10 Tips for Building an Online Marketplace

2 Sep 2020 Blog

The number of online marketplaces is increasing every day. They offer convenience and time efficiency over the traditional offline platforms to the buyers as well as the sellers. According to research conducted by Statista, E-commerce sales are expected to reach $4.1 trillion by the end of 2020. This only reflects the scope of online marketplaces. Let us get an understanding of “What is an Online marketplace?”

An online marketplace is a digital platform with websites and mobile apps, where several vendors, shops, people offer products to the buyers in exchange for a marketplace fee. The owner of the marketplace attracts the customers and handle all transactions. They do not hold any inventory and focus mainly on assisting the sellers to sell through the marketplace. Perfect examples of the online marketplace are Amazon, Airbnb, Etsy. Since the online marketplace offers a huge opportunity now just for the owners but for sellers and buyers, let us look at “Tips to Build an Online Marketplace.”

1. Conduct market research and research the target audience: Market research is essential while creating an online marketplace to get a clear understanding of the target market, users, their needs, and the solution they are looking for. It is important to assess the market size to better understand what business model to adopt. Understanding the market segments will help pick the most attractive niche in the target market. Popular online marketplace Amazon has grown big by initially starting from a small niche-an online bookstore. The study of the competitors will help gain insights into the marketing strategies and the business models they use as well as the strengths and weaknesses they have to use to your advantage. Market trends help to understand what is working and what is not, changes in regulations, new technological breakthroughs, and change in customer behaviour.

The most important element of conducting market research is to identify the target audience. Knowing who the users are and what are their goals and the challenges they face in buying the product. It is also important to know where they buy from, and what motivates them to buy. Creating buyer personas will give a better understanding of the audience and help solve the problems they face. All this will help draw up a business model that will work and prepare a marketing strategy to make the marketplace successful.

2. Choose the right business model: Designing a viable business model is very essential before starting the online marketplace. The various models to consider are:
• Sign up fees- a flat payment to charge the sellers to sign up on the marketplace. This way you get the money in even before the marketplace is thriving as long as you can sell your business idea. After the initial sign up one needs to look at other ways to monetize.
• Subscription- charging the sellers a specific amount regularly to generate revenue for the marketplace.
• Listing fees- collecting a set amount from the sellers for listing their products on the marketplace. These fees can be at a flat or variable depending on the price of the product, the category of the product.
• Selling fees- A great monetization strategy. Selling fees are collected each time the seller processes an order on the marketplace. It may pose a problem initially when the orders are small but eventually can ensure high returns when the order volume grows.

3. Planning the operations of the marketplace: A plan needs to be in place to successfully manage the operations of a marketplace and make it profitable. The focus needs to be on acquiring and maintaining the sellers to make the marketplace run. The first step is to convince the sellers to come on board. You need to present your unique value proposition to them and make them understand how the marketplace will function. The way the products are organized will impact the selection of the software, the layout of the marketplace, and how the sellers publish and manage their products. Payment processing, logistics, and shipping processes need to be carefully planned to ensure smooth operations of the marketplace. Marketing strategies need to focus on the target audience to get maximum traction to make the marketplace a success.

4. Outline the features of the Marketplace: Focus on creating features that the user needs to optimize time, effort, and money for a marketplace. Start with the essentials and improve the platform with time as the business grows. Make the onboarding of sellers an easy and simple process. Optimize product management features according to the product offering on the marketplace. Make it simple for the sellers to receive and process orders and communicate with their buyers. Similarly, the buyers should be able to find what they are looking for easily, place orders, and make payments. Adding some reporting features will help understand and analyze what is working and what is not for both you and the seller.

5. Select a payment solution: For a marketplace, payment is received from the sellers, payments are received for the sellers, and payments are received from the buyers. It is a must to have a sound payment solution in place to manage all these payments safely and securely. The types of payments, the processing cost, and the availability of payment providers in the region will govern the selection of the payment solution of the marketplace.

6. Invest in the right software: Selecting the right software will help you successfully launch the marketplace. Whether you choose from the cloud, hosted platforms, standalone solutions, multi-vendor CMS extensions, or your website will depend on the kind of marketplace being built, the features the platform needs, and the user experience.

7. Get a great team in place: Getting the right software is not enough. A team needs to be put in place to manage different aspects of a marketplace from design to marketing and sales, operations, and logistics. The focus should on getting people with specialized skills who have an understanding of the marketplace. This will not only ensure success but future growth as well.

8. Develop the Marketplace: After all the planning is in place with a great team, the next step is to develop the platform. Everyone involved in it should have a clear understanding of the requirements and the timeline. Ensure that there is a backup plan in place if things don’t work out as planned. Keep it simple when designing, implementing the marketplace software, and test with real users to resolve any issues faced initially before the official launch of the marketplace.

9. Launch the Marketplace: Prepare the launch plan of the marketplace keeping in mind the timeline, the marketing message, and the primary channels that will be used. Devise a social media strategy as per your target audience and create the buzz before the launch. Do a soft launch and try and get as much feedback as you can from the initial customers. Use the feedback constructively and make changes and improvements to the platform. Post that does a test run before the launch of the marketplace. Make sure to create enough hype around the launch especially with the target audience.

