Ten Essentials To Check Before Purchasing A Cloud Hosting

 

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To manage all the technical stuff of your multi-category business website, you need to choose the best cloud hosting, the one with robust hosting plans. This selection can be complicated but critical for your business to turn to cloud computing as its default setting.

Before buying cloud hosting, the main question that comes to mind is, with so many options, how can we select the best service provider for us?

Well, as you might know, not all cloud providers are the same; you must make a careful assessment before you choose the right host. Analyze the following points and look for these essentials beforehand. This assessment will save you from regretting your choice afterwards.

1.             Cloud Security Setups

Security should be your topmost concern while purchasing cloud hosting. This fundamental element ensures that your data is safe and protected.

Inquire your would-be service provider about what setup and security measures they have in place to guarantee your data safety.

By signing up to a cloud service, you are precisely asking a company on the internet to be a closed shelter for your website; therefore, be vigilant. The security measures you must not overlook includes:

  • Firewalls
  • Multifactor user authentication
  • Encryption
  • Antivirus detection

2.             Cloud Compliance

The next concern to not ignore is choosing the design that can assist you in mitigating security risks and meet conformity standards that pertain to your business and company.

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Whether you are obligated to GDPR, HIPPA, PCL DSS, SOC 2 or any other scaffold, you need to know what it will take to attain compliance once your submissions and statistics breathe in a public cloud infrastructure.

I&O leaders should know where their duties lie and what compliance attributes the provider will help them check.

3.             Pricing Structure

The cost of every cloud provider varies. Make sure you know what you are being charged for. Pricing structure plays a decisive role in deciding which cloud hosting you select.

Before you choose the right cloud service provider, ask about the upfront cost and the ability to add services as needed. Check if the services will be charged hourly, once a month, per annum or biannually.

Also, make sure to analyze your handling pattern and then decide which provider fits your style and budget most.

4.             Data Storage

Since you know cloud computing involves storing numbers and records at off-site locations, those data centers’ corporal position and safety are just as crucial as online security.

The cloud provider you’ll choose will boost your business sites loading pace if they have data center spots near your online users.

5.             Robust Reputation

Ensure the hunt for a service provider always comes to an end with the web hosting service that has a robust reputation and is well known for providing the best cloud hosting.

The cloud provider you’ll choose will boost your business sites loading pace if they have data center spots near your online users.

The companies that have good standings offer excellent uptime and zero per cent downtime. However, there can be a chance for the very minimum outage; but otherwise, it’s good in providing some excellent customer support.

Also, when checking the reputation, it’s essential to see if the host is owned independently or not and how are they good at protecting private information.

6.             Service Levels

According to Assignment Assistance UK, Service levels are essential to reflect on when purchasing cloud hosting. Considering this facet is vital for those businesses with austere requirements regarding accessibility, reply time, aptitude, etc.

A meticulous concentration should also be given to legitimate requirements for data security hosted in cloud hosting, specifically in the strike of GDPR.

7.             Architecture

Another essential feature to ponder on is architecture. Analyze how the design will integrate into your workflows today and in future. For instance, if your company has invested in the Microsoft universe, then Azure is best for you. The same is the case for Google and Amazon. Invest in a cloud provider that provides easy incorporation and amalgamation.

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Also, remember that the technical architecture of repute cloud hosting is extensive, complicated and challenging to understand.

8.             Features And Capabilities

Aloft cloud hosting offers features that are elemental for servers and business websites. While looking out for essentials before purchasing your service provider, watch out for FTP/SFTP access features. SSD storage, content delivery network, power to retrieve specific files, and a feature that will let you possess your domain name email address must also be considered.

If your company is looking to shift its virtual server workloads to container organization or server less architecture, then, in that case, you need to overlook to gauge the container capabilities of each cloud service provider.

The below three CSPs provides backing for container management, placements, and operations.

  • Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Service
  • Amazon Elastic Container Service
  • Google Kubernetes Engine

9.             Customer Support

Since cloud computing never rests, and neither should your cloud provider’s technical support, it’s essential to get help when you need it.

While gazing around the review sections of some CSPs to find answers to my coursework help UK questions, I found that people have been through a hostile relationship with their cloud providers because of inadequate and falsified customer support. Therefore, make sure you choose the best cloud hosting plan that guarantees that fast customer support from an expert and experienced support team will be offered within the selected package.

Knowing which cloud hosting offers excellent customer support will help you choose the right and most suitable service provider for your business.

10.             Upgrade Options

Last but not least, when purchasing cloud hosting, check if the plan you are fascinated by can be modernized or not.

This feature is essential to know because when you are starting a website and utilizing a shared plan, it warrants that you will get more supplies when you feel the need to that too without buying a new plan.

Author bio

Stella Lincoln is an Assistant Editor at Crowd Writer; she provides the best essay editing service  at reasonable rates. Stella is also a tech freak and loves learning about innovative developments in the mighty tech world.

Recording screen software that works best in recording school work, work, and more

Are you looking for the best software to use for recording schoolwork or work information? Do you want your recording to look professional and sophisticated? Then Domyhomework123.com will help you get the best software in the market for that job. Passing information as a visual presentation has been proven to make the presentation more understandable and also memorable. It is due to these reasons that I have combined a list of software that will help you make you create a professional video. So that the information on your project or Youtube will be well understood.

 

OBS Studio

It is open-source software that helps you stream video and also record video across platforms. It is my number one pick because it has great streaming abilities and it is also very efficient when it comes to recording videos.

Why is it powerful?

It gives the user immense power to choose the part of the screen they want to capture. The user can capture the whole screen or just a part of the screen. It also allows you to record information from apps and browsers of all kinds. Hence making it a powerful software when it comes to recording tutorials or documenting.

The app also allows the user to manipulate the way the video looks. They can choose to change the themes by adding filters or how the video transitions. You can also add audio to make the video more interesting. It grants access to other audio sources to ensure you get the music you want for your video.

If you are not yet convinced about getting the OBS studios application then here is another feature. It contains an API software that allows the user to write plugins and scripts. The app is also open source meaning you can manipulate the application itself in whichever way you deem necessary. Such features make this application stand out amongst other apps.

The application is free of charge and comes in Windows, Linux, and Mac versions.

Loom

It is an application that lets you record and shares your screen recordings easily. The apps work as a messaging app too. The app has a user-friendly user interface. The user only needs to create an account, then choose between the desktop version or the Chrome version, and they are good to go.

Why is it powerful?

The app has webcam access which allows the user to record videos directly from their webcam. It helps the user personalize their video hence catching the audiences’ attention better. You can also use the app to capture static screenshots.

The app has one feature that makes it stand out while compared to the other apps. It has a high transfer speed of videos. The user can transfer the video to their audience, immediately after they complete the recording. All they need to do is copy the provided link for the video and then send it to the recipient. Once the link is received, whoever clicks on it gains access to the video. The apps hence make transferring videos via messaging apps, emails, and project managing apps easy. The recipient can also react by providing a comment or by using an emoji.

The apps offer free recording for a hundred screenshots and videos. Once you have exhausted your free screenshots and videos, you can choose to upgrade to the Loom business package. For only ten dollars per month, you get unlimited recording time and other annotation features.

Screen-O-Matic

It is an app that gives the user ability to record, host, and edit screen captures. The app provides all the recording screen features, it provides partial screen recording, webcam footages, and it also takes a screenshot. The app also has other extra advanced features that include adding music to one’s videos and adding annotations.

Why is it powerful?

The app provides many editing tools that help the user make their video more presentable. Screen-O-Matic has a green screen filter, trimming silence, and even animation transitions. The apps help you make your video stand out without even using other video editors.

It also provides a hosting solution to the user. So if you hate downloading your video, then using more time to upload the video to your blog, then this is the application you need. It helps you post your videos directly from the app itself to any social media platform or blog.

The application offers fifteen minutes of free recording time with a watermark embedded on the video. You can later choose to upgrade to the Deluxe package that offers annotation and editing features for only twenty dollars a year. It comes in Windows, Android, Chromebook, iOS, and Mac versions.

Inbuilt alternatives

If you do not want to go through the hassle of downloading any of the websites listed on this website. Then there are some in-built alternatives.

  1. People using Mac operating systems can use the Quick-Time inbuilt software to record their screens.
  2. People using Windows ten can use a feature found on the game bar.

Conclusion

Presenting your work as an audiovisual presentation makes it more interesting and memorable. The applications mentioned on this website help you make professional videos in the comfort of your home.

3 Smart Growth Hacks to Accelerate Sales Automation

Across industries, sales teams spend huge amounts of time doing tasks manually, even though they could be easily automated. Automating your repetitive tasks will allow you to devote more time to closing deals instead of performing client outreach.

As a B2B growth hacker, you need to work on your entire sales funnel. This will help you scale up your activation, retention, revenue, and referrals. All this can only be possible if you build relationships with my clients and humanize your sales automation processes.

Let’s face it – despite the advent of technology and machine learning, running a successful business still boils down to building connections. No one wants to make deals with someone who sounds like a robot!

In this guide, we will look at three growth strategies that combine automation and personalization to boost your response and conversion rates.

Let’s get started.

1. Double the open and response rate with image personalization

Any sales campaign’s success is marked by one thing: how well it makes your brand stand out from the crowd. The best way to get noticed is to eschew long chunks of text and use visual content to communicate with your readers instead.

Numerous studies have proven that the human brain processes images around 60,000 times faster than plain text. This should give you all the justification you need to use visual cues in your marketing.

Both static images and GIFs are great ways to hook your readers and drive engagement. With 90% of the information transmitted to our brains being visual, you want to capitalize on the prospect of improved information retention and create visual content that humanizes your marketing. Your product’s value proposition might be the best in the market, but capturing your audience’s attention through humorous, informative visual elements will help them notice your ad and hold their attention.

 

Source: Chamaileon

The example above from video software company Wistia uses a humorous, catchy GIF that highlights the link to a relevant blog post. Since the company’s target audience is YouTube and Instagram influencers, and presentation is everything in influencer marketing, the article is highly relevant.

Nowadays, you can easily automate a visual campaign using various personalization tools. Let’s look at how you can use these tools to create personalized visual content for your marketing emails.

Choose an image to personalize

The first step in delivering personalized images is to take high-quality and clear photos that are easily personalized. Pay attention to the background and make sure that all elements of the image are clear.

Let’s say you’re running a web design business. You can use a photo like my example below to show how the prospect’s website could look if they hire you. Personalizing the photo is as easy as replacing the blank laptop screen with a mock-up of the prospect’s website. The blank background ensures that the laptop screen is the sole focus of the image.

You can also use personalized images for virtual meeting invitations. Because face-to-face meetings aren’t possible right now, I’ve been inviting my existing and prospective clients to have virtual coffee with me.

A personalized invitation can help you land a meeting with a client who’s willing to hear about your solutions. I just add my name and my prospect’s name to the mugs in the image below, and I’m well on my way to landing a virtual coffee meeting:

The images you use for your personalized campaigns should be simple, eye-catching, and easy to personalize. Above all, they should comply with your branding guidelines and convey your brand values.

Create an image personalization template

Your sales team likely sends numerous outreach emails in a day and cannot possibly manually personalize each image. Thankfully, sales automation tools allow you to create templates for personalizing your marketing emails. These tools can help you craft effective emails regardless of your company size or industry.

The easiest way to use images is to use automation tools that are connected to your existing technology stack. You can use a tool like Hyperise for this. The software uses a simple process that allows you to create personalized images for your sales team.

First, upload the photo you’d like to personalize. You can then introduce a text layer using the placeholder.

The placeholder then gets replaced with your prospect’s first name when you come to use the image.

You can take it one step further with more attention to detail. Check the list of the fonts and choose the handwriting font. Doing this makes it look like someone has taken the time to hand-write their name.

The final images will look like the example above, and your sales representatives can use them to invite qualified leads for a virtual coffee meeting. Doing this helps you build a relationship between your sales team and potential clients.

