Steven – Page 59 – Altitude Branding

All posts by Steven

Board Portals Are Essential for These 3 Reasons

Steven on October 18, 2019

Directors are busy people who need to succeed in competitive environments: for the sake of the organizations they’re helping to run, they need all the helpful tools possible. There are many technologies that claim to be modern miracles, but most of them don’t really deliver meaningful results.

Organizations across North America in many industries are now turning to board portal software to help their directors stay quickly and securely connected. Read on to learn about the best board portal software currently on the market and all the ways that it can help your organization deliver real results.

1. Collaborate From Anywhere

Your directors may not be in the same cities or countries, but they’ll still be able to collaborate closely. Board portal software lets them annotate documents and flag passages, which they can then share with other directors or keep for their own personal use.

If one director changes a document, the other directors are notified via email. This means there is no time wasted keeping other directors updated, and everybody comes to the board meeting with all the latest changes.

It’s also easy for directors to work from anywhere. There’s a centralized, cloud-based repository constantly accessible that storing all the important board documents directors need. They can access these materials from whichever device they prefer using most — laptop, tablet, or desktop.

2. Reduce Operational Hurdles

The busywork of board management is considerably reduced by the latest board portal software. It’s extremely easy to digitally keep and distribute minutes, monitor attendance, track expenses or call for votes and signatures quickly and in a way that’s paper-free.

Going paperless has immediate practical benefits, such as foregoing courier expenses and reducing your carbon footprint. But it also means that material cannot be lost and is always accessible from anywhere in the world.

3. Total Security

Organizations need the most powerful tools to keep connected. But in a time where numerous corporations and even seemingly impenetrable political parties are getting hacked, it’s understandable that security is paramount.

Board portal software is highly encrypted, requires high-end data backup and industry leaders all adhere to independent, third-party security certification requirements. This keeps your sensitive information confidential. Every log-in can be authenticated, so it’s easy to verify that everyone who accessed the system was meant to have access.

If a director should become separated from their company-issued device, the cloud-based app can be wiped remotely to help prevent a security breach. This same director can simply log-in from any other device if they need access to important board materials. Either way, even in an emergency situation, directors will never experience any operational interruption.

Board directors have enormous responsibilities and busy schedules — they need all the best modern tools possible to help them get the job done. No wonder organizations across North America are turning to board portal software as an affordable, easy to use, powerful, and secure way to put the best of modern technology to work.

Personal Branding

What To Consider When Choosing an Affordable Office Chair

Steven on October 18, 2019

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that a chair is one of the most important things in an office and this is because that chair is the one thing where you have to spend the rest of your day. In simpler words, you and your employees all will be spending more than half of the day sitting in a chair in a position that already adds a lot of stress on the structure of the spine. Now with all that stress on your back, you don’t want to make things worse for yourself, right? Well, if not, then this article is a must-read for you. Today we are going to jot down the basics that you need to consider when choosing the right ergonomic office chair.

It’s imperative to have an ergonomic office chair that supports good posture and keeps your lower back as stress-free as possible. There are several types of ergonomic office chairs available in the market, but not all types can be comfortable and suitable for all people. This is the reason why you should always do proper research, check out sites like officechairist.com, and then make a final purchase decision without any rush.

Speaking of purchasing an office chair, here are the things that you need to consider in this regard.

Tips For Choosing an Affordable Office Chair

1- Comfort

The very first thing is, of course, comfort. If you are comfortable in a chair and if you know it’s not hurting your posture, then you shouldn’t give it a second thought and just purchase it. People have this misconception that the more expensive a chair is, the more comfortable it will be. You need to forget the price tag for a while and first check the comfort. Sit in the chair and get up once you know that “this is the one”!

2- Material

Even chairs are made up of different materials, and usually, people opt for the leather ones, but if you don’t like the sound and feel of leather, no worries because you can always opt for some other material and for some other chair. Believe it or not, the material matters a lot, and it also should be of high quality if you want the chair to last longer with you. You see, sometimes the comfort level is excellent, and the posture maintained is great too, but the quality of material used to make the chair is so poor that it starts wearing. This is the reason why you should opt for high-quality material so that the chair is durable and worth your money.

3- Seat Height

The next is the height of the seat. Your seat should be easily adjustable so that even if someone else comes and sits on it, he or she can adjust the height of the seat accordingly. The best seat height that works for most people lies between 16 to 21 inches off the floor. So, if you don’t know much about the heights and the adjustments, then just opt for the measurement we just gave.

Conclusion

These are some of the main things that you need to consider before buying an office chair. Consider the tips we gave and of course, make a budget first. These chairs vary a lot in prices, so it’s better to have a budget and then follow it during the purchase. Again, never opt for the chairs that are too pricey because the price is just a figure, and people can easily fool you with expensive tags and low-quality chairs. Check the comfort first and then buy the chair!

Legal Branding

Key Ways You Can Show Your Clients You Appreciate Them

Steven on October 15, 2019

Many entrepreneurs focus on how to continually get more clients, and how to make the ones they have to spend more and buy more often. While this is an important part of business, it’s also wise to show your customers that they mean more to you than simply some better numbers on a spreadsheet or more cash in the bank.

If you want people and/or organizations to continue to spend money with your business, as well as to recommend your venture to others, it’s a good idea to show how much you appreciate your clientele. This doesn’t have to cost you a ton, either. There are plenty of ways to show customers you value their business without draining your bank account.

Get to Know Customers and Provide Thoughtful Touches

To make people feel special and appreciated, you need to know who they are and what’s important to them. Pay attention when your clients talk about their families, passions, hobbies, upcoming events, etc. Then, make an effort to show people you’re thinking of them by sending a note or gift or by making a phone call on special occasions. Get in touch on people’s birthdays or when they get married, have a child who graduates, or has some other key event happening.

Celebrate the successes of your clients, too. For instance, if you learn that a corporate customer has won an award or opened a new location, congratulate them, send a small gift, and show you notice them and the wins they’re having.

Also, send people quality business thank you cards at the end of the year to thank them for their patronage. Acknowledging that you couldn’t move your business forward without your customers makes people feel valued. You may want to add a gift to this Christmas expression of gratitude, too. Choose something relating to what your clients do in their spare time, such as a meal voucher at a happening restaurant for a foodie or tickets to a basketball game for a sports lover.

Another thoughtful touch is to remember the preferences of clