look and feel and offering a web experience tuned to the mobile browsers is the least expensive solution, but you need to compromise on the user experience and mobile-specific user interface.

● Progressive Web Apps (PWA): These are websites coming with an array of native app experience attributes such as offline access, Home Screen access with a native button, faster loading time, etc. PWAs are cheaper solutions irrespective of bringing together the benefits of both web and mobile apps.

● Hybrid apps: Hybrid apps allowing app presence across multiple platforms can enable a business to shape their mobile app presence at a relatively lesser cost just because hybrid development allows using the single codebase across multiple OS platforms.

● Cross-platform apps with native user experience: Now, modern app projects can also utilise modern app development frameworks like Flutter or React Native to build robust cross-platform apps that, in spite of reusing the core codebase, can also allow incorporating platform-specific UI attributes. This is less expensive than the hybrid approach while ensuring several benefits of native apps.

● Native app development: Finally, there is a native app development approach to help build a mobile app for specific OS platforms by utilising the platform-specific SDK, language and tools. This is great as far as offering native user experience is considered, but it is more expensive as an option.

Performance, speed and accessibility

A website entirely depends on the internet and cannot deliver the performance and loading speed of a native app that stores several data layers locally within the device. On the other hand, the PWAs, through local caching technology, are capable of accumulating a lot of data locally in the device to help offline access when internet connectivity is slow or not available.

Another consideration is the installation time and storage space required by a native app. A website, in this respect, doesn’t have the constraint of storage and installation. In this respect, both PWAs and cloud-based apps have an edge as both also perform as websites depending on the remote servers for storage while allowing ease of access through local caching.

Which of them is more user optimised?

Now coming to the usability elements and user experience, mobile apps certainly have the edge over mobile websites. Unlike websites, mobile apps come with a more interactive and intuitive user interface targeting specific user expectations. An app is also a highly-targeted solution to one or a few particular problems the users face and hence are more user-specific than the websites in general.

Today’s mobile apps offering customisation with the user interface, better access to the device and platform features, and better scope to use intuitive user experience attributes provide a lot more than the websites to satisfy the users’ needs. The integrated device features and the platform-specific user experience attributes are the most significant advantages of the native mobile apps.

Marketing and business conversion

Now coming to the roles mobile apps and websites play for marketing and business conversion, there are significant differences. When it comes to marketing and ensuring wider customer reach by utilising the potential of the major search engines, websites optimised for mobile users are clear winners in this battle.

Apart from driving SEO campaigns and targeting users more specifically using search engine specific keywords, mobile web ensures wider accessibility as users don’t need to download and install it. On the other hand, Mobile apps can only take advantage of the mobile App Store or Play Store optimisation to reach more audiences. SEO has an edge in terms of business conversion and outreach over App Store Optimisation (ASO).

Conclusion

To conclude, we must say that having a mobile optimised business website is the first step to shape your digital presence, followed by extending the presence across mobile apps. When you have a popular website and have already used your website for branding and business conversion, you can further strengthen your digital presence with a native or cross-platform mobile app. You can also build a versatile Progressive Web App (PWA) to bring together both the benefits of web and mobile apps for your business brand.

Development

Blazor vs AngularJS Development: Which one is the best?

Miley on March 23, 2021

JavaScript is the most popular programming language, which is quickly changing. There is never any generic answer to which framework will work best for you! It is dependent on the project requirements and functionalities. Each Blazor and AngularJS development Company is working to build some powerful websites with their unique features.

What is AngularJS?

It is created by Google, which allows the AngularJS developers to interact with the backend and frontend. This platform is based on JavaScript, which has excellent resources available in the market. It is having the full support of Model-View-ViewModel and Model-View-Control applications which great companies already use. AngularJS also helps in building PWAs (Progressive Web Applications) with great tools to support them.