10. Grow the marketplace: Post-launch the focus should be on growth and retention of the customer base as well as the seller base. Use social media to create brand awareness and attracting new customers. Set aside a budget for social media ad campaigns and have the necessary tools to analyze how well these platforms are working for you. Gather feedback from both the customer and sellers for improving the marketplace. Feature and promote the best sellers by creating case studies and success stories together with them. Always come up with new and exciting ways to engage your customers.

Building an online marketplace is a complicated and time-consuming process. Remember your niche is what will set you apart from others. Each marketplace has its unique challenges. However, with proper research and planning processes using the right expertise you can create a success story.

10 Industries Thriving Post COVID

1 Sep 2020 Blog

COVID 19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruptions impacting businesses worldwide and wiping out more than $ 20 trillion of the value of global equity markets.

Businesses across various industries have been forced to rethink and readjust their strategies and respond in new ways to survive through this period. The timelines for implementing new emerging technologies have changed where companies have had to accelerate drastically to cope with the pandemic. Early implementers of digitalization have seen their investments paying off now and others have realized that digital capabilities need to be enhanced to stay resilient through these times.

The nature of the pandemic is helping certain industries succeed even after the restriction like remote working, social distancing is in place. Let us get an insight into the industries that are creating opportunities and are likely to thrive post the pandemic.

1. E-Commerce: Due to restrictions in place and fear of going to public places, the online marketplaces are booming. E-commerce companies have seen a huge growth in transaction orders despite the challenges faced with the supply chain. Many companies are expected to turn profitable in the next 1 year. This remarkable shift is not expected to retreat to the pre-COVID levels once things get back to normal.

2. Remote Working Technology: With billions of people working from home offices must stay connected. Schools around the world have moved to remote learning models making telecommunications and remote working platforms more important than ever before. Businesses that provide video meetings, file sharing, webinars, and other mobile collaborations have seen exponential growth. They are looking to hire more people to cope with the surge in demand. This new trend is likely to become the default method of communication for many industries in the future.

3. Industrial Real Estate: With growing interest in bringing industries closer to customers for better control in times of disruption, as well as for increasing safety stock, the demand for industrial space will likely grow. To accommodate more complex pick-pack systems and provide access to a greater variety of products, typically associated with any e-commerce distribution facility, the real demand for such a space will be thrice the size of a regular B2B facility. The change in the model could also see management either working from the distribution facility and/or from home.

4. Health Industry: The healthcare and pharmaceutical industries around the world are most essential in current circumstances. Companies are providing delivery services for medical supplies not just to individuals but to private clinics as well. With people switching to teleconsultations as a preferred way, companies that provide a platform to book appointments and consultations with doctors have seen record-high traffic and it is likely to grow in the future. The enhanced flexibility and convenience that this platform provides both for the patient and the healthcare provider will ensure the continuous growth even post the pandemic.

5. Product and Service Delivery: Companies that cater to deliveries of essential supplies has seen a huge spike in demand. Third-party services are being used by restaurants e-commerce, F&B companies to fulfil the substantial growth in orders as their current delivery infrastructure cannot cope with the surge in demand. In the post COVID world, it is anticipated that the delivery service will continue to stay in high demand.

6. Automation: Robots have been viewed as a threat to the workforce. With the current need for social distancing and least human interactions, the benefits of using such technology are superseding its threats of replacing humans. Warehouse operations have been transformed in current times. Companies are looking for low-cost, flexible automation solutions to replace humans where it is possible to do so. This trend will continue and diversify in the future. Many jobs will be lost, but once the companies switch to these technologies during current times, it is highly unlikely for them to revert to pre COVID times.

7. Augmented Reality: AI was incorporated into many online channels to cope with restrictions imposed due to COVID leading to a fall in sales in-store. It is likely to replace the need to feel and touch goods before making a purchase. The industry will see growth in the future with technological improvements and lower costs.

8. Online Grocery Stores: Online sales for grocery items have seen a drastic rise in orders in current times. Many companies have had to hire personnel to cope with high demand and ensure deliveries are made on time. With restrictions easing this trend is likely to stay with people opting for the convenience of the online stores.

9. Cloud Kitchens: a concept referred to as e-commerce of food where there are virtual restaurants and food can be ordered online and delivered to the customers. Centralized kitchens can serve as a hub for many restaurants who can reduce their cost of having a physical restaurant and staff to run it.

10. E-Learning: With children across the world forced to continue their education from home, e-learning has become essential. This holds true for colleges and universities as well. With this shift and the integration of information technology in education, it will make online education an integral part of the education industry.

Countries have increasingly felt the need to have their manufacturing rather than relying on other countries to have more resilience in their supply chain. This socio-economic trend to reverse globalization will ensure that no organization faces challenges like those that the pandemic presented.

The Post-COVID road is certainly going to be bumpy and unpredictable, but it is in these uncertain times great opportunities arise. The pandemic has compelled many companies to evolve, transform, and digitalize to conduct business. Some businesses will survive and emerge strong, transformed reshaped and some will not survive. The key lies in bringing about the changes necessary to overcome any future challenges.

Accelerating Retail- A Google Initiative

31 Aug 2020 Blog

COVID 19 has changed everything around us from the way we live to the way we shop.