Hyper-personalization helps drive customer relationships and makes a lasting impact on your leads, which is something that a standard template cannot achieve.

2. Humanize your automated sales process

The more you use sales automation tools, the more you need to add a personal touch to your marketing materials. The potential client should feel like they are talking to a member of your sales team, not a machine. Personal connections are crucial to any campaign, but they are particularly important in sales, where trust and relationships often close deals.

The main goal of personalizing your sales processes is to offer your potential customers an experience that provides value, not to hard-sell your products or services. Your sales email is an opportunity to build a lasting relationship with your prospects through genuine human interactions.

Let’s look at three easy steps to help you make the most of your email marketing services, from initial outreach to follow-up emails.

Be relevant to the recipient’s experiences

For your sales automation campaigns to be effective, you have to back them up by personalizing them with common contact points and mutual interests. Your potential customers likely receive many sales emails in a day, and the only way to stand out is to give them content they can relate to.

One way to do this is by using dynamic content personalization outreach, which uses popular social media posts to find a common ground with the recipient. Here is how you can use public posts to find a compelling opening line:

  • Find a relevant LinkedIn post that has a significant engagement rate.
  • Create a list of all the people and their email addresses (you can use online email finder tools to discover their contact details) who have commented on that post.
  • Send an email or LinkedIn outreach message to the people on the list using automation tools. In the email, start by referring to the article and the comment they left on the post.
  • Introduce your value proposition into the conversation.

There are a couple of other ways to send automated emails to LinkedIn users. By using spin syntax with tools like Lemlist, you can personalize the text and images while also including dynamic landing pages for easy appointment setting.

If you are a LinkedIn user, you can also automate your outreach emails using Expandi. The creators of Expandi estimate that using the first name of your prospect and a personalized opening line can help boost the acceptance rate to 72% and increases the chances of a prospect responding to a follow-up to 40%. The software does this by hyper-targeting and using a common point as a conversation starter, making it sound less automated and more human.

Here are three reasons this approach works better than conventional sales automation methods:

  • Instead of beginning with a hard sell, you start the conversation with mutual interests that help you build a relationship with your recipients.
  • By referring to a post that they engaged with, you don’t look too intrusive. Instead, you highlight something you have in common.
  • Instead of forcing them to check out your value proposition, you provide a reason to connect with you and start a conversation.

By tapping into your prospects’ experiences and interests, you move the focus away from making a deal to building a relationship. Personalizing your emails allows you to lay the foundation of a strong customer journey.

In the next section, we will see how you can add some personality and humor to your sales emails to create a successful campaign.

Add Personality to your Email

There is no reason why your sales email has to be all business and cannot have a touch of personality. Animated GIFs and emojis are a great way to add some humor while also getting your message across. While the use of emojis in email marketing is still a hotly debated topic, we can’t deny that they have been a game changer for marketing professionals.

To avoid emojis from looking unprofessional, you must ensure that they stay aligned with your tone. Also, make sure you test the response to emojis, as some of them may have double meanings. Zerobounce has an extensive list of the rules of emoji etiquette. You can also apply similar rules to your use of GIFs in email.

How can we use them in the right way? Let’s look at how I used emojis and animated GIFs to reach out to potential clients.

 

I used the GIF above in a follow-up email to a prospective client. Since I’d already sent an introductory email before, the GIF above would have made my client feel like we had already met, and that my brand was something that he should be looking forward to learning more about. 

The next GIF acknowledged that I’d lost contact with the prospective client. However, I wasn’t about to give up on them that easily: 

After following up about four times, I used a GIF like that below, which was a humorous way to check-in with your potential client without imposing on them:

 

Emojis and animated GIFs are not just perfect for emails but can also be used on other platforms. The combination of tools like Hyperise and Expandi let you add a personal touch to your outreach on sites like LinkedIn. In the example above, the software inserts your prospect’s name and image to create a hyper-personalized pitch every time. 

Personalized Videos in the B2B Sales Process

Video marketing has gained momentum over the past few years. One study estimates that around 90% of online marketers use videos in their campaigns. Personalized videos can help you stand out from the crowd if you do them right. If you’d like to learn about using video to elevate your B2B marketing, there are online courses that will teach you the basics of video content creation. 

Combining personalized videos and sales automation can help double your response rate. The process is quite simple. Many online applications allow you to record and share video pitches, which help you build a story around your brand.

Source: Vidyard

The video pitch from Dynamic Signal, above, went viral as soon as it was launched. One of the company’s executives took a novel approach to pitching their solution to a restaurant known for its spicy wings. He made his pitch while eating the restaurant’s spicy wings, even as he was sweating, laughing, and crying. Thankfully, the restaurant agreed to a sales meeting with Dynamic Signal and the video earned the coveted Video in Business award later on.

I also use videos in my sales outreach campaigns, and use the free Bigvu app to record and edit them. Bigvu’s teleprompter feature helps me read my lines effortlessly. It displays the text on the screen below the camera, which makes your audience feel like you’re talking directly to them.

You can create engaging and personalized video pitches in four simple steps:

  • Write your script.
  • Use a teleprompter app to record your video.
  • Create your video landing page.
  • Use the landing page in your outreach and follow-ups. A great way to do this is to use the subject line “Hey [FirstName]. I created a video for you!”

An engaging video helps your brand stand out and helps you make an emotive pitch to your prospects. While I’m relatively new to video marketing, my first few attempts have seen great results and have helped me get more responses than ever. My videos have also proven to be effective in starting to build new relationships, leading to more revenue for my business.

3. Speed up the sales workflow

Sales automation tools should help you improve your outreach across platforms. For example, tools like Zapier allow you to automate your cold outreach strategy on LinkedIn. Use their webhooks feature to automatically send a welcome email in real-time to LinkedIn contacts who accept your contact requests.

Let’s see how we can use Zapier to step up your LinkedIn outreach game:

Step 1: Connecting Zapier and Expandi via Webhooks

If several contacts accept your requests, you will not be able to send emails to all of them at the same time. Thankfully, you can use webhooks to automate your responses.

Webhooks, also known as web callbacks or HTTP push API, are automated notifications sent by one app to others to report a new development. Once you connect Expandi and Zapier via webhooks, you will always be notified whenever someone accepts your LinkedIn connection requests. As soon as Zapier identifies the event as a connection request acceptance, it performs a preprogrammed action, such as adding the contact to an email list.

Here is what a web hook looks like:

 

Step 2: Connect Webhooks by Zapier with your outreach tool

After your prospect accepts your LinkedIn connection request, the next step is to add them to your email outreach list. After this, you can shoot them a follow-up email to start a conversation.

This process can be automated as well – all you have to do is link Webhooks by Zapier to your email outreach tool.

After you integrate it with your email marketing platform, Zapier automatically adds your new contact’s name and email address to your mailing list. The follow-up email will look something like this: “Hello [firstname], it’s nice to connect with you on LinkedIn”, followed by your pitch.

Sales automation allows your sales team to spend less time on outreach by creating practical tools that generate qualified leads. It helps them focus on other aspects of the sales cycle and avoid re-work and duplicate outreach.

In Closing

While sales automation can help you streamline your processes, adding a personal touch to your outreach efforts is what will ultimately help you land clients. Whether via email or through LinkedIn (or a different channel entirely), there are several excellent online tools that can help you make a customized pitch every time.

Use tools like Lemlist, Bigvu, Hyperise, and Zapier to craft compelling emails that empower you to create massive personalized campaigns. Don’t be afraid to experiment with images, videos, emojis, and animated GIFs to bring your marketing emails to life.

 

Customer Data Security: 5 Pillars to Keep Customer Information Safe

Customer data security is one of the most talked-about topics of 2021. Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic, customers are forced to rely on online mediums to fulfill their needs. With so much reliance on online mediums, cybercrimes are mounting every hour. According to CNBC, 15 million customers are engulfed by cybercrimes every day. Although governments worldwide are trying to create safe and secure cyberspace for people, it is still hard to figure out who did what and put them behind bars. Since talks on data confidentiality are mounting, let us first understand what it actually is.

What is Data Confidentiality?

Data confidentiality means safeguarding online data such as passwords, names, phone numbers, email addresses, and bank details from the eyes of hackers. Companies protect their customer data so that no hacker can creep in and steal it. Once stolen, data can be misused in numerous ways. Cybercriminals may use it to withdraw money from customer’s bank accounts, place orders, and sell it on the black market. Moreover, they can ask for ransom in exchange for the data they have stolen. Thus, data confidentiality is as important as having a lock in your home’s front door.

Is Sharing your Confidential Information Risky?

As a customer, your data is primarily your responsibility. It would be best if you wisely chose whom to share it with. Just because a website is asking for your data, you must not give it over. Analyze whether or not there is a need for sharing your information.

Sharing confidential information freely opens the gates for data theft. Whenever you share something online, your information is exposed to the cyber world. They can steal your information, sell it to someone who can further cause trouble. Thus, please don’t risk your data by sharing it freely all around.

5 Pillars to keep Customer Data Safe?

1.     Use Multi-Factor Authentication

As a website owner, you must be skeptical about who is visiting your website. To ensure your customer’s and your security, you must employ 2-factor authentication logins on your website. If a customer visits your website, he might have to enter both his password and One Time Password or OTP to log in.

Some companies do not employ such security tactics as they think these things are time-consuming and irritating for the customer. But the fact is, when customers see that they are entering a safe space, they feel much more satisfied and content with the experience.

2.     Use Password Managers

Password managers are extremely effective in safeguarding your customer’s information and maintaining password hygiene in an organization. In organizations, many employees have to employ a single account for various purposes. Cybercriminals are always on the lookout for such loopholes. To remedy that, you can use password managers to create, encrypt, and save your passwords. Since those passwords are bot-generated, human minds can’t figure it out. Thus, by using password managers, you can save your confidential accounts.

3.     SSL Certificates are the need of the hour

SSL or Secure Socket Layer certificate is authorized by the CA or Certificate Authority which resembles that a website is safe and incoming traffic is being monitored. SSL is mandatory in today’s tech-savvy world as it encrypts the communication that your website has with its customers. It protects and safeguards the data transfer and passes it over a secure and safe network so that no cybercriminal can get his/her hands of it.

SSL is a mandatory protocol that all search engines expect your website to have at all times.The presence of SSL largely influences search engine rankings, and your reputation in the online world enhances. You can buy SSL certificate in multiple forms, namely regular (single-domain), multi-domain SAN and wildcard. Regular SSLs only protect your primary domain, whereas wildcard SSL certificate protects both primary and its subdomains as well.

4.    Don’t Store Data on Random Places.

Businesses prefer to store their data in various places so that just in case if they lose it from one place, they can retrieve that back from another. But this is a huge threat to customer’s data security. Since you have multiple data storage options, hackers too have different means to steal your data. Thus, you should invest some time and effort in creating a data storage strategy. You can even take expert help in the same. Data storage strategy might not sound interesting to you in the short term, but it is extremely effective a decade down.

5.     Keep yourself updated with the Latest Technology.

To weather the storm, you need to prepare for it in advance. When the time comes, you can’t be looking for solutions; you must prepare them now. To do so, you must comply with the latest cybersecurity guidelines. Firewalls, TLS/SSL certs, and anti-virus software are best friends. Cybercrimes are evolving in the same proportion as technology. Hackers are constantly finding ways to neutralize security protocols and pose threats to the existing system. Thus, the best you can do is keeping your system, website, and anti-virus software up to date.

Importance of Data Confidentiality

It is completely normal to ask why I should implement data security measures until you are safely venturing online. But what about when the devil knocks on your door?

Will you be asking the same question then? Data confidentiality protects your website and customers against malware, spyware, ransomware, and phishing attacks. When a data breach happens and a customer loses his/her money, your company has to pay for the loss. Governments have a strict customer data security policy that allows them to impose sanctions on companies; thus, companies have to face heavy penalties. So, yes, data confidentiality is important.

Benefits of Implementing Strict Customer Data Security?

1.     Improve Brand Reputation

Brand reputation takes time to build, and just one mishap can turn it into a nightmare. Customers are looking for brands that can assure them their data safety at least. Data safety is the basic requirement of every customer. It is an important spoke in the wheel of reputation. As a business, if you want to build your reputation, you must install security protocols, employ two-factor authentication and take necessary measures. A good security strategy for data protection can increase a brand’s reputation manifold.

2.     Neutralize Automated Attacks

Automated attacks are made by using malicious bots that can creep into a system and damage it. These bots do not need cybercriminals to channelize them as they are programmed in such a way that they know exactly what to do with your system. But, if your business employs robust security protocols, there is no need for you to worry as they can take care of such bots.

They do not allow bots to enter your system and steal information or cause a shutdown. Automated attacks are prominent these days due to the over-reliance of businesses on cyberspace.

3.     It helps in Keeping your Clients Happy.

Happy clients come by good communication skills, and when they notice your commitment towards the safety of their data and your organization. How safe your employee information is, who has the administrative access, where you keep your most confidential data files all constitute a happy client-business relationship. When a client sees that you have all the security measures in place and is well-prepared for any atrocity, it develops a sense of trust. Thus, maintaining your data security has a huge impact on clients.

4.     No Government Intervention

Since the reliance on cyberspace has increased, governments worldwide have become more aware of what is happening in cyberspace. Many countries have already imposed sanctions on companies who are playing with customer data security. Rules and regulations are getting formulated, and fines are being imposed on companies who do not take their customer data protection seriously.  These days, if a company has to stay away from government restrictions and interventions, it must have a robust customer data protection policy.  And, if you already have it, you can care less about the legal authorities.

To Conclude

These days the customer is the king, and if you want to trade with the king, you must have all the security measures in place. With cyberspaces lurking around, you cannot take any chance. They are always looking for an opening to exploit, and you can very well become their next target. Be skeptical about every customer’s data and keep them as safe as you keep your locker keys. We are sure that by employing the five steps mentioned above, you can safeguard your website from the dirty eyes of cybercriminals. So, make the best use of the five steps given above and keep your customers satisfied.

 

4 Benefits of Social Media Marketing Strategy to Grow Your Business

 

A single viral video and the whole social media get blown up. People often question the power of social media, but how you ever imagined how a single video gets viral? Well, whenever something gets posted on social media, it moves from one page to another. And in this way, a chain is formed. And finally, it reaches the page with millions of users. When somebody with a huge fan following posts something, it means it is visible to millions of people. Well, whenever you see something getting viral on social media platforms, it represents the power of social media. It is one of the largest platforms with millions of users. Now people are shifting to social media for business purposes. For running any business, you need an audience to get your products sold. Whether it is a small business or a large company, you need customers for it. When you have people who buy your products or avail services, it means your business is on the right track.

So, to build any sort of business, you first have to introduce yourself to your targeted audience. Back then, when social media was not a part of our society, people used traditional marketing methods for business growth. Some of the old marketing strategies were email marketing, magazine ads, and stuff.

In this era of social media, people rely more on social media marketing than putting pictures in a newspaper. Brand and business awareness is essential, and you can make it possible through marketing.

Social media marketing is currently in trend and is one leading the race. Even the traditional marketing method like email marketing is still effective, but if you want to be in the first place, you can have to go with the current trends. And they are social media marketing strategies.

They are effective, and they generate a lot of traffic on your website. And when there is more traffic, there are more chances of business success. More people will purchase your products, and you will get benefited in a short time.

1.    More Traffic:

Social media is the most powerful platform because it has a huge presence of people on it. There are millions of social media users in the world.

In every area, town, or city people somehow are connected to social media. And it can be through Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. So you are more likely to get more traffic through social media marketing strategies than any other.

With the help of social media, you can reach people directly, or you can also get access to their activity. When you have access to your audience, you can convince them to a product purchase.

Putting a picture in a magazine might not be effective, but uploading it on social media might be. Because there are more social media users than magazine readers.

When more people come on your page, there is a chance that out of ten people’s four will buy something. And if they get satisfied with your product, they will bring others as well.

In this way, traffic on your page will increase, and your business will grow at a much faster rate. Therefore the best way of getting traffic on your page is to utilize social media marketing strategies.

2.    Better Customer Satisfaction:

Better customer satisfaction is not attained until and unless you do not communicate with them. And it was one of the biggest challenges faced by people in business in the past.

They were unable to understand customer requirements while customers, on the other hand, were not able to put their point in front of anybody. There was a lack of communication between the client and customer before the arrival of social media.

Social media and its marketing strategies are somehow able to overcome this lack of communication. You can now directly come in contact with your customers through email and messages. You can listen to your requirements and later can work on them.

In this way, when your customers get what they wanted better customer satisfaction is achieved automatically. And social media marketing strategies have played an essential part in making it possible with time.

You can also raise your voice for your brand through social media, and it is like a blessing in disguise. People appreciate when they get a response from you, and this is the ultimate step of receiving customer satisfaction through a marketing platform.

3.    Brand Awareness:

Social media marketing is a blessing because they allow you to speak up for yourself. If you are starting a business, you can tell people about your journey from day one.

You can post things on your social media platforms and later can promote them to get better marketing results. With the help of social media marketing strategies, you are allowed to syndicate your content.  And you can also increase your visibility among your targeted audience.

Titan is a sprayer company that posts pictures of its sprayer with its parts to let people know about its brand in detail. They add the photo of titan impact 440 to let their customers know more about the titan sprayer. And it is one of the social media marketing strategies they use with efficacy.

How To Increase eCommerce Conversions Video Marketing

Image source

An eCommerce platform is one of the best places to start your online business. Establishing a virtual store has never been easier on this platform.

Everyone can build their business in a short time. You can practically register yourself and upload products within a day. Voila! Now you’re a business owner.

However, this convenience of setting online stores has its flaws. With so many people being able to sell on the internet, customers find it difficult to connect with the trusted business. Not to mention that business owners have set a price war, making it more challenging for customers to get the best product.

If you’re a business owner on an eCommerce platform, this situation has been nothing but a bitter truth to face. It’s a bit challenging to find customers and generate their trust in this harsh competition.