Essential features of AngularJS are:

It is an efficient framework that helps in creating Rich Internet Applications
AngularJS developers can write client-side applications by using JavaScript with the help of MVC
Applications built using this platform have excellent browser compatibility
It is open-source and free to use for the developers
Angular has data binding capability with HTML, which gives a better experience
It has reusable components that make it developer-friendly

Benefits of using AngularJS development are:

It has a two-way binding for immediate synchronization between model and view
Development of Single Page Applications is faster
It has a robust solution for frontend development with multiple features
AngularJS allows end-to-end real-time testing with dependency injection
It has a simple architecture that makes coding and design easier for AngularJS developers
It encourages shortcodes which allow developers to focus on application efficiency
It gives support to clear cache and other processes to enhance the performance

What is Blazor?

It is a new Microsoft web framework that lets developers code using the C#. This framework helps in building client web applications effortlessly. There are options to add a package in the Razor with the help of NuGet. Blazor has a simple approach to Angular, where you can build UI using the native components. The Client-side and server-side are written in C#. It allows the developers to share the libraries and codes providing. The platform enables the development of Single Page Applications by the usage of .NET.

Advantages of using Blazor are:

Usage of C# instead of JavaScript
Including the .NET ecosystem with the help of .NET libraries
Sharing the logic of the application on the client and server-side
Taking benefits of performance, security, and reliability of .NET
Build common languages, tools, and framework with a feature-rich environment

Features of Blazor are:

Builds the Web User Interface by using C# instead of TypeScript or JavaScript
Helps in building the Progressive Web Apps
Many reusable components are written using the C#
It has full debugging support on the server-side while it has certain limitations on client-side
Supports two-way data binding with the help of HTML DOM
It performs server-side rendering for better performance
It works offline
Works on the modern web browsers, which also includes mobile browsers
It is open source

Comparison between Blazor and AngularJS development:

Feature	Blazor	AngularJS
Release	2015	2010
Type	Framework	Framework
License	Apache	MIT
Developer	Microsoft	Google
Language	WebAssembleC#	Regular DOM
Testing and Debugging	Blazor Testing PlaceHolder	Uses Jasmine
Learning Curve	Smooth and Easy	Steep
DOM	Incremental DOM	Regular DOM
Data Binding	Unidirectional	Bidirectional
Support	Microsoft and more upcoming community	Google and Wix Developers
Production	It is ready for production	It might be used in production, but it is receiving changes
Code Style	It is easy to get started with the development process	It requires a lot of information to start the process of development

Which should be a better choice, Angular or Blazor?

Some of the consideration before making the final decision are:

Are you prepared to handle some problems with a platform that is newer and less mature?
Want to invest more time to learn Angular, which is an older platform?
Do you have a C# developer that helps in developing modern web applications?
Do you have JavaScript developers who will ease the AngularJS development?
What are your essential requirements in the case of features and functionalities?

Angular was earlier built for frontend developers and helped in connecting backend and frontend. After the introduction of SPA, Blazor emerged with the new structures. It is a web structure that allows running with C# with HTML and CSS, making the components, and generating SPAs.

Some of the key differences between the two platforms are:

Angular development is production-ready while the Blazor is still developing and changing
AngularJS supports Progressive Web Applications while Blazor is just a Server-side which can’t work as PWA
Blazor needs an active connection for each client and stores the component state server-side
AngularJS has more tooling support while the Blazor still is in the development process

Summing it up!

We have shared some useful information about both the frameworks to make it easier to decide which will be beneficial. You are now aware of the benefits and features of both platforms with their unique tools. Choose an experienced Blazor or AngularJS development company that is capable of handling your business requirements effortlessly.

SEO

Not All Traffic Is Created Equal: Measuring The Importance of Traffic Sources

Miley on March 22, 2021

We all want maximum traffic coming from the major search engines like Google. And for that, you need to have a steady stream of good and relevant content. Now, not everyone is aware of what good content actually means. Luckily for everyone, there is a plethora of ways to create traffic towards your website. Also, this extensive list is always growing. It is no small feat to achieve business growth these days. So, we need all the tools we can get our hands on. The digital realm is highly resistant to the real world’s problems like pandemics, shutdowns, financial recessions, etc. Online purchases are very popular. Whit the advent of broadband internet, online shopping has taken a major portion of the commerce pie. In this article, we will go over the most important factors on how to maximise traffic to your offerings.

Digging through the data

There are plenty of free tools online used for tracking website analytics. But, it is only with credible ones that you are able to see accurate interpretations. Traffic sources, keyword quality and volumes, the number of viewed pages are just some of the metrics to take into equation. These variables help greatly in crafting an appropriate SEO campaign. It is about providing value within your website to any potential customers. Also, analytics will help you increase your conversion rates. Before we move on, a conversion rate is a ratio between the individuals that view your content and the ones that move past that. These are our customers, that will pay for our products and services. The key is to make the conversion process as appealing and convenient for them as possible. In short, make it effortless for a potential customer to do what you want them to.

Infusing value into content

SEO-focused content boils down to a simple rule. You need to answer questions that people are seeking answers to online. This way, you provide potential customers value. This is offered in exchange for their time and attention are given to us. The better and more concise you answer these questions, the higher your SEO rankings will be. What is the first thing people do when a question pops up in their head? Everyone has a phone in their pocket. So naturally, they Google it. The better your answer to their question is, the higher your link will be in the Google search results. That is what SEO boils down to. The closer you are to that number one spot at the top of the list, the more traffic you will receive. But, make sure to answer questions that are relevant to your chosen industry and niche.

SEO rankings in the context of providing value for revenue

Before you create a meaningful SEO campaign, you need to know how to measure keywords and rankings. The most basic way to analyse specific keywords is to look at search volumes. Keyword difficulty is another very important metric. But, these are only small fractions of a larger equation. Not everyone that views your content is going to buy your products. Remember the conversion ratio we mentioned previously? That would mean a one-to-one conversion ratio, which is never possible. Tie your keywords to commercial goals such as revenue. In short, your keywords need to be as specific as possible. Many businesses make the same mistake of being too general with their content. And by extension, their offerings are misconstrued. In the digital realm, it is never good to try and be a jack of all trades. Be specific in your content and keywords, your viewer base will be more solid.

Tracking the competition

You need to be analytical. Try and look at what the competition is doing. What are doing right, and what mistakes are they making? First things first, know who your competition is. Inform yourself about what your top competitors are. There is a reason why they are on the top. What are they doing right? Can you emulate that? Could you even improve upon it? The beauty of the digital era is that you do not need to make a breakthrough in science for your business to succeed. All you need to do is improve upon what is already there. If you offer a slightly better deal, you will rise to the top of the SEO rankings, in time. Start easy. Identify the five top competitors to your business. Dissect their SEO campaign. What are they focusing on? Try to improve upon their traffic generation strategies.

Track your conversions

We now have a basic understanding of keywords and rankings. And now, we need to invest time and effort into Google Analytics and set up our goal conversions. You need to connect the relevant keywords to your targeted audience. This will, in turn, generate traffic to your website. Now, what that might be, depends on your chosen industry and niche. This is where little creativity and personal effort comes into play. Tracking the right metrics is where most companies fail. Even worse, some companies set certain goals looking at irrelevant metrics. Try and avoid this, do your research. One of the most important metrics is when customers give you their contact information. That is one of the things that really count. Any action that implies that a person is no longer a passive observer, but a paying customer is tracked by Google Analytics. Track the right metrics for your company.

Make content that will always be relevant

The best bang for your buck is content that will always be useful. That means it is relevant as long as possible after the initial publication. Many forms of content tend to fulfill this condition. F.A.Q.’s (Frequently asked questions), tutorials, reference guides and product reviews have a very high shelf life. These and many more tend to bring in a steady stream of traffic, leads and shares over a long timespan. If your content can generate these avenues of traffic for multiple years, consider it a success. As long as the information is good and up to date, you are good. Choose topics that will not inherently be redundant once new information comes into circulation. SEO specialists are masters in finding subjects that will hold water the longest. Make your content provide lasting, compounding value. This way, you will also educate new customers and attract external links.

Update old content

On the other hand, why let old content go to waste? Do not let such work go to waste just because a couple of details are outdated. Old blog posts, reviews, etc. need minimal effort to update and make relevant again. After doing the SEO dance for a while, you will undoubtedly have a large number of old posts. The form of this content does not matter. What does matter is that the work is already done and it takes just a small touch to make it relevant again. Try and find these posts. Update any obsolete information, for whatever reason. Add multimedia content like images, audio clips and videos. Add links and repair broken ones. The latter is the most common SEO ranking killer. Analyze the latest SEO trends and modify old content to fit the new mold. And sometimes, posts can be merged for the optimal effect.

