Business Tech

There’s a reason why modern businesses are adopting document management software in droves: It creates efficiencies, improves productivity, and simplifies workflows. As businesses migrate away from paper systems, they are enjoying the myriad benefits of document management. The proof is in the market’s growth: The document management industry is forecasted to grow from $3.59 billion in 2017 to 6.78 billion by 2023.

But how exactly does this solution simplify so many elements of a business’s operation? Below, we’ll explain:

Remove Steps from Document Processes

With your documents in a digital setting – either in the cloud or on your premises – you eliminate the steps involved in processing paperwork. The solution streamlines repetitive processes that used to be performed by humans, such as moving documents through various touch points. When documents have to physically land on various employees’ desks in order to make their way through a workflow, that paper can take forever to actually make it to the final touch point. In a paperless process, the digital document quickly moves through each touch point – eliminating damage risk as well.

You’ll also be able to simplify workflows that require adding steps. For example, if new information is introduced to a workflow, new decisions have to be made, or new documents are added, you can automate those processes within the software. Your team will not have to manually change the workflow and can instead keep focused on their core responsibilities.

Remove Risk Factors

A major reason businesses adopt document management is to remove the human risk factor from their workflows. Across the multiple touch points mentioned previously lies the risk for physical damage to documents or flat-out loss. Digitizing document processes eliminates the possibility that documents will experience damage or be lost.

It also removes error-based risk factors. With paper processes, you have to create new documents if originals end up with mistakes or other errors. Document management software simplifies the process of not only correcting mistakes but ensuring they don’t happen in the first place. With monitoring and tracking capabilities, the software allows only the right users to see, edit, and distribute certain documents – limiting the risk for them to end up in the wrong hands.

Simplify – and Improve – Compliance

There are several aspects to how document management simplifies compliance work:

• Eliminating those human risk factors is a crucial component of staying compliant. For businesses that need to abide by any industry regulations, document management simplifies their ability to quickly gather, tag, archive, and retrieve documentation. The solution allows businesses to see the whole lifecycle of one document, so both employees and auditors can know exactly who created it, what path it took, and where it ended up. Creating audit trails were once huge thorns in the side of any business faced with compliance audits, but document management streamlines that process.
• Since document management also speeds up document retrieval tenfold, your auditing process and other document-based requirements for keeping compliant don’t take as much time.
• Some businesses require long document retention schedules – another compliance-based need simplified by document management. Should your organization need to retain documents for 10 years, as an example, you won’t need to worry about paper getting stained, spotted, tarnished, or otherwise unreadable. Document management also eliminates the need for humans to remember where documents are stored, so a decade from now, you’ll be ready for any compliance-based need.
• Through the use of metadata in a document management system, businesses can classify data for audits and make the data easily retrievable. Both employees and auditors will have instant access to properly classified documents that simplify their retrieval requests and ultimately speed up your audit.

Integrate Systems

Paper-based processes don’t allow you to integrate data the way a digital document process does. With document management software, you’ll simplify the workflows that need to weave vendor and customer data together. You can create digital workflows that integrate with your existing systems, so the information you need from various departments is easily accessible.

Emerge Into the Next Generation of Business Efficiency With Document Management

With cloud-based or on-premise options for document management software, it’s a no-brainer way to simplify your business workflows and improve your overall productivity. Document management software is one of the main components of a quality management system and is crucial for businesses that want to become as efficient as possible. Today’s businesses can’t afford to stay on manual, repetitive workflows, and removing those paper processes is a significant step toward transforming digitally.

 

For those in the cybersecurity industry, it should be quite comforting to see how organizations now acknowledge the threat of cyberattacks. They’re now taking the matter much more seriously, implementing security strategies and measures, and investing in tools and solutions to protect their respective infrastructure. Security spending has been rising yearly and is expected to reach $124 billion by 2020.

But the big question in many business leaders’ minds is: Do our measures actually work? Surely, no one wants to face an actual cyberattack in order to find out if their deployed solutions can actually stop hackers from breaching their networks and make off with their precious data. This is where testing and security validation come in.

Conventionally, vulnerability scans, penetration tests, and red and blue team exercises are conducted to check how well the organization’s defenses perform. For some organizations, however, these tests can be difficult to run due to the costs and skill and resource requirements that are needed to execute them well. In addition, given how dynamic computing environments can be, continuous risk assessment is needed to ensure that controls constantly work rather than mere occasional checks.

Because of this, breach and attack simulation (BAS) has gained traction as an approach to security testing as it allows organizations and security teams to run security validation tests conveniently. So what exactly is BAS and how does it simplify testing for organizations?

How is security testing usually done?

Security testing tries to find the weak points of an infrastructure and is conventionally performed using these methods:

• Vulnerability Scanning. Specialized scanning software is used to take inventory of the devices, appliances, and applications connected to a network. It then identifies which ones are affected by potential exploits.
• Penetration Tests. These tests are typically performed by white hat hackers who would attack the network, emulating tactics used in real-world cyberattacks.
• Red Team vs. Blue Team. This method works just like a war game where the “red team” takes on the role of attackers trying to penetrate the network and the “blue team” takes on the defensive role and works on mitigating and responding to the attacks.

Despite the availability of these methods, some organizations are likely to forgo testing. With the exception of vulnerability scanning, these methods can be difficult to perform due to the following reasons:

• High skill requirement. For penetration tests to be effective, the tester should be highly-skilled and tests security using a variety of methods in order to pinpoint the gaps in the defensive perimeter. As it is, the cybersecurity space suffers from the lack of qualified professionals.
• High costs. Costs of a single penetration test can run anywhere from $5,000 to over $100,000, depending on the professional or security firm performing these tests. Smaller operations typically work with limited budgets. With their security spending typically earmarked for acquiring security tools and solutions, it’s understandable why testing often becomes overlooked.

What’s BAS and what advantages does it bring?

As the name suggests, BAS tests an organization’s security by simulating data breaches and other cyberattacks against its controls. It looks to address these two key barriers by allowing users to run tests using easy-to-use interfaces. A BAS platform may only require users to install a client on one endpoint or workstation on their network, and they would already be able to run tests across the network using a cloud-based portal.

BAS provides several key advantages over conventional methods, including the ability to:

1. Test multiple security controls comprehensively

BAS platforms offer preconfigured attack scenarios that can test multiple potential attack vectors. For example, it can test web applications against SQL attacks, email servers against phishing messages, and endpoints against malware execution. By doing so, the controls deployed to protect these vectors such as firewalls, filters, antimalware, and endpoint protection are also tested.

2. Simulate different attack scenarios including complex ones

The attack scenarios that BAS platforms simulate are based on tactics and techniques used by actual threat actors. Using a combination of these scenarios, organizations can even mimic complex attack campaigns that are being used by threat groups. Hackers use a combination of techniques in order to successfully commit a data breach. For example, they use phishing to gain access, deploy malware to take control over devices and scan for data, and exfiltrate the data to an external destination. This full kill chain can be simulated through BAS.

3. Perform routine tests automatically

BAS also allows for continuous testing. Users can simply select the tests to run and schedule them. The platform will then automatically run the simulated attacks. Penetration tests and red vs. blue team exercises are often impossible to perform at regular intervals. BAS tests can be run every time there are new changes made to the infrastructure. For instance, checks can be made whenever new solutions are deployed or when software and application patches are rolled out.

4. Gain actionable insights on how to improve defenses

Another advantage BAS offers is that it makes test results readily available to organizations. Reports from penetration tests and red team exercises can take time to be compiled and submitted. BAS simplifies this by providing visualizations of test results, scores, and insights on how well the security controls perform. By making the information actionable, organizations can quickly mobilize their IT teams to make the necessary defensive adjustments.

How will it impact the security space?

By simplifying testing, BAS allows security checks to be done on a wider scale. Enabling organizations to validate their security controls and measures can result in them having more robust defenses against actual cyberattacks. Everyone will surely benefit if they are able to better secure their networks. Wider testing can also challenge security firms and providers to improve upon their solutions to consistently withstand both simulated and real attacks.

BAS solutions may be relatively new in the cybersecurity space with the segment only formally labeled as such by Gartner in its 2017 Hype Cycle. However, BAS has already gained traction in adoption. The BAS market is growing and is expected to reach over $1.6 billion by 2027.

As with most innovation involving automation and empowering end users, security professionals may think that the availability of BAS might adversely affect them. On the contrary, the emergence of these solutions should come as a welcome development for security professionals. BAS should lessen the burden on them to manually perform continuous testing and enable them to focus on other high-value activities.

Simple and effective

BAS simplifies security testing by helping organizations overcome the barriers of expertise and costs. Organizations can perform tests using their existing resources and minimize the need to involve experts to perform routine tests. While not exactly cheap, BAS allows IT teams to perform multiple tests repeatedly which is more cost effective compared to conventional testing methods. Ultimately, simplified testing empowers organizations to improve on their security by knowing how well their measures and controls actually perform.

 

Did you know that 70% of companies are not properly equipped for the future? Technological advances such as 5G, artificial intelligence, VR / AR, IoT, and voice control are having a disruptive effect on brands and companies. But how do you ensure that your company and your brand achieve superior business value in a rapidly changing world? In this article, we will introduce the most used and important technologies and give practical tips for securing the future of your company and your brand.

The rise of 5G and big data

Be ready: 5G, the fifth generation of mobile networks, is on the way. Not only is it 50 to 100 times faster than current technology, but it also has the advantage that bandwidth will no longer be a limiting factor. The problem of slow data speeds will be a thing of the past. Forever.

Of course, this also has an immense impact on user experience (UX), in particular on how your customers perceive your brand, collect information, and buy your products and services. Your customers expect simple “click-and-buy” systems, fast delivery times, and immediate answers. In addition, larger amounts of data will be available than ever before. This gives you unprecedented insights into the customer journey and allows you to perfectly tailor your brand experience to your (potential) customers.

However, the analysis and interpretation of data have not been part of the standard methodology in all companies. So make sure you have a team of data analysts on duty in good time.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML)

While privacy is very important, more and more data is being collected from us at the same time and the technologies associated with it are getting smarter. Just think of services like Google Now or Amazon Recommendations. AI and ML make it possible to recognize patterns in consumer behavior and to tailor and personalize products and service offerings better to the needs of your customers. You will also get more insight into how customers are interacting with your brand. This enables you to integrate the brand more closely into the everyday life of your customers. There have never been as many brands as there are today and new brands are emerging every day. But how can you clearly and positively differentiate your brand from other brands? AI and ML can provide you with relevant answers to this.

The Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things (IoT) quickly found its place in our everyday lives. Today, for example, you can conveniently turn on the heating while you are out and about or turn off the lights by voice command when you want to sleep. Examples of IoT products and applications can be found everywhere, from day to day home or work use to brilliant entertainment apps. Some casinos have free apps that you can download to play, such as blackjack online. Others have worked hard to make their web platform so good that it works very well even if you access it through your mobile browser.

Nowadays, most casinos offer great apps to online games on smartphones and tablets. You just have to have an Android or iOS device to pamper yourself with some of the best mobile entertainment that the internet has to offer. The internet of things gives you and your company more opportunities to test and improve products and services. Sometimes you have to enter into entirely new partnerships. At the same time, it also makes your brand more transparent.

The company is, as it were, the brand, which means that communication and brand experience must come from the center of the company. The people in the company can become the most influential ambassadors for the brand. In addition, the feeling that consumers associate with your brand is gaining in importance. A good reputation depends on relevance and an authentic brand purpose.

Digital Reality: VR & AR

VR and AR are becoming increasingly relevant in a lot of areas of our everyday life. Leading companies have long since started exploring the possibilities of VR and AR. For example, IKEA has integrated a function into its app that allows you to see furniture from the IKEA range in your own living room.

The rise of VR and AR enables entirely new creative and multi-sensory experiences with brands. Compared to the usual advertising formats such as TV or banner advertising, 4D or 5D experiences leave much stronger and, above all, longer-lasting impressions on the consumer. This leads to a stronger involvement and loyalty to the brand – and these are two very important KPIs that your brand needs. to survive in the digital age. So dare to put your previous customer journey to the test in order to differentiate yourself from the competition and discover the endless, creative possibilities of VR and AR.

Many people love to travel, and they head to pastures new on a regular basis both for work and for pleasure. If you are a regular traveler, you will know the importance of having the right tools and equipment with you when you travel. This includes the right tools to work, communicate, and record your activities while you are away. While some people use their smartphones for this, many prefer to use a good tablet when they are away.

Tablets are ideal tools for globetrotters, as they offer many capabilities and benefits. When you are traveling around to lots of different places, you naturally want to travel light but you also want to have a good smart device with you for all sorts of purposes. A good, high-quality tablet is an ideal companion and can be used for both business and pleasure. You can get some great deals especially if you use vouchers such as B&H Photo Video shopping codes. In this article, we will look at some of the benefits of using tablets while on your travels.

Some of the Key Benefits

You will find that there are lots of benefits that come with taking a tablet with you when you are on your travels. Some of the main ones are:

Lightweight and Portable

If you want functionality and convenience, a tablet is an ideal choice for your travels. In the past, many people traveled with notebooks or laptops, but even the smaller sized ones are far bulkier to carry around than a tablet. With a slimline tablet, you can get around with ease and enjoy the ability to carry your device everywhere with no hassle.

A Bigger Screen

While your smartphone is great for use as a camera or to take videos on your travels, the tablet is ideal because of its bigger screen. So, doing everything from using social media apps to watching content becomes enhanced because of the bigger screen. At the same time, the tablet itself is small, slim, and lightweight, so you get the best of both worlds.

Great Communication Tool

When it comes to communicating with others while you are traveling, the tablet is the perfect companion. Whether you want to go on social media to chat, Skype or WhatsApp or even communicate via email, your tablet will make this simple and convenient. You will have a larger screen to enhance your experience, which is an added bonus.

Entertainment on the Go

When you are traveling, you will naturally want to enjoy entertainment now and again. When you have a tablet, you can look forward to a range of entertainment at your fingertips. From reading eBooks to listening to music, watching YouTube content, watching movies, or playing games, you can look forward to a diverse array of entertainment whenever you want it.

All you have to remember is the importance of getting a decent tablet in order to enjoy all these benefits. You can then download a range of apps, including many travel apps, to make your trip more relaxing, enjoyable, exciting, and entertaining.

Local SEO helps promote your products and services to people in the area. It can be difficult for you to optimize your website for local SEO if you don’t have any experience. Fortunately, the best NYC SEO agencies have some tips that will help you optimize your website.

Optimize Your Homepage

Your homepage is the first thing that your customers will see. Your homepage should have what type of business you have, where you are located and the types of services or products that your business offers. Your website should also have a meta description.

Follow What Is Hot in the Area

The best NYC SEO agencies will recommend that you follow what is hot in your area. You can find out the hot topics in your area by using Google Trends. It tracks the popularity of terms and searches in your area. You can use this to determine what type of content you should put on your website.

Create a Page for Every Product And Service

Many people put all of their products and services on one page. However, it is a good idea for you to have a separate page for each product or service. Not only is it a great SEO practice, but it will also make it easier for people to find what they are looking for.

Additionally, if your business has multiple locations, then you should have separate pages for each location.

Claim Your Google Page

Claiming your business page on Google will help improve your SEO rankings. If your business has multiple locations, then it is a good idea for you to claim each page. You will be able to manage multiple locations with one log in.

Explain What Is Unique About Your Business

There are likely many businesses that are similar to yours. You have to stand out from your competitors in order to have a successful business. You should publish content on your website that will help distinguish you from the other ones.

Prioritize Reviews

Positive reviews can help you grow your business. They can also encourage people to visit your website. There are several factors that the algorithm uses to determine how they are going to rank a website. One of those factors is the reviews that you have Yelp, Facebook and Google.

Your Yelp reviews are just as important as your Google reviews. If you have reviews on Google and Yelp, then your Facebook page will likely show up on the first page of Google.

Guest Post on Local Websites

You can bring traffic to your own website by guest posting on other people’s websites. You can use related searches to find similar websites.

Optimize Your Website for Voice Searches

Voice search is becoming more popular. That is why if you are trying to optimize your website for local SEO, then it is a good idea for you to enable voice search. People typically use more long-tailed keywords when they use voice search.

Most people are looking for a specific piece of information when they use voice search. They also expect to get quick answers. If this information is readily available, then people will be more likely to come back to your website. They may also refer their family members and friends to your website.

Optimize Your Website for Mobile

Sixty-three percent of internet searches are done from a mobile phone. Seventy-five percent of people who plan to make a purchase from a mobile phone do so within 24 hours of visiting a website.

 

A Great Business Opportunity

An item or administration being sold under an enrolled trademark helps in working up trust, dependability, quality, and altruism in the brains of clients. It offers you an extraordinary personality when contrasted with different merchants particularly when you sell it on online stages like Amazon, Flipkart, and so forth.

A Legal Protection

In the event that you question that your trademark is being duplicated by any other individual, you can take up the issue lawfully and sue them on the off chance that you have enlisted your logo, image name or motto.

Get Your Unique Identity

Clients will recognize a specific item or administration just with the brand. Enrolling a trademark guarantees that contenders won’t use it and henceforth it stays as an organization’s special resource.

An Asset

The trademark can be a significant resource on the off chance that your image makes a name and succeeds. It tends to be economically contracted, sold and diversified.

How do we help with Trademark Registration?

Trademark Search

We help in your trademark search by leading the pursuit utilizing trademark chief. We additionally lead a definite beware of the trademark logo and brand name that you had chosen to guarantee that it isn’t yet enlisted under any other individual’s name. The trademark can be enrolled once it is discovered to be remarkable. In the event that your logo or brand name is as of now enlisted by another person, we assist you with discovering approaches to change it so your registration doesn’t get dropped.

Class Selection

While applying for registration, you have to apply it under the correct order of classes. We assist you with picking the correct class under which you have to enlist. The trademark offers you the option to sell under a specific brand name inside a specific area in the economy. Altogether, there are around 45 divisions and every segment is named as a class. Products and enterprises are ordered into 45 unique classes by the Trademark Registry. Each logo or brand name must be enrolled under the proper class. For instance, the Class 28 incorporates items and administrations identified with games, sports and toys. Consequently, in the event that you are wanting to dispatch another toy brand, you should apply under the Class 28.

Setting up The Application

After we guarantee that your image name or logo is one of a kind and can be enrolled, we continue with the application by setting up the approval letter first. This gives us the option to make the trademark registration for your sake. We further assist you with rounding out the structure and continue refreshing you about the procedures until the registration cycle is finished.

Archives required for Trademark Registration

An approval letter that is properly marked by you permits us to petition for trademark registration in the interest of you. Subsequent to getting the approval letter, we start with the arrangement of your archives, record the application on the web and furthermore pay for it. Before long, you get the affirmation of the application, and you will get the option to utilize the ™ image.

While petitioning for the trademark registration, the records you have to give are as per the following:

• Candidate’s name
• Business type
• Business goals
• Brand/logo/trademark name
• Registration address
• Personality And Business Proofs

The trademark proprietor or the individual who is approved by the trademark proprietor needs to present their character confirmation. It tends to be your Aadhar card, driving permit, visa, proportion card or voter’s id.

Utilizing Logo With Tagline

On the off chance that a trademark application is made for a slogan with just words there is no need of a logo. In situations where a logo is utilized, at that point it ought to be submitted in high contrast design. The quantity of words in the logo ought to precisely be equivalent to referenced in the application for a trademark.

Structure 48

For the benefit of you, UAE lawyers are approved to petition for the trademark application with the Trademark enlistment center. The trademark client affirmation ought to be submitted in the event that a case for the past trademark was made in the application.

Significant things think about the online Trademark Registration Process

These days, with the coming of mechanical progressions, a trademark registration can be effortlessly made on the web. You can get the assistance of an enlisted Trademark lawyer to document online without requiring a push to visit the vault office.

The Examination Of Trademark

After the trademark application is given for Vienna characterization, the trademark will be inspected by the Trademark official as per certain rules and strategies. The official may acknowledge or dismiss the application according to his/her attentiveness.

Hearing Before Trademark Register/official

In the event that the trademark application is dismissed, the candidate can go for a consultation. In the event that the official can be persuaded with the given reports, at that point the application will be passed. On the off chance that the official isn’t persuaded, indeed the application gets dismissed. On the off chance that he isn’t completely persuaded about the explanation behind dismissal, at that point the Intellectual Property Appellate Board can be reached.

 

Victor Restis says Industry is Thrilled with Robotic Technology

I am a technology enthusiast and enjoy reading about how technologies of today and the future are being tested and implemented across many industries. This article, which includes commentary by Victor Restis, president of Greek shipping conglomerate, Enterprise Shipping & Trade, discusses how the maritime industry loves to test AI technologies as this industry strives to strengthen the global supply chains that keep the world moving forward. It is that simple.

According to the article, some of the areas where technology will have the most significant impact is in robotics and AI. Robotics can be a precious asset to human resources streamlining processes and working side-by-side with human counterparts. I found it interesting that robotics is being used to mitigate the risk of dangerous situations previously faced by humans. The scenarios offered in the article make complete sense for robotics to intervene, especially in oil clean up vessels. Oil spills are one of the most significant risks to the environment and are one of the complaints environmentalists have against drilling rigs and the energy sector. Upgrading the ability to address oil spills (hopefully we don’t have to) when they happen by the use of robotics is ingenious.

Speaking of hazardous chemicals, toxic fumes, and risks of fire or explosives, the article mentions the SAFFiR (Shipboard Autonomous Fire Fighting Robot) that was developed by the Naval Research Laboratory. The article says this robot is capable of detecting and suppressing shipboard fires alongside human firefighters. How cool is that? Wonder if they all throw back a few beers after fighting a blazing inferno.

Interestingly, and a little less dramatic, is the use of robotics to perform practical and essential maritime functions, ship inspections. This use of robotics not only eliminates risk to humans, but speeds up the process, makes it more efficient, and costs less. Robotics is being used to inspect vessels, which the article states are notoriously tricky, and can report back findings in real-time. One of the coolest parts is the ability of robots to submerge and check the hull of the boat and every other section underneath. This is where finding cracks or other potential dangers are significant. Not only are robotics sent in to examine for real hazards, but they can anticipate potential risks during its inspection.

With everything going on in the world today, any innovations used to strengthen international supply chains are worth implementing. If robotics can help humans maintain and strengthen cargo vessels to keep supply chains well oiled, then I am all for it.

As a business owner, you may have heard of benchmarking. But what are the benefits of benchmarking, and how should you go about it? In this article, we look at what benchmarking is and how to do it well.

What is benchmarking?

According to Shopify, benchmarking is a ‘process of measuring the performance of a company’s products, services or processes against those of another business considered to be the best in the industry’. Essentially, it allows you to work out how your business stacks up against the competition.

Benchmarking is important for small businesses because it helps you identify trends, gaps and opportunities between you and the competition. This doesn’t just involve the best or the big players in your industry; you can benchmark your business against all of your competitors to create insights. And what’s key is that the process and findings are based on data rather than subjectivity or assumptions.

After the benchmarking process is complete, you should be able to ascertain room for improvement in your own business, to help you get closer to the ‘best in class’ position.

How can I do benchmarking well?

Depending on the size of your organisation and your competitors, the process can vary. You may want your departments to complete their own benchmarking (such as marketing vs marketing, customer service vs customer service) or to complete benchmarking on your competitors’ businesses as a whole.

Generally speaking, the following areas should be covered in the process:

• Product or service offering (including scale, price, variations, use cases)
• Target audiences (job titles, demographics, regions)
• Sales and marketing strategies (channels, traditional vs. digital marketing, events, webinars)
• Customer engagement and customer service processes
• Manufacturing or service delivery processes

If you’re completing this for multiple competitors, you may start to see some trends emerge which you might have missed such as complementary product or service offerings, target audiences, frequently used social channels and even key CTAs or brand messaging.

To keep it coherent, you can try using the SWOT Analysis technique to identify specific Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats from the competition.

If you’re struggling to gather accurate information about your competition, there are a few places to look including Companies House, the company website, published white papers, events and even by using tools like SEMrush to gather information about their keywords and marketing strategy. If you’re really strapped for time or resources, Feefo offer competitor benchmarking services that can help.

Next steps:

Once you have your data, it’s important to interpret the results. This part of the process will vary and depend on personal preferences and familiarity with graphs, spreadsheets, documents or lists – anything that allows you to analyse and interpret the data is appropriate.

The next step is to look for trends, and then prioritise your learnings for your own business. For example, based on your findings, should you be looking at more regular blog posts, attending more events, hosting your own webinars or reducing the price of your product?

Once you have analysed, prioritised and implemented your changes based on the benchmarking process, it’s important to check in and update your data regularly. This is not only to monitor the outcome of your shift in strategy, but also to keep an eye on competitor activity for the long-term, rather than as a one-off project.

To conclude, benchmarking is a great way of obtaining a better understanding of where you stand in the market among the competition, and opportunities to seize to get ahead of the pack in the long run.

 

Not all digital marketing agencies deliver results. It’s a fact. Consider partnerships wisely and watch out for the warning signs when hiring the services of a digital marketing agency. In 2015, over 13,000 US-based digital marketing agencies are on the record. You have no reason to fear losing options. Continue reading to learn what to avoid to form strategic collaborations.

Salesy Approach

Promoting a brand is one thing, and using flowery words to push a brand in the market is another. Do not fall into the trap of digital marketing agencies that promise results that are too good to be true, because, in a competitive digital world, everything is hard work. What “salesy” approach should you be aware of? Promising you a top page rank within a week is “salesy” because, in the real world, competition for one keyword alone is so tight.

Failure to Deliver Returns on Investments

You approach an agency, and the team offers you a solid keyword strategy that leads to higher search results ranking. If you are not knowledgeable about digital marketing, you will easily be lured into accepting the plan. An expert digital marketing agency never promises page ranks alone, because ranks are only the means to an end. The real returns on investments come in the form of website traffic, sales, and leads. Ask yourself, did your marketing agency discuss how their proposed SEO strategy leads to “real” outcomes?

Lack of Proof of Service

When hiring for the services of a digital marketing agency, always look for proof of service. Check for past clients and search for reviews. Exercise due diligence, so to speak. Consider it a good sign when the firm hands you over a portfolio of previous clients and campaigns. It is even better when the portfolio comes with numbers – the number of new traffic generated, the amount of post-campaign revenue, or the increase in conversion rate.

One-way Flow of Information

When the agency comes into your office with a standard plan of action, you should be wary. Initial meetings should be about testing the waters–getting to know each other and coming to terms with a plan of action. Information should flow two ways. Otherwise, the digital marketing plan ends up half-baked. Remember that no digital marketing agency knows your business better than you do. Your inputs are valuable to the agency, just as their technical expertise is valuable to your business. Together, your business and the agency work as one team.

Absence of an Audit

Audits are crucial to have baseline data and an accurate needs assessment. Without any baseline data, you cannot measure the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. Without a data-driven needs assessment, your choice of performance measures may not be appropriate. For instance, you may think that increasing social media presence is the key to increasing sales. But then really, the bulk of your online customers comes from marketplaces or other pages. A high-calibre digital marketing agency unfailingly performs an audit check first. Some agencies offer audit checks for free. Look for one in the market.

Canned Solutions

Because every organization is unique, marketing solutions should be tailored, not canned. When the agency insists that what works for the other business also works for you, then consider their suggestion wisely. Several factors come into the picture when designing digital marketing solutions – industry trends, organizational requirements, existing marketing presence, sales performance, among others. Tailored solutions are often the result of an accurate and transparent initial needs assessment. For instance, your business may not have a problem with attracting new customers, but with generating repeat orders. An excellent digital marketing agency will spot this problem early on for you.

Lack of Transparency

Ask questions as many as your curiosity allows during negotiations. A reliable digital marketing agency won’t be bothered with questions. They will take such initiative as a sign of interest and be willing to answer as transparently as possible. Often, the area where transparency is a problem is the financial aspect. You probably heard reviews about other agencies that bill other fees that were not previously discussed. When your agency fails to disclose actual costs or includes a general clause like “other charges as required,” then take the initiative to ask.

Why do you need to go through the process of looking at warning signs? Many businesses, especially those without previous experiences, spend thousands on digital marketing campaigns without generating quantifiable outcomes. Worse, many SEO freelancers disappear into thin air after the initial transaction, leaving the client with nothing but financial losses. Exercise due diligence. Do not join the list of companies that failed to watch out for the warning signs of SEO scammers.

Author: Tim Reed

The realms of IoT, Ai, and intuitive technology are constantly evolving. The IoT umbrella streamlines processes and enables a seamless marriage of technology and real-world activity. Thought leader, investor, and IoT expert Jason Hope considers intuitive technology as the propellant for the future. Now, as the world collectively awaits the Post-Coronavirus “new normal”, leaders like Jason Hope are considering ways that intuitive technology can shape the short-term future.

IoT In Healthcare

According to Hope, implementing AI and intuitive technology into mainstream healthcare can benefit humanity in the immediate future. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Geographic Information Systems became integral in helping Epidemiologists track the spread of the virus. Jason Hope recognized how the ability to track progress on a global scale impacted the outcome of the pandemic and cites the potential return of a global healthcare event as a reason to ensure this technology is adequate in place in the immediate future.