But, now you can dodge the bullet.

In this article, you’ll learn a marketing strategy that helps you capture attention and generate sales faster; video marketing.

What is video marketing?

Video marketing strategy is a tactic using video content to deliver brands’ messages in a more personal, meaningful way. Unlike typical videos on the internet, marketing videos contain useful information with stunning visuals that aims to hook people at first glance.

There are different types of marketing videos you can use to capture your audience’s attention. Product demo videos, explainer videos, and testimonial videos are among the popular strategies for increasing conversions.

The following are the top tips to improve your video marketing strategy to the fullest.

     1.Determine the goal

First thing first, every strategy must have a purpose. Whether it’s to raise awareness or increase sales, you should define your campaign’s goal clearly.

If you’re unsure where to start, check your marketing funnel, then point out which step should be prioritized right away.

For example, receiving the audience’s attention is vital when you start a business. Without people’s recognition, it’s hard to have a solid online presence — let alone selling your products to target customers. Hence, you need a strategy to increase exposure, and tutorial videos are ideal for that purpose.

     2. Convey customer-centric content

Keep in mind that you set a video marketing campaign for your customers. Therefore, the video should be about them, not you. So, avoid bragging too much about your online store.

Customer-centric content means you use marketing resources to help people solve their problems. Your content must focus on their stories, how they deal with an issue and how it affects them in their lives.

When you put effort into creating a story about customers, they’ll more likely relate to the content. This is the way to capture their hearts because promoting your products will be seamless once you’ve got their attention.

     3. Incorporate product reviews

Selling online has its own risks. Not everyone can trust a brand easily when it comes to choosing products.

This is where your marketing videos come in handy. You can include product review videos to tell your audience the detail of each product.

With a product demo video, your potential customers can examine how the product will look in their hands. They can also learn every benefit they can get from owning the product.

Creating this video will improve your eCommerce store significantly. Not only does it attract attention for people visiting the store, but it also offers a practical option for those wanting to know the product overview.

     4. Share testimonials

Customer review is the backbone of online businesses. Since virtual stores can fraud customers, it’s then vital for your business to provide something they can trust.

People rely on others’ experiences for online transactions. When they see a testimonial section, they can rest assured that the store is credible to make a purchase.

Moreover, customer reviews can influence buying decisions. People get more thrilled after seeing other people enjoy their experience in using the product as well as receiving service. It encourages them to get the experience themselves

Testimonials also play a significant role in generating potential customers’ trusts.. And the more trusted you’re on the online market, the more customers are going to buy products from you.

     5. Include clear call-to-action

It isn’t video marketing campaigns without call-to-action at the end of it. This highly engaging copy helps your audience continue on their next journey.

Call-to-action will direct your audience to the appropriate page that leads them to become prospects. With this copy, you can track potential customers easily and analyze whether your video marketing strategy works.

In most cases, call-to-action is also useful to boost your web traffic as viewers can quickly visit your page. When your marketing videos are shared on different social platforms, the chance of getting visitors is big. As a result, your SEO rank is increased, and more people can discover your site even easier.

More visitors imply more conversion rates. So, make sure to create your call-to-action short and make it visible so that viewers can notice it faster.

Bottom Line

Running eCommerce stores can be daunting as you’re in tight competition in getting customers. You’ve probably used many strategies to capture their attention only to face a failure.

Video marketing strategy is designed to grab attention in a short time. Since people consume online videos on a daily basis, including marketing materials on your video content can be a perfect solution.

Make sure to optimize your marketing videos before releasing them to the public. Although video marketing campaigns have proven to bring good results, you can’t expect the same without polishing the video in its proper manner.

Andre Oentoro is the founder of Breadnbeyond, an award-winning explainer video company. He helps businesses increase conversion rates, close more sales, and get positive ROI from explainer videos (in that order).

Twitter: @breadnbeyond

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreoentoro/

 

Struggling to Manage Appointments? Invest in an Online Appointment Scheduling Software

Booking and managing appointments is a task that needs to be handled with great responsibility. After all, you are dealing directly with the clients during the process. Increasing the number of bookings in an attempt to boost business is an even bigger challenge. Business owners employ professionals that work dedicatedly to attract potential clients, take them through a smooth booking procedure and manage the appointments efficiently. A good amount of money is spent on this process and there is still scope of error that can put off the customers. If you have been struggling to manage the appointments efficiently and aren’t seeing a boost in the number of bookings then online appointment scheduling software is the perfect solution for you. Here is a closer look at what this software system has to offer.

Schedule and Manage Appointments Efficiently

The integrated calendar enables efficient management of appointments and that too in an easy manner. You can customize it as per your specific requirement. It is best to use the two way calendar sync option to keep your calendar synched with external calendars so that the bookings can be managed through all of them. Rebooking reminders are automatically sent to the customers via this advanced system. Recurring appointments can also be automated so as to increase client visit. The calendar has details about the booked, rescheduled as well as cancelled appointments. It also includes feedback from the clients.

As a business owner or manager, you are better equipped to delegate responsibilities to your subordinates and plan the tasks at hand effectively when you have all this information handy. Managing your bookings efficiently will enable you to ensure happier customers and better business.

No More Paper Work

Your clients will no longer require filling in forms to book your services when you have this software in place. And you will be saved from the hassle of storing and managing the documents. All the required information will be available on the system. You shall be able to view and use it easily as and when you required.

Boost the Number of Appointments by Empowering Customers

You can increase the number of bookings by empowering your customers to take appointments online via different platforms. This can be facilitated by way of advanced appointment scheduling software. It is suggested to be present on your website as well as various social media platforms to enhance your visibility. Let potential clients find you easily and book you with equal ease wherever they find you.

It is also a good idea to allow Google to show your real-time availability in Google Maps and Google Search and also enable booking.

Ensure the Authenticity of Appointments

The software enables you to take pre-payments. This ensures the authenticity of the bookings as only those clients who truly want to avail your services will make the payment. The chances of cancellation of appointments are lowered substantially with pre-payments.