Put in the work

Organic traffic is the best kind of traffic. That being said, it is very difficult to obtain naturally. You need to put in a lot of effort, time and originality. You will need to boost your efforts with some kind of SEO strategy. Now, what that strategy could be is up to you. It depends on your industry, niche and expectations. You will need to leverage all the various tools at your disposal. Utilize influencers, social media, keywords, link building, etc. The more tools you master and utilize the more traffic you will attract to your website. An SEO strategy is not a set-it-and-forget-tip type of deal. It changes regularly. That is because SEO trends tend to shift often. You need to adapt to stay relevant. Organic traffic will come, but it is always for the best to supplement it with some other avenue.

SEO is the new, and by far, the most relevant marketing tool. Any modern company would be wise to invest in it. More conventional forms of marketing are still relevant, make no mistake. But, especially in times of crisis, online marketing is the most resilient and far-reaching. Learn what types of activities attract the most visitors to your industry and niche. Then, figure out what works best in converting those views into loyal, paying customers. Learn the type of language that creates discussion and engagement. Try and implement a tactic. See how it affects your traffic. If you can, implement one at a time. If you do multiple, you will not be able to attribute the outcomes, positive or negative, to any particular one. Make these digital tools work for you, today.

Insights

How to set a store on amazon in 2021? Inside tips and tricks

Miley on March 19, 2021

Amazon is not only a platform that helps you sell and buy products. But it has rather become a credible place that is adding value to the products. The products sold on Amazon are trusted by the customers for being high-value products. Setting a store on Amazon is not only a matter of increasing business but also is a matter of adding value to your business. It can enhance the credibility of your business and can help you establish a fine brand. Setting a store on amazon in 2021 is indeed a good beginning to the New Year.

There are plenty of ways to get information on how to set up your store- websites like olifantdigital.com is just one way to go on that matter. But before you start setting a store on this wonderful platform, let us introduce you to Amazon in real-time. The following content will cover the section below.

What is an Amazon store?
Amazon store features?
How to create your Amazon store?

What is an Amazon store?

It is a free premium space offered to vendors looking to sell their products in an organized manner. Vendors can use the space to showcase a curated collection of their products. It will not only help one sell but will also let one establish a good brand image. The product positions and promotions get to the next level once a vendor gets to Amazon for selling its products. Amazon stores enhance brand-centric shopping and let a seller enjoy some splendid benefits. Amazon stores can certainly enhance the shopping experience by;

Capitalizing on the flow of visitors coming from internal and external sources.
Automatic organic promotions of products can elevate sales for prestigious products.
A seller always has the luxury to promote the new products to the existing line of customers.
A meticulous mobile experience that never lets your customers go away from your offered deals.

Amazon stores offer multi-page platforms, and that simply means more space to showcase your offers. You can also add more content and rich media to make your brand stand out. A good amazon agency can teach you how to do it perfectly for your products.

Pro-tip: when driving traffic to your newly established storefronts, you have the luxury to divert shoppers to specific categories. Each page can be linked with a unique URL, and all you have to do to promote a specific category is linking that page to the campaigning URL. Amazon will offer you three useful themes to choose from.

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Product grid

Amazon managers will be working on four windows, i.e., page manager, preview window, tile manager, and status bar.

Amazon store features

Amazon is always there to help sellers with richer and more engaging content. It is always rolling out the features that can help brands stand out. Advertisers can showcase products with high definition images and quality content. Some other splendid features are described below.

Shop-able collection images

With shoppable images, you can always take your customers by surprise. You can direct a visitor by offering live links. The shop-able feature of Amazon stores can assist customers in having a wonderful shopping experience. Customers can view the features, basic information, rating, and price of the products by simply viewing the fine details offered in the images. The images inspire and grab the shoppers’ attention and then guide a customer through the purchase process.

Pro-tip: shop-able collection images are your chance to showcase great attention-grabbing images. You can drive sales by doing interesting photography.

Images with text

Product images can sell and can guide a customer about the product relatedness as well. A fine class descriptive text and sell better. It can also work with SEO content.

Bulk uploading

It is another wonderful feature of the amazon store as it allows you to upload products in bulk. Scheduled updates & links to stores

You can set schedules for updates and can add workable links to the store pages by using Amazon store settings.

How to create your Amazon store?

It is easy; just follow the steps below.

Amazon’s brand registry is always there to host your brand for growth and development. You are required to register your business or brand with Amazon before you can go on to set a store. You can get help from an amazon agency in this regard. Generally, to register, you will require to have:

A registered trademark that will appear on all of your products and packaging.
The ability to verify yourself as the sole owner or an authorized agent of that brand.
An Amazon account, you can create one for free if you do not have one already.

Create a store homepage and select the theme

It’s time to navigate to the Manage store from seller central or ad console to set up a store on Amazon in real-time. Here you will be shown a list of your brands that stands eligible for setting up a store. You can choose from four standard themes to pick one for your store homepage.

Build out store pages

As described earlier, Amazon offers more space, i.e., a multi-page store setting. Hence, you can set store pages once you are done with the basics. The catalog categories and bestselling products can be categorized on these pages.

Ad content tiles

Once you have set pages and have categorized your curated products, then it’s time to add some valuable content. Content tiles allow you to add useful descriptions, images, and videos to the pages. It helps visitors interact with your pages more seamlessly.

Upload your ASINs

You can add individual products on the pages and in the categories you have created in the earlier steps. You can also add ASINs and other older products. A good amazon agency can guide you in setting ASINs properly.

Submit your store for review and publish

Once you have done that all, then it’s time to submit your store for review and publishing at Amazon.

SEO

How Accountants Can Use Digital Marketing and SEO

Miley on March 19, 2021

Did you know accountants hold the top spot when it comes to their importance to small businesses?

As a matter of fact, entrepreneurs believe your profession plays a vital role in the success of their business, which is why it comes before attorneys, bankers, and insurance agents on their priority list.

But, this statistic doesn’t mean that your accountancy firm will have clients line up and knock on your door by simply being there. While word of mouth is a decent tactic for attracting new customers, it’s crucial to take a more proactive approach when it comes to generating new business opportunities.

Luckily, digital marketing and SEO can help you spread the word about your accountancy and bring a lot of traffic.

Here’s how to leverage their benefits to improve your visibility and gain a competitive advantage.

1. Make the Most of Your Website

53% of people will research a product or service before they decide to purchase, which means establishing an online reputation is a must. And even more so if we bear in mind that your clients will trust you with managing their finances.

In other words, your website should exude reliability, expertise, and credibility.

Having a visually appealing website that loads fast and is mobile responsive is a start in the right direction. Stats corroborate this, as 38% of people stop engaging with a website with an unattractive layout and content, while 94% of website first impressions are design-related.

Opt for a clean, decluttered design that makes it easy for your potential clients to find your contact information and descriptions of the services you offer. Besides that, your home page should feature engaging options that allow visitors to explore more about your accounting firm, find out about the experts that work for you, read customer testimonials, schedule an appointment, and list helpful resources.

The point is to keep your potential clients on your website for as long as possible and get them to convert, that is, to book a call with you or subscribe to your newsletter.

2. Build a Strong Online Presence Through Blogging

Producing superb content consistently is something that is key to your digital marketing efforts.

By focusing on the topics relevant to your audience, you’ll be able to attract visitors to your website and engage them. For example, managing steady cash flow is one of the biggest challenges of running a business, so it’s a good idea to discuss viable methods of staying in the black.

Similarly, as more than 50% of small business owners think tax preparation is complicated, addressing this issue and talking about how they can reduce their tax bill will score you a loyal audience of potential clients.

Besides, blogging is a great way of establishing yourself as an authority in the field, and that’s something that will bring you a lot of qualified leads. It’s only logical that entrepreneurs want only expert advice when it comes to their finances, which means that sharing your expertise will help you win more clients.

Finally, generating high-quality content on a regular basis will fuel your social media and email marketing activities, and result in boosting your online presence.

3. Increase Your Google Rankings Through SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a digital marketing practice that will help your website rank higher in Google search results and make it easier for your potential clients to find it in an avalanche of search results.

“The best place to hide a dead body is page two of Google.” This quote perfectly sums up the importance of SEO, as most people never scroll past the first page, while less than 1% actually click on any result on the second page.

Investing in SEO for accountants is a surefire way of attracting qualified traffic to your website and generating new business opportunities.

The first two steps that we discussed are also a part of this strategy. Having a well-designed, user-friendly website and relevant content won’t be of much use unless you leverage SEO and vice versa – there’s no use trying to optimize a slow, poorly-structured website or thin, low-value content.

After you ensure that your website loads fast, as well as that it’s mobile-responsive, you should focus on making sure that Google crawlers can easily access it, understand the content, and index it. This means adding meta tags, fixing broken links, eliminating duplicate content, and making it secure.

Another important segment is doing keyword research and including the relevant ones to your content, meta tags, page titles and descriptions, and other relevant page elements. It’s crucial not to overdo it, as the point is to help both Google and your potential clients find relevant content.

Link building is an SEO practice that will improve your website search engine visibility and build up its reputation. What you should do is try to earn links from authoritative websites that will in a way vouch for the quality of your content by linking back to it.

4. Don’t Neglect Social Media

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can be leveraged to expand your reach and additionally strengthen your online reputation.

You can use social media channels to promote your content and engage your prospects and existing clients.

But besides promotional activities, companies have been using social media for customer service purposes too. Given that 1 in 3 people in the world uses at least one social media platform, it’s obvious that you can use these channels to get in touch and interact with your target audience.

By leveraging social media’s interactivity and its potential to make communication instantaneous, you can answer your client’s questions, provide them assistance, and resolve their potential issues, thus offering exceptional customer experience.

If you implement customer service chatbots to your social media platforms, you can even ensure 24/7 support, which can tremendously improve customer satisfaction and help you build trust and loyalty with your clients. In order to take your accountancy firm to the next level, it’s important to tap into the power of digital marketing and SEO. These strategies will open the door to a larger client pool and help you create more business opportunities.

Development

Tips To Develop SEO Outreach Strategy

Miley on March 11, 2021

Search engines have become one of the largest drivers of online traffic, and this has led to the point where many online businesses focus on SEO (search engine optimization) intensively.

Today businesses are competing for the smallest market niches and shares. Hence with an abundance of service and product providers, the SERPs (search engine result pages) have become akin to a battlefield.

This is where every brand seeks to reach the top spot and have the most traffic visiting their website, landing pages or social media profiles.

According to a recent study by Backlinko, Google uses over 200 ranking factors as part of their algorithm for ranking websites, with Google alone currently enjoying 86.86% of the global search engine market.

Furthermore, the top result on Google gets approximately 32% of all clicks, while 49% of marketers report organic search as having the best ROI for any marketing channel.

Moreover, top organic search results on Google contain an average of 1,447 words, with 53% of US consumers using shopping search engine research to buy products online.

In light of this information, let’s take a look at some of the best SEO outreach strategies to garnish incredible backlinks for your website, store, and social media accounts.

Analyze Your Competitor’s SEO Strategies

If you are new to SEO and only just beginning to unravel its mysteries, then analyzing your competitors and their strategies could help you to get a head start in the right direction. Here is what you can do:

Use domain analysis tools to find your SEO competitors; for example, ‘MOZ domain analysis’ can help.
Use Ranking Keywords and Keyword Explorer to find the most competitive keywords for your domain.
Find top-rated pages with the help of tools such as Ahrefs Backlink Checker.
Jot down all of this data on a Windows Excel or Google Spreadsheet to keep track of every competitor.
For every link that you find or discover, make sure that you jot down the SERP metrics and enter them on your sheet.
Now you can develop a strategy for each link and every competitor out there so that you can outperform them in the future.