The use of technology by businesses and people has soared and is visible with the increase in internet usage by 60 percent. There has been a substantial shift in retail spending from planning to buying products we need. These changes have brought about a complete change in the retail setting. Businesses today are using a variety of resources to understand the changing customer behaviour like google trends, survey, analysis of their data as well as social listening to be able to make decisions in real-time. Google has stepped up and has offered tools like “Rising Retail Categories” since May 2020 which highlights fast-growing product-related categories along with the location.

To help European, Middle East, and Africa retailers make the most of the digital opportunities, Google is all set to launch its new initiative “Accelerating Retail” in September 2020.

What is Accelerating Retail?

Retail accounts for 9 percent of jobs in the European Union alone and it will play a vital role in the recovery. Accelerating Retail is a platform designed to help retailers of all sizes across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa accelerate business recovery and growth and to be ready for the upcoming peak shopping season. The month-long program will introduce new products, tools, free training, real-time insights, and resources to plan for the future.

Why do we need a platform like Accelerated Retail?

1. Retailers need to respond to the changing needs of the consumers-The world around us has seen a major change after COVID 19 was declared a pandemic. Online shopping has seen exponential growth which has brought about challenges in decision making for the businesses. The needs of the consumers have changed and their buying journey which started from research to exploring options both offline and online have now gone through a change due to the uncertainty in the availability of the products. Consumers have become more open to exploring other brands and options available. Having said that they now need help in finding the right product, at the right place, at the right time. This provides a perfect opportunity for the retail industry to respond to the consumer needs and changes in behaviour while building their brand online and in-store through the use of tools of Accelerated Retail.

2. Recovery and growth through digital- Online retail demand have soared and the focus of any business now needs to be on providing great customer experience and build brand recognition. With the launch of a new version of “Grow My Store” in many countries, Google wants to help local businesses to improve digital shopping, grow customer traffic, and enhance the online customer experience to complete transactions. It is as simple as entering the business URL into the tool to get a customized report, digital traffic trends, industry benchmarks, and actionable tips to improve. This will help retailers reach their potential customers. Upgrading of Smart Shopping campaigns is being done to help with the acquisition of new customers and simplify advertiser onboarding. The use of “Rising Retail Trends”, which was specific to the U.S., U.K., and Australia has been expanded to other regions on the world to providing insights to fast-growing retail categories with locations where more interest is seen.

With the growth in online spending, the success of the retail sector will depend on the online and offline offering, and the customer purchase experience. Research conducted by Google in collaboration with Euromonitor shows that in the next five years purchases will be made in-store but retailers who offer in-store and digital platforms will gain the maximum. Through the use of digital technologies, retailers can become more resilient and ensure growth. Accelerated Retail will help make that possible and prepare retailers for what lies ahead.

Seven things digital marketers should do to improve their return on relationships (ROR)

31 Aug 2020 Digital Marketing

Loyalty, sharing, and recommendations represent relationships. The returns from such relationships are far better than what money can bring.  In today’s day and age social media is becoming a way of life for people and a way of business for companies who have realized the importance of it, especially for their marketing efforts. To be able to reach the target audience, companies need to focus their marketing efforts on building relationships and expand their metrics beyond Return on Investment to include Return on Relationship.

So, what is Return on Relationships? According to marketing strategist Ted Rubin, “ROR is the value you accrue by fostering a relationship with customers, whereas ROI is a measure of dollars and cents. ROR is the worth of each customer that will accumulate over time through effective social-media engagements.” Measuring the quality of customer relationships can help companies in establishing profitable, long term relationships based on trust.

Return on Relationships requires careful planning and execution. Let us dive deeper and look at what digital marketers can do to improve the Return on Relationship.

  1. Listen and Hear: It is essential to listen to the consumers first, their feelings, pain points, and what they are looking for to be able to understand them and develop trust over a period of time. Once this is done, they will respond to the message you put out and listen to you. Marketers should gather customer feedback through the use of Google alerts and other social listening tools like SocialMention, Buzzsumo, etc. which help in gaining visibility into social media and online reviews. Have a strategy in place to respond to feedback on social media and online reviews to prove to them that you understand what they are trying to tell you. The response should be well thought off and timely.
  2. Know your audience: The key to a good ROR lies in understanding the target audience to build trust and connection with them. Thorough research of the metrics like bounce rate, time spent on the website, and the behaviour flow help in understanding if what you are providing is what the customers are looking for.
  3. Make it about the “Them”: Give the audience a platform to show what they want, need, and are interested in. Conduct online surveys to know what the audience is looking for, how they feel about the product, its price, functionality, and experience. Social media is a place where the audience share and influence opinion about the brand. This can be beneficial for a brand if they have positive reviews and can be detrimental if they gain many negative views. Use the reviews to gain valuable insights into what works and what does not work and respond promptly.
  4. Look for ways to best serve them: The relationship between a company and an audience should not simply be about providing service for their time and money but should focus on how best to serve them. Digital marketers should provide free useful resources to help serve them by sharing expertise and creating useful content. Sharing expert opinions and content is a good way to boost the reputation and gain a new audience. This can be done through live sessions on social media, websites, podcasts.
  5. Constant Engagement: to have meaningful relationships with the customers, it is important to engage with them. Focus on getting to know the customers and give them reasons to engage with you. Brands can constantly reach a customer through posts on social media, blogs on topics that are important to the customers, and by sending out newsletters that can carry information regarding upcoming events, customer reviews, new product launches, etc. Ensure that they are responded to promptly be it on social media or respond to the content that is shared by the company.
  6. Be Genuine, Be Real: If there are any mistakes committed, own up to them. The consumers don’t expect perfection from companies but what they do expect is for them to be honest. To build trust and a solid foundation for a good reputation, it is best to own up on any mistakes and provide reasonable solutions. This leads to higher customer satisfaction and shows the prospective customers that you care. Ensure that responsibility is assigned to a person/team to monitor social media channels and respond to customers, prospective customers so that no communication goes unanswered.
  7. Build Relationships, build brands: When the focus of the marketing strategy of a brand is to build relationships, they pay more attention to who the customers are, their needs and preferences. These customers buy the product and services the brand offers and promote the brand by recommending it on their network.

ROR ultimately enhances ROI. As you add the engaged, focused, relationship-building aspect of ROR, your ROI increases, often exponentially.

Return on Relationship enhances Return on Investment. It requires careful planning and attention. Keeping the focus on engaging with the audience, understanding their needs and desire will help build relationships, thereby increasing the ROR. Know your people well before investing in social media marketing to have a high Return on Investment.

5 Best Ways To Promote Your Mobile App

28 Aug 2020 Mobile Apps

With over 2.7 billion smartphone users and 1.35 billion tablet users worldwide, the mobile app industry is thriving. As of the first quarter of 2020, there were 2.2 million apps in the Apple store and 2.8 million in Google Play Store. App usage is growing at a constant rate, without any signs of slowing down in the future and so is the competition to get a user’s attention. To stand out, the focus needs to be on developing an effective mobile app promotion strategy. This not only requires an understanding of the consumer behaviour but also extensive planning.

Whether launching your mobile app for the very first time or promoting the usage of an existing app, it is important to create and continuously improve awareness of the app with your target audience. This can be done by promoting your brand while paving the way for users to connect deeper with your products. The strategies to promote your mobile app include

  1. Researching the market and the competition – It is essential to continuously analyze the target audience and the competition. Identifying the likes and needs of the target audience, conducting thorough research of the groups, forums, websites, blogs they visit and the influencers they follow would help in maximizing reach and increase user acquisition. Collecting data on the competitors gives an insight into their apps and helps get a better understanding of how they engage with the users. It also helps to identify features that have not done well so that they can be avoided or improved besides any feature gaps that can be enhanced.
  2. Understanding the User Personas – A user persona defines who the user of the product is. It includes the demographics, mobile preferences, user’s interests along with the goals and challenges they currently face. User persona creates the foundation for user journey which helps in customizing every aspect of the mobile app and caters to the specific needs of the users. It helps in answering important questions like what the user is looking for, the operating system they use, the content they engage in online, the influencers they follow and the platforms to be used to best leverage paid to advertise.
  3. Content Marketing – An overarching strategy should be in place to improve app visibility through continuous content marketing. This would include sharing content through blogs, posts, boasting about the app features, including screenshots and videos of the product. As recently announced by Google, people do not find apps on apps store but look for them on search engines. Apps should be optimized so they can be found easily on search engines. Make the app discoverable everywhere. Search ads are the most effective way to promote an app and get people to download. It not only boosts app awareness but also drives downloads as the ads appear when the users are looking for it
  4. App Store Optimization – An app store is a place where people make a decision about the app. The app store page should be impressive and optimized to rank higher in search results leading to a higher rate of downloads. Good app store optimization depends on the title and the use of keywords. A good title is a way to rope users and effective use of keywords ensures that the app shows up when users search using the keywords. Due importance should be given to the description and visuals of the app to catch the attention of the user
  5. Promoting via Social media platforms – Use different social media platforms to expand the brand presence and connect with the target audience. Make sure that it is clear through the social profile that you have an app and have a link to download the app through it. Promote the app, its purpose features to create excitement around the product with engaging content.

Focusing on promoting the app is not the end game. It is essential to regularly analyze the mobile app KPIs such as app downloads, active users, retention, and daily usage rate to review the outcome of the above strategy and continue to increase download and improve app user engagement.

The mobile app industry is constantly evolving and companies have to keep innovating to stay on top of the app store. There is more data available than ever before to study and analyze to formulate strategies to launch and promote the app. Top priority should be given to the end-user and how they feel about the app to gain success.

The ROI of Social Media

26 Aug 2020 Social Media

Return on Investment is a performance measure used to assess the efficiency of an investment. ROI tries to directly measure the amount of return on a particular investment. Social media ROI is a metric showing how much value is generated with the investments made towards social media. In other words, social media ROI is the sum of all social media actions that create value. Value isn’t always measured in monetary terms for social media. If the goal is to drive brand awareness, then success can be measured against reach and engagement metrics

Having a social media marketing strategy is essential for most businesses today. Measuring the success of this is even more important to understand what efforts are paying off and what is not working to shift resources or alter the efforts to gain maximum results. Let us get a better understanding of Social Media ROI

What is Social Media ROI?

Social media ROI is the metric that shows how much value has been generated with all the investments made for social media. This is usually measured in terms of money but can vary for companies depending on the objectives set.

Why do we need Social Media ROI?

There are numerous reasons why it is important to measure ROI on social media.

It can help a company

  • Establish the value of social media for the business.
  • Show the potential impact social media can have across the business.
  • Help evaluate where the efforts and resources are reaping benefits and where they are not being utilized so that the shift in the strategy can be done.
  • Help in understanding the audience.
  • Support social media budget requirements.

How to measure Social Media ROI?

ROI for social media is a very tricky element to measure as it has many different meanings for different companies. Hence it becomes imperative for the company to have

  • Clear Objective– social media can create brand awareness but it is not always enough. To show value created by social media, the company needs to have clearly defined objectives for it which are aligned with overall objectives of the company. They can be based on lead generation, customer acquisition, brand awareness, customer experience amongst other things.
  • Goal setting– while the objectives define what social media will help the company achieve, the goals represent how and when these objectives will be achieved. Each goal must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.
  • Track the goals– social media metrics are required to ascertain if the objectives are being achieved and the goals are met. Some of the common metrics to track for ROI are reach, audience engagement, lead generation, revenue generation, site traffic among other metrics like comments, likes, and shares.
  • Social media spend– clarity about the investment in social media is necessary to determine the ROI. Four things that should be kept in mind are time spent by employees on social media, money spent on tools and platforms to achieve the goals, content creation, and funds allocated towards social ads.

Let us now look at the tools needed to calculate social media ROI

  • Social ROI calculator-it is a free tool that makes it easy to calculate the return on social media investment.
  • Google Analytics with UTM parameters–adding it to the social media ads’ URL will help determine how much traffic and conversions social media marketing efforts are generating.
  • Hootsuite Impact: it measures the ROI of social media across paid, owned, and earned social channels.
  • Facebook Pixel: allows tracking engagement and conversions from Facebook ads
  • Socialbakers Ads Benchmarks– measure your social media ROI in context by understanding how the return on Facebook ads investment is fluctuating day-by-day across regions and industries
  • Hootsuite Insights: helps identify conversations and trends within the industry, reach, brand sentiment, and more. It’s all backed by 100 million data sources, real-time results, and an easy-to-use interface.

How to report Social Media ROI?

  • Analysis of each social media platform, ad format, and ad placement is required to assess which of them is the biggest contributor.
  • Align the company’s objective with the metrics you want to Align metrics you want to incorporate in the report.
  • Present data for a period of time to determine the impact of social media marketing efforts.
  • Highlight the key Insights that show how social media marketing has led to the growth in business.
  • Identify profitable areas and those that fell short of with an explanation.
  • Work out a plan for the future that will help generate better social media ROI.

Steps to Improve the ROI on Social Media

The goal of a social media marketer is to improve the ROI. To achieve that the focus needs to be on social media optimization which means spending money where the best possible returns are expected. Let us look at ways in which ROI can be improved.

  • Social media management platform should be used to track the performance of posts and investment should be made where there is the highest potential to get results.
  • Content should be published at a time when maximum traction can be gained. It helps in making the most of the resources that are put in creating content.
  • The study of the competitors should be done to see what content are they promoting. This will help in making decisions about future posts and how to be ahead of the competition.
  • Social media is always evolving. The channels, content, and strategies that are used to connect with the target audience may be ineffective in the future.it is very essential for any organisation to adapt and change the strategy with time.

Social media is an incredible tool that helps a business achieve its objectives. Measuring social media ROI gives valuable insight into the success of the present and the past campaigns and pave the way for the future. But one must not forget that with its continuous evolution, there is always more to learn, assess, and more to achieve.

Using Artificial Intelligence to develop smart websites

25 Aug 2020 Web design

The web design industry is evolving constantly and growing at an unprecedented rate with the progress of technology. This evolution can be seen through the changing styles, adoption of new practices, and the use of innovative technology. The users aspire for enhanced experience along with content that is customized for them. Hence it becomes imperative for web designers to think out of the box to cater to the changing needs of the customers and that is where AI comes into play. It has unlimited potential which can be leveraged by the developers in streamlining the website management tasks and gaining higher response value from its target audiences where the focus is on User Experience.

What is AI?

AI is about building smart machines that are programmed to think like humans and perform tasks that require human intelligence. The distinctive feature of AI is its capability to rationalize and take actions that have the best chance of achieving a specific goal. Some of the activities of AI are learning, planning, voice recognition, problem-solving.

Why is AI important for the development of websites?

Artificial Intelligence as a technology is specially designed in a manner to think and behave like humans. With the increase in the use of this technology, our day to day life will see a tremendous change. More people are using the web and searching using AI like voice search, and on the other hand, the companies are using the technology to provide solutions/content/products personalized to the user. AI has many advantages like making searches faster for users, make interaction with users better, provide a personalized experience. Hence it becomes crucial for companies to use AI for their websites to gain the most the technology has to offer

Using Artificial Intelligence to develop websites

Traditionally websites were designed by a web designer using coding to create unique websites. With the development of AI technology, it has the power to design and build creative websites with personalization on its own. Let us look at some of the benefits of using AI for web design

  1. AI as a Designer– The technology is being used in easing website building and designing to enhance user engagement and experience and also work as a diagnostic tool. The AI is capable of helping designers in content, branding, layout as well as design. It helps in automating basic tasks and developing codes which can help save a lot of time and effort for the web designers. The quality of the website has become an essential element in the success of the digital footprint with the changes in the trends and stricter standards of search engines
  2. User Experience– It is the most crucial aspect of web design. AI with its advanced features has assisted designers to create interfaces that are more engaging, responsive, and human to improve UX. The site can identify the needs of the customers and provide a better understanding of how they feel about the products and services being offered. Analysis can help predict user experience on the site to ensure errors can be reduced to get the desired value. AI-enabled websites can process data to aid end users as per their interests. Today, web designers can transform websites for customers to have a more significant and enriching experience.
  3. Make search faster– Since most of the potential customers are using mobile devices, the trend that has seen the fastest growth in the development and optimization of the website through the use of AI is voice search. The core idea behind this to make it more convenient for the customer to speak and search the web. 58 percent of the consumers are already using voice search to find information regarding local businesses. Thus, AI is seen as a crucial element of web development in offering consistent voice communication between the customer and websites. Every business should look at investing in it in the near future.
  4. Chatbots– AI-powered chatbots are expected to help the online business save $8 billion worth of business cost by 2022. They have completely changed the traditional web design and made a dominant influence on how a customer interacts with websites. The introduction of chatbots has enabled more human-like interaction on websites based on natural language processing systems thereby generating meaningful conversations leading to higher engagement.
  5. Personalized content-Using AI, the website can show content designed specifically to a user. It suggests relevant content based on past behaviours of the users which leads to higher engagement and connects with the users. Similarly, with the E-commerce website, it makes the web experience more personalized for the users by suggesting and presenting customers with what they may be looking for leading to higher engagement and eventually leading to higher sales.

Artificial Intelligence is one of the most advanced technologies which is in high demand. It is being used to make site building easier and responsive, enhance user engagement, and use analytics to improve the performance of the website.

The effect of AI can already be seen across the web and it is clear that this phenomenon is here to stay. In the future, AI will play a vital role in every aspect of web design and development. Machine learning programs with AI will help develop an exceptional website that will help gain traction and serve to fulfill many objectives set by the company.

7 Reasons to Avoid DIY Web Design

23 Aug 2020 Web design

7 Reasons to Avoid DIY Web Design

DIY it! That’s the best method to save cash and you learn something new. But let’s be honest we can’t say the same when it comes to web designing.

Designing your website using a custom template is not a good idea. DIY website marketers are smart in that they are going to try and trick you into believing that you have the essential knowledge, insight, and skills to create a website that is unlike any other in your market.

Therefore, we listed 7 reasons you should avoid DIY websites at all costs!

  1. Your First Website, Your First Impression 

Quality is key. Your website is going to reflect your company image, so having a well established and maintained website is going to show your audience that you’re not here to play around. You’re a quality business that shows that you care about your online brand enough to invest it in.

This sounds like you’re off to a good start right? Well, you are! But only if you ditch the whole DIY idea. What a professionally built website can do for you is something a DIY website just cannot.

This is also your chance to market your brand! Only a well-conceptualized and designed website will attract and convert clients.

Your current clients and potential clients are going to evaluate your website and online presence before forming an opinion on it. So you want to make sure you leave an impactful impression on them because it’s not hard to switch from you to your competitors.

Some general mistakes that may drive your clients away include:

  • Images, gifs, or buttons that take too much time to load. Anything longer than 2 seconds is a no.
  • A layout that may be difficult on their eyes. Such as too many bright colours, flashy images or texts.
  • A layout that has hard functionality.
  • Unprofessional designs that make your business look low-scaled might insinuate that you also don’t possess the right knowledge and skills for the job.
  1. Back-End Functionality Matters Too! 

Don’t judge a book by its cover, ever heard that? Well, it’s the same with websites. Using a DIY designer might help you put together a page that looks functional on the surface but trusting the exterior is similar to cleaning your room by shoving everything in the closet!

There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work you’re going to have to do to develop your site!

But this what we want to avoid. SEO a.k.a search engine optimization is about the code on the back-end of the page just like the content on the front-end. Editing the complex back-end development yourself can lead to something very messy.

Let’s be honest, amateurish coding is probably not the best idea, it’s going to slow down your website and it will destroy the display of your site on desktop and mobile formats.

So, you definitely don’t want to wing this by DIY.

  1. Appearance on Mobiles 

Your website must be an all-rounder, it should be compatible with tablets and phones. 53% of web traffic and 63% of retail traffic is made up of mobile users. Also, 85% of adults want mobile phones to display the same quality of the website that a desktop would, this is crucial because 50% of consumers commonly don’t recommend businesses with a poorly designed mobile website.

  1. No Impact

Your website needs to be distinctive, impactful, and effective if you want to stand-out in the market. And this is hard to achieve with DIY website designs. Using pre-made templates or a free website developer means that thousands of businesses have already used it. Therefore, it’s ineffective and impossible to stand out!

Plus, DIY website developers usually allow very little customization unless you have a paid account.

  1. Not Secure

One of the most concerning things for any business is security, including virtual security for their website. Something DIY website designs seriously lack in, as most DIY websites offer minimum protection and are not able to meet or maintain volumes of high traffic. Therefore, you don’t want to use DIY website makers, your website could be comprised and private information could be leaked.

While professional website creators will provide you with technical resolutions which will help keep your website up and running, plus safe from cyber attacks, hackers, malicious threats, etc. They also improve your website performance!

  1. Are You Really Saving Money? 

Contrary to popular belief, DIY website designs aren’t as cheap as we think. The cost of hiring a professional web designer is always the deciding factor when it comes to website designing. But consider this, in the long run, you will have to hire someone, because if you go the DIY way you’re going to make mistakes and you’re going to need someone to fix them for you.

Additionally, professional designers ensure that websites receive traffic. Therefore, they are the ones that can encourage potential clients to look around your website and convert them into your consumers.

Plus, with a DIY website, they are more likely to switch to your customers quickly, and you don’t want that. You want your potential clients to look around and browse through your products or services.

  1. Modification Expenses

It’s impossible to start with free DIY website design and upgrade to a more customized design. Most DIY websites are set-up in a way that you cant access and make customizations. For this, you will need a professional website designer and this will definitely end with you having to pay more.

Additionally, some DIY website designers are ‘Hosted Solutions’. Which means you cant transfer your website to another hosting provider. That means if you want to move your website you cant! You’re going to have to build another one.

So just this once, don’t DIY it! It may sound and look easy but you really don’t want to go down that path.

6 Social Media Marketing Trends In 2020

18 Aug 2020 Blog

Every now and then there’s a shift in gears, redefining ‘success’ for social media marketing. Because of its dynamic nature, it’s hard to predict the outcome these trends could bring.

But what exactly are social media trends?

Social media trends are dynamic, it’s the propelling energy that’s taken every industry by a storm. Without social media trends, everyone would have a tough time picking the right technique for business growth.

Now seems like the ideal time for companies to reflect and reconsider their approach to social media marketing. Especially amidst the pandemic, corporations are already tasked with finding an equilibrium between discovering new and innovative ways to appeal to their customers and analyzing their fluctuating social data to understand what steps to take next.

Therefore, refocusing your perspective on social media might just be the right thing to do. But, before we start let’s talk facts.

On a daily basis, how much time do people spend on social media?

Research shows that an individual spends about 2 hours and 23 minutes per day on social media networking sites and messaging platforms.

Particularly ages between 16-24 allocate most of their time every day on social media, especially while watching TV – 72% of them are using social media!

Additionally, social media is an essential tool for most users, and marketers who have successfully realized its importance are now bridging themselves via these platforms to build successful relationships with their clients.

Simple, right? Not really, the market is slowly saturating. But don’t worry, we’re going to share some tips that will help you to stand out!

  1. Stories Are Only Getting More Popular 

There’s no better method than using stories to capture the attention of your audience. These few second clips are highly engaging, addictive, and catchy. They’re short enough to keep people interested hooked on them for hours and hours!

Plus, over 500 million people use the story feature on platforms such as Instagram, WhatsApp, Messanger, and Facebook every day. While over 4 million advertisers utilize stories every month for advertisement purposes.

This is a great feature to utilize if you want to increase your brand awareness, drive connection, or even network with people!

  1. Shop From Home Through Social Commerce

Who needs a mall, when you have social commerce. Shop from the comfort of your own home! Social commerce continuously helps to connect social media and commerce.

Nowadays, social platforms are operating vigorously to meet the demands of clients who prefer shopping through their social media platforms. For instance, Instagram launched shoppable posts so individuals can look through products without leaving the app.

While Facebook has Marketplace which lets users sell and list products on the platform. Additionally, Pinterest offers users Buyable Pins so they can shop for products and discover new ones!

How can you use this?

Well, first of all, you should use one or most of these emerging trends of social commerce efficiently. Look into different ways to show your clients how well the product you’re offering fits into their lives. A few techniques to try would be product unboxing and demonstration videos, use interactive visuals, video testimonials, etc.

Furthermore, most of these social media tools let you in on some insight about trending content schemes, popular hashtag ideas, how your followers are reacting and engaging with your content.

  1. Think Out of The Box

CREATIVITY is key! You don’t want your social media accounts to be bland and the same as everyone. Be creative, think out of the box! Find other ways to approach your target audience engagingly. This will surely increase your brand name and also keep your audience engaged.

Some ways you could incorporate creativity is by using interactive infographics also referred to as ‘gifographics’, which is a combination of GIF and infographics. Furthermore, you could also find influencers who would advertise your content on their social media accounts. This would increase your brand value!

As well as diversify your social distribution channels, use apps such as Snapchat and Reddit while using mainstream platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

  1. Video Content Is Rising 

Don’t sleep on video content! It makes up half of the creative content, nothing captures attention faster than visual representation. However, personalized videos gain more popularity, especially if you customize your content to cater to the needs of your audience. That’s why most brands focus on using short and engaging videos to connect with their target audience.

Additionally, research shows that 86% of people expect to see videos from brands in 2020. While 36% of them prefer education or explainer videos. Although, 14% prefer product demonstration videos.

On the last note, there are so many platforms to chose from, YouTube wins second place to Facebook in the context of active users. We also have IGTV by Instagram and of course the oh-so-famous TikTok!

  1. Are You An Influencer?! Let’s Collaborate.

Influencers are the hot topic right now, working with an influencer is the most authentic way to market your brand and product. Every day you see more and more labels collaborate with influencers, which is a smart idea because it helps the brand and influencer gain recognition.