To showcase the power of IoT devices already in use in the healthcare industry, Hope pointed to China’s use of interconnected thermometers. Across COVID-19 units at hospitals, these “smart thermometers” allowed healthcare professionals to gain continuous remote access to patient data without compromising their safety. In addition to providing continuous temperature readings to gauge progress, the data compiled by these interconnected thermometers can then be used by other parties to garner valuable knowledge about the virus’s behavior. Hope notes that in moving forward, the widespread availability of these “smart thermometers” would provide additional safety for first responders.

Similar to these measures, Hope touts that various other interconnected wearable technologies have been born during the global pandemic. From smartwatches that constantly monitor wearers’ metrics to electronic wristbands that can aid with social distancing, multiple innovative tools have been launched in the race to eliminate the spread of the pandemic. These technologies utilize AI, geolocation, and other technologies to track useful information, provide wearer metrics, and increase safety for healthcare workers.

In the “new normal”, Hope predicts that the implementation of intuitive technology in the healthcare scope will focus on providing effective care and monitoring in a remote capacity. The importance of this feat has already been highlighted in the healthcare industry, and will likely continue to dominate as the world navigates the “new normal”.

IoT In Retail

As retail operations begin to reopen, consumers are faced with evolving guidelines, protective measures, and limitations. Even after these limitations are lifted, many consumers will rethink traditional retail and the safety of communal spaces. Traditional retail has already taken a backseat to online shopping within the last few years. To counterbalance this shift in consumer behavior, many retailers have added technology to streamline and evolve the shopping process. From adding digital directories in shopping centers to saving customer data to virtual in-store profiles that translate to future online shopping, retailers are recognizing the power of technology in retail.

Jason Hope recognizes that the “new normal” in the retail sector will likely feature contactless services. These services have already been ramped up in the previous few months, as retailers struggle to reopen after mandatory closings of non-essential shops. Grocery stores have rolled out the use of contactless loyalty cards on innovative apps. Meanwhile, big-box stores have elaborated on their contactless payment methods.

This sector of IoT services is aptly called the Internet of Payment (IoP), and Hope predicts that it will be a huge sector in the “new normal”. As savvy shoppers continue to use hybrid shopping services like curbside pick-up and to-go options, contactless payment methods will continue to evolve. Secure payment through bespoke apps will continue to evolve, and consumers will likely enjoy placing complete orders prior to arriving at a destination.

By creating new platforms for payment, Hope supports the notion that an expanded IoP could eliminate the physical need for customers to carry traditional forms of payment, such as credit cards and cash. Digital credentials will allow the implementation of secure payments via smart “things”, such as phones, watches, and other electronics.

Some of the framework to safely support this technology is already in motion. While trends in this direction were already shaping the evolution of payment, the global pandemic unequivocally bolstered the need for contactless payment. At the heart of this innovative payment methodology, IoT drives the practical application of technology.

IoT In Professional Development

During the pandemic, many professionals saw their jobs transition to an entirely virtual model. Leaders have implemented technology to hold virtual meetings, collaborate on projects in real-time, and maintain workflow. In the quest to quickly pivot to a socially distanced model, many employers simply launched the use of available technology. While employers have a larger selection of employee management tools at their disposal, these types of companies are likely to continue to sprout in the “new normal”.

According to thought leaders like Jason Hope, intuitive learning-based technology will assist employees in various daily functions, and elevate the work-from-home experience. It will have the propensity to be customized to fit the bespoke need of employees, and to serve as a proverbial “task manager”. From a workflow management perspective, IoT technology will also potentially monitor employee metrics to gauge performance, ensuring that efficiencies are maintained in a remote environment. Finally, this increased interconnectivity will also allow teams to swiftly and seamlessly work on projects together from across the globe.

Final Thoughts from Jason Hope

Undoubtedly, the novel Coronavirus has shifted society as a whole and has forced humanity to look at areas that can be evolved through the use of IoT. Supporters of this evolution, including Jason Hope, recognize the myriad of ways that intuitive technology can reshape the world, and evolve existence. In the “new normal”, interconnectivity and remote capability will drive change, and allow humanity to move forward.

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