Benchmark Your Current SEO Performances

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It is ultimately important that you understand the mechanics behind benchmarking your own and your competitors SEO related performances. Here are some important SEO benchmarks that you simply cannot miss:

The number of total pages indexed by the search engine of choice. One way to find this is by using the search query [site: website]. This will help you find the number of results for your domain. You can also use third-party tools like BrightEdge to get coverage reports.
Landing pages as these are the ones where your visitors enter your site. Here you can use Google Analytics to find out how each of your landing pages is performing.
The number of keywords they still continue to be an integral part of SEO to this day. You can use Google Webmaster Tools to find your top ranking keywords and how they are performing.
Backlink profile because this is the closest to the actual objective behind SEO outreach. However, your main aim is to target link authority that you can check with the help of tools like Majestic.
Organic and referral visits, which you can find with the help of Google Analytics. The source is important to understand because you would know what is working and what isn’t producing results for your business or website.
And lastly, we have social media, which is undoubtedly important for maintaining good SEO rankings. The more content you produce that is being shared, the stronger the indicator for Google to judge your work as having high quality and value for users.

Choosing the Right Publishers

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One of the fine roads that you need to take is guest posting when it comes to link building. However, choosing the best publishers or working with them can help you get the best ROI (return on investment) for your invested time and effort. Here is what you need to do:

Obviously, you would be aiming for top-rated sites with highest DAs (domain authority), PA (Page Authority), best-ranking factors, and terrific daily/weekly/monthly traffic.
Secondly, relevancy to your business matters a lot so if you are in the automotive industry, then posting in a domain that focuses on horticulture simply makes no sense.
Next, you need to focus on publishers that are user friendly, offer you the ability to log in to open-source content management systems like WordPress, and don’t create a lot of fuss.
You should also focus on those publishing platforms that offer you the ability to share your work on other platforms and overall deliver an intuitive interface.
Think long term, not short term. Organic posts do take their time, so make sure you are working with a reliable publishing platform, and their review ratings are top-notch.

Dedicatedly Study Your Targeted Audiences

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Your target audience is one of the most crucial factors that can drive you towards success when it comes to SEO outreach. For this, you can do the following:

Develop customer personas based on the study of product and services in-detail and identifying the right demographics, lifestyles, socio-graphics, and location of your candidates.
Create a customer journey map for each identified customer to understand where they individually stand within the sales funnel.
Perform research with the help of questionnaires and surveys that you can conduct with the help of email-marketing or by utilizing social media platforms.
Verify assimilated knowledge and collected information to develop content-based strategies to carry out effective content marketing campaigns to raise maximum awareness and boost business.

Focus on Creation of High-Quality Content

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These days search engines are heavily focusing on search intent and user intent. This can involve queries regarding solutions to pain points of internet users.

Even young learners who opt for a custom essay writing service look forward to high-quality content that meets their learning objectives. To help facilitate your efforts regarding the creation of high-quality content, here are some tips:

Deliver relevant content for audiences that cater to their interests and preferences.
Make sure that your content focuses on resolving problems or providing solutions based on actionable tips.
Include striking visuals (images, infographics, videos, and interactive media) that are in context with your text and match the resolution style of your publisher domain or your own blog.
Deliver astounding facts and figures, scientific evidence, and credible information from genuine sources to back up and support your claims or arguments.
Make sure that your content is extremely reader-friendly, utilizes easy to read font size/style, and makes use of white space to make even lengthier content more digestible.
Focus on providing valuable information prioritizing the user rather than producing selling content that is akin to a sales copy.

Link Building Best Practices

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Without a doubt, your SEO outreach strategy is based on the creation of high-quality links to augment the SEO rankings of your website, landing pages, online store, or social media pages. Here are some best practices that you need to follow:

Choose always relevant and differentiated anchor texts in your content to place links that are placed naturally and follow the context of your supporting text.
Make sure you are creating content that is shareable to multiple digital platforms. This can allow users to share your post and bring in more traffic.
Networking is the key to any business success. Therefore, you should leverage its power and showcase your brilliant and valiant efforts using digital platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook for business.
You can also choose to collaborate to deliver creative projects with other content curators and creators. Other than that, you can also work with social media influencers to help you spread the word and allow you a backlink from them.
Get up and happening on user-generated content websites, business review and listing websites, and also use Google My Business which is great for targeting local customers.