Appointment scheduling software requires a small investment but reaps great benefits. It is indeed the need of the hour for business owners.

Why You Should Aim To Become A Graphic Designer?

 

There are many people around the world passionate about designing. They create things from their imagination, not because they can but because they love to do it.

The perks of being a graphic designer are not just limited to doing work from the comfort of your home. It enables you to put something out in the world that was not already a part of it. It helps you channel your creativity towards a better target and make a profit out of it.

Technology across the globe is constantly changing for the better. The tools and accessories that are accessible now were not imagined a few years earlier. This has made the work of a graphic designer more easy, exciting, and engaging.

The life of a designer is not easy, however it is filled with many things that make it enjoyable. This work has intrigued many in pursuing graphic designing full time, and in doing so, many have fulfilled their life-long dreams. Some people can make their mark in individually climbing steps, but some require professional advice. Whatever your case, premium graphic designing services in Canada or around the world offer platforms for young enthusiasts to pursue their passion. They also provide services for organizations in case you want to be an entrepreneur.

If you have currently hit the career choosing phase and are passionate about designs, this blog will help you in explaining the advantages of choosing graphic designing as your full or part-time career. From working as per your schedule to spreading your network across multiple organizations, the freedom of work is immense for a graphic designer. Narrowing down the list, the following are the three main advantages of being a full-time graphic designer.

1.   A Flag With Your Name

Whether you are skilled in creating small logos or more prominent product banners, every design has the potential of being a revolutionary thing of change. Whatever you make will have your mark on it, and some extraordinary marks are followed back to find the creator.  If you have eyes for creativity and can understand detailing, you might like to work as a designer.

2.   Multiple Opportunities

The choice of platforms of work for graphic designers is spread all over the world. Many organizations offer job opportunities, but freelancing may attract you more if you really want to enjoy life. Multiple choices like videography, photo illustrations, UI/UX designing, motion graphics, production, or web designing are available for a person to choose from. Many new and old graphic designing services agencies have also modernized and are flexible with their work, yet remaining creative and attractive. Whatever your choice, the possibilities are always available to choose for your next job or starting anew.

3.   It’s Fun To Play With Creativity

The main advantage of being a graphic designer is playing with imagination. If you have mastery of brushes and tools, then you can give your ideas a visual appearance. With multiple changes over the years, designer jobs and work has become more exciting and engaging. Whether you are a team person or a one-man army, there is always a place for every individual.

 

When choosing a distinctive path for a career, many people get confused with multiple choices. By being a graphic designer, you do not have to limit yourself in one way; whenever the work gets hectic, the possibility of neighboring branches is always open. The choices are many; What is Yours?!

References:

https://outorigin.com/services/graphic-designing/

https://ayrshirecollegeblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/24/10-reasons-why-you-should-study-graphic-design-and-visual-communication/

https://www.creativeboom.com/tips/13-reasons-why-you-should-follow-your-dreams-and-become-a-graphic-designer/

Keywords:
Graphic Designing
Graphic Designer In Canada

 

 

How to Run an Effective Blogger Outreach Campaign

Consumers are not an extension of your brand. They are an integral part of your brand. A brand uses multiple channels to create awareness, develop leads, and convert them to consumers. Working with influential bloggers who act as your brand advocates and guest posting on their blogs is called a blogger outreach strategy.

A blogger outreach strategy has three objectives, creating brand awareness, link building, and delivering a focused PR campaign. Let’s start by looking at the basic framework of a successful blogger outreach strategy.

Source: pointvisible.com

1. Project setup

Plan out your campaign in granular detail before reaching out. Start by making a list of your objectives and goals so that you can measure your progress and steer your campaign to keep it on track. 

Driving traffic to your website and converting the leads is a high-level objective of your blogger outreach strategy. Start by checking your website for ease of use and engaging and relevant content. 

Define your goals

Set S.M.A.R.T. goals for your blogger outreach program. Goals and objectives that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound help keep your program on track. 

Accurate goal-setting will keep your team focused on the objectives they are trying to achieve.

Develop your buyer persona

Who are your customers? What are their demographics and psychographic profiles? A buyer persona is a rough sketch of your ideal customer including, their likes and dislikes and their purchase triggers. Let’s look at a buyer persona that a fashion brand would create.

Source: behance

A buyer persona allows you to generate qualified leads that are easier to convert and retain as customers. The personas enable you to tailor your content, product, or service to their needs. A strong buyer persona stems from a combination of market research and insights from your existing customer data. 

You can learn more about creating buyer personas. Your buyer personas will come in handy in your search for relevant influencers down the line. You want the blogger to have a subscriber profile that matches your persona. 

Get the right tools

A Google search is an ok starting point when searching for relevant sites for your blogging outreach campaign. However, over time this becomes an arduous task. Do yourself a favor and start with the right outreach tools.

You want tools that will help you:

  • Manage your email campaigns from template design to automated responses.
  • Identify relevant keywords using appropriate SEO tools.
  • Use an email finder to collect relevant contact information. The most popular email finder is Hunter, but there are lots of alternatives to Hunter

I recommend investing in an email outreach tool, an SEO tool, and an email finder. If you’re running the campaign on a limited budget and you can’t afford everything, invest in an email finder and a professional SEO research tool.

2. Inspection

Once you complete your setup stage, it’s time to move on to the inspection stage. The inspection stage is where you identify and filter websites to post your blogs and bloggers who will act as your brand ambassadors.

Finding websites and bloggers

Remember the buyer persona you created? Start building your target list of websites and bloggers who cater to a similar profile.

Start your search by genre, narrow it down by niche and then apply the final filter of reach. Outreach tools like BuzzSumo and Traackr can help you in your search. 

The blogger audience is always niche-specific. They come to the blogger for a particular topic. The outreach tools allow you to focus on bloggers who serve the same niche while filtering out those who don’t provide a snug contextual fit. 

Some additional filtering criteria would include subscriber base volume, domain authority of blog or publication, Alexa ranking, and social following. You want to work with blogs and publications that give maximum traction to your content. 