Moreover, once you understand what the influencer brings to the table you can base your decision on collaboration on that, does your product target their audience, do you share the same/similar values? Will your product make a difference in their lives. How will this collaboration affect your current audience?

Therefore, try to pick an influencer who has similar values and ideals as your company that way you can target a large audience, your and their’s combined!

  1. Which Platform Is The Right Fit For You

Despite popular belief, every social platform available right now is advantageous to use. There’s no such platform that is “dead”.

For instance, Snapchat saw an increase in its daily active users during 2019 even after TikTok was launched and to this day LinkedIn is seeing insane growth for its B2B marketers.

On that note, brands should really think about which platform they want to spend most of their time promoting.

Although, let me give you a hint; you want to choose a platform where your audience is constantly active. That way you know where to nurture your brand image. There’s so much to choose from! But make sure that you choose a platform that will help you reach your target audience. After all, you need to be appealing to the right audience.

So these are a few of the social media marketing trends you need to be aware of! Make sure to keep a lookout for more!

10 Interesting Trends for Web Design for 2020

18 Aug 2020 Blog

The world that we live in today, it is imperative for any business to have a flawless and a ‘responsive’ website. A good website is responsible for nearly 95% of the first impression that people form about a company or a brand.

Websites have seen a complete makeover from the time of its inception. From providing basic information about an organization or a brand to now providing a platform to communicate with its users, engaging them, making them a part of the brand story to achieve higher awareness and higher sales.

Good web design is essential as it has a direct correlation with how a brand is perceived by its audience. For some companies, it plays a vital role as it is the only component leading to their growth and expansion.

Web design trends are evolving all the time. Incorporating the latest web design trends will ensure a modern and updated site. Web Design Trends 2020 is an absolute mixture of minimalism, bold typography to using ever-evolving high tech technology to take the website experience to the next level.

10 Web Design Trends for 2020

  1. Dark Mode: this trend was followed in 2019 and has stayed on and made its way into 2020. Dark mode designs are modern and make design elements stand out more, thereby creating a higher contrast ratio. Offering an elegant and sleek layout to having a positive impact on battery life and energy consumption, the dark mode has benefits of reducing the strain to the eyes by reducing the use of light pixels which lowers the brightness of the screen.
  2. Minimalism: is one of those classic web design trends that never seems to fade. This trend has even more relevance today as the attention spans are becoming shorter and so are the screen sizes. The main focus remains on the core features of the website rather than the visual appearances. The less a user has to think about moving around the website, the more attention they will pay to content. Photos and videos are an effective way to influence users with the use of minimal text.
  3. 3D Elements: one of the most alluring elements of web design that make a website more fun, engaging, and keep the visitors stay longer are the 3D elements. In 2020 more immersive 3D web designs will be seen creating higher engagement than ever before. The level of realism and depth that can be achieved is inaccessible by any other digital technology. This will especially hold true for e-commerce where such design will be used to present a product.
  4. Artistic Illustrations: the purpose of an illustration is to tell a story to the audience, to capture their attention, and help them visualize aspects of the product or service. Different styles of illustrations for web designs are a trend in 2020. It will not only combine art and design but will also look at aesthetics and photos. It is important to keep in mind to match the style of illustrations and graphics with the brand personality.
  5. Luminous Colour Scheme: use of futuristic colour schemes in the form of bold colour pairings to make the web designs come alive on screen are trending for 2020. A mix of colours like dark neon, hues of blue and purple and hot pink give a glowing feel.
  6. Black and White: web designs with the black and white theme have always been a trend as they have a very classy and elegant feel to it. Websites following this trend in 2020 are often minimalist with bold typography and artistic photographs or illustrations.
  7. Frames of White Spaces: bleed layouts have been a trend for a while but now web designers are doing away with it and are leaning more towards the use of solid structures and devising ways to use white space to give more structure to the designs and making use of clean frames for design stability. This enables the visuals to shine creating a sense of order to the website.
  8. Shadows, Layers, and Floating elements: are all about creating depth. Soft shadows and floating elements add interesting elements and depth to the page by giving it a 3D lite look. These can also be used in the text and photos. Layering multiple elements such as images, icons, videos, text can lead to a web presentation with an undisturbed flow. These elements create a sharp contrast from the classic flat design by giving the design a light feel as if the elements are floating over each other.
  9. User Triggered Animations: a growing trend in web design is having animation triggered by an input or action by the visitor. This is a very exciting feature and adds a new dimension to the webpage.
  10. Voice capable interfaces: voice search is taking over search on a website. This is possible now through AI and voice user interface technology. It becomes imperative for a website to have voice capable interface since voice search for search. It adds more functionality to the website and is extremely helpful for people with disabilities.

End of the day, websites should tell compelling stories through their design and content to engage and convert visitors into loyal customers.

The year 2020 is set to be a year of diversity when it comes to the trends dominating the web design. Trends are more futuristic than they have ever been to. This year will see the development of web designs being technology-driven apart from being eye-catching through the use of visuals, colours, and 3D effects and some of the old trends being reinvented to cater to the new styles. Web designers will have an array of choices to create an attention-grabbing web experience.

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