Mastering the Art of Topic Development

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Just like email subject lines are immensely significant and can increase click-through rates. Likewise, your topics are also crucial and can improve CTRs. Here is what you can do to improve your topic development process:

Find subject pillars that you can tackle. These include comprehensive overview based on a subject or theme. Your subject pillars eventually evolve into pillar pages where users can browse through inter-relatable content.
Choose topic clusters that you can manage. These can include a group of interlined posts that are or can be built around a broad topic such as sedans, specific brand sedans, family sedans, best mileage sedans, safest sedans, high tech sedans, etc.
Or you can pick out a niche based on your visitor preferences and start building around the topics that interest them the most.

Conclusion

Your organic visibility on search engine matters and offers you long-lasting fruits, so have a resolute SEO outreach strategy a must for brands and businesses to survive the current competition. Manage to execute your SEO outreach strategy in a planned and realistic manner. It can help you improve your organization’s visibility, and this will lead to attracting more qualified leads.

Outreach also serves a twofold purpose, including building credibility for your venture and making you popular amongst users. Both are highly rewarding since Google and other search engines hold these factors as extremely important in their ranking factors.

Products Startups

Why Webinars Are Taking Over the Sales Process

Miley on March 9, 2021

Let’s face it. People don’t like to be sold. So how do you sell without actually making them feel as though they are being sold?

It’s actually fairly simple.

People buy from who they know, especially if it’s a high-ticket item.

Webinars don’t only help engage the prospective buyer by giving them valuable and useful information about their product or service. It puts a face and personality to the company as well.

Plus, people love knowledge, love to know secrets of the trade, and they love to make their own decisions.

So let them……even if those decisions are persuaded a bit.

By utilizing webinars, you have a platform that offers you the ability to do three very important things for your sales process.

The first is that you’re building a list of potential buyers. Every time someone registers for your webinar, you have a lead. You’ll be able to follow-up with these leads, whether it’s with a phone call or with automated email strategies.

The second is it allows you to provide valuable information during the webinar. You can give them so many things of value, such as answering industry questions and giving them tips that will help improve their chances of success.

The third is that you are building your brand and positioning yourself as a leader in your industry. And you’re doing this all while you help them understand why your product or service is so valuable.

Essentially you are taking a cold prospect and warming them up – all while building trust.

During the 40 minute webinar, you’ll be sharing your knowledge and expertise with them and most importantly, your personality will shine through.

You’re building a connection!

So how do you create a webinar?

There’s really not much to it!

The first thing you need to do is find a webinar platform, create live webinars, or host your pre-recorded webinar.

There are plenty to choose from, but it’s essential that you are able to integrate it with your email marketing tools easily.

When doing your actual recording, here is a good guideline to start with,

You’ll begin by introducing yourself then you’ll head into the entire purpose of the webinar. The content is the meat of the webinar. It’s always a good idea to break it down into sections such as “The 3 Secrets to…”. This section should be at 30 minutes.

And then, you’ll transition into the final part of the webinar which will include your product or service and how much easier it will make their life—offering an irresistible offer that will only be available for a limited time.

This exact process is helping businesses improve their sales and close more cold leads than they were able to do. But only if you’re following the exact process below.

Here’s why,

Once they register for your webinar, you’ll begin an email marketing campaign that will automatically begin sending out emails about the content or the webinar as well as reminders.

After all, you want them to show up!

But if they aren’t able to make it, they’ll have an opportunity to watch the replay. You’ll let them know about this after the date and time of the webinar that they missed. You don’t want them to miss out on the information – it’s designed to make you more sales.

Listen, just like anything else in business; you need to learn the skill in order to perfect it. Webinars are no different. Just hoping on and creating a webinar isn’t going to be enough.

You want to grow and engage your potential customers so that you can increase your sales and the best way to do that is with webinar sales training from a company like Janek.

There’s a lot to learn, and having a well-organized webinar from start to finish will certainly help to turn your cold prospects into warm leads if not customers. You’ll need to know how to effectively track your registrants to make the necessary improvements to create an effective webinar that turns your prospect into a customer.

Using a webinar as part of your marketing efforts will ultimately remove your sales process’s selling aspect. So by the time you get them on the phone, they’re already eager to buy!