Contact details

With your target list under your belt, you now need to get details on the contact person and their email details. Bloggers have their contact details on the blog, so that’s the easy bit. The decision-maker at publications is the editor.

Look at the contact details on the website for the editor’s name. You can then use an email finder to gather their contact details.

Identify content keyword gaps

A keyword content gap is a deviation between what users are searching for (with their search engine queries) and what they receive (in search results). It denotes a situation where content on a specific topic (keyword) can be made better and more relevant to search queries.

Source

Use your SEO tools to generate a list of keywords for a specific niche. Next, conduct an online search for content that is available under that keyword. If the content density is thin, you have a key around which you can craft and pitch your content.

3. Personalization and outreach

A well-crafted and personalized outreach email is your best hope to get a positive response. Here are some tips to achieve this:

  • Your email should highlight that you have researched the blog, the selection of topics, and the readership.
  • Keep it short and sweet. Devote a maximum of 2-3 sentences to explain why you are reaching out, what you need, and what you’re willing to offer.
  • Include a brief outline of the proposed blog and highlight the keyword gap.

I recommend using a grammar checker when creating your outreach template. There are plenty of great grammar checkers. This guide discusses how to secure a discount with Grammarly if you want to use the tool’s premium version.

An effective outreach campaign should generate plenty of positive responses from your target list. 

Track your results

Keep track of your outreach efforts and the results of each guest blog post. This will help you analyze if your campaign is effective or if it needs tweaking. Track metrics like which blog posts are driving traffic, conversions, and social shares.

Wrapping Up

Blogger outreach is one of the cornerstones of an effective online marketing strategy. A focused, consistent, and well-planned outreach campaign will amplify your online visibility.

Your blogger outreach strategy will increase backlinks to your website and raise your domain and page ratings. It will also help you form connections with a wide variety of thoughtful, talented people in your field. 

With a focused blogger outreach strategy, you’ll ensure that you’re getting your message to the audiences that matter.

 

What to consider before choosing an Android keylogger

Keylogger is a feature that is commonly found in a lot of spy apps. One can say that keylogger is an essential feature of spy apps. It is a feature that’s normally used by parents and spouses to track their children or spouses’ digital/online and device behaviour. If you are interested in choosing the best Android keylogger, you can check out this guide on Suspekt that elaborates on the best keyloggers for Android.

Keylogger Usage

When people mention keylogging, they usually mean tracking their children and spouses’ online and device behaviour. Some keyloggers are paired with geofencing features. Which is great if you plan on tracking your kids’ behaviour leading up to their possible kidnapping (if it ever happens).

Besides tracking your kids’ devices, you can also track your spouse’s behaviour too. You may question their strange behaviour and could not place a hand on it. One of the ways to “keep up” with their strange behaviour is to install a spy app with a keylogger function to check on them. However, a keylogger feature may not help you extensively. Oftentimes you may need other features of a spy app to justify your spouse’s strange behaviour – tracking their calls and text messages for example.

Or you may be an employer who wish to check on your employees’ work production. You may feel like your employees are not putting in enough attention or time to complete their work in a timely manner. Some employers actually use keyloggers to track their employees’ work remotely to see what their activities are like.

What to look out for – Criteria

Having said all that above, here are some criteria to consider before you settle on the best keylogger.

Functionality

What’s the use of a keylogger when you cannot use it? As mentioned before, most spy apps come with a keylogger function. However, some of the keylogger features don’t really work “properly”. By that we mean how it does not accurately log the keystrokes your target devices held.

Some keylogger feature works only with geo-fencing, calls, and texts. However, some other keylogger feature works with social media platform, device browsers, and so on. If you are looking for keyloggers that logs just the text messages, calls, and geo-fencing features, then we guess a basic one will be good enough. If you want more, then obviously a more comprehensive one may be what you are looking for.

Stealth mode

You will obviously be concerned if the keylogging function will be kept secret from your targeted person. Keylogging typically are made to be non-trackable by your targets. Your person of interest will not even know that you are tracking them and their device behaviour.

This is a pretty important feature to consider as not every spy app that the keyloggers come with have stealth mode. If your aim and purpose is to track your person of interest without them knowing, then the stealth mode feature is all the more important.

Not every spy apps on the market provide stealth mode. There are a couple that does not provide such feature in their apps. Stealth mode is not to be confused with getting your targets’ devices and installing spy apps on it with regards to legality. Most (if not all) spy apps will need you to get physical access to root the devices, so it’s mostly “legal” to install spy apps on your target devices. If your target devices are rooted remotely, then access to accurate data is (close to) impossible.

Again, stealth mode will not inform your targets that you are tracking them live or not. You will still receive the data and information nonetheless. Just keep track of the time period it will keep the data.

Reliability

Users generally will want to have a keylogger feature that provides reliable data. There is no use if you receive the wrong data at the wrong time. It will mean a lot of things, generally unsavoury ones.

So, yes. Reliability is something that you should totally look out for in a keylogger feature/software. You will definitely want to pin point and make your final decisions over the data retrieved from the keylogger logs.

Plans and pricing

As mentioned previously, keyloggers typically are features that comes with spy apps. Spy apps, like a lot of other software, offer a diversified series of plans and pricings. Usually the ones that are on the more expensive side are the ones that typically offer more features or provide better services, keylogging included. The ones that are on the lower end on the price range don’t usually offer as many features and their quality may not be comparable to the ones that are more expensive.

However, if budget is an issue for you, we should mention that you should access the real reason behind why you want to get a keylogger service on. If it’s to track your targets’ text messages, calls, geo-fence, etc, then most budget-friendly keylogging services are more than good enough. As long as you are able to view the messages and calls and make a record of it, then you’ll do well with a cheaper one.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that most spy apps offer keylogger feature on their apps. It all boils down to what you really want in a keylogger feature. Remember that what you look for in a keylogger may depend on where you are coming from. You may be a spouse trying to expose your cheating significant other, or a parent who is concerned about who your kids are talking to. You may be a boss of a company and wish to see if your employees are producing quality work too. What each people want in a keylogging feature is different from the other people. As long as you get what you want, it should be good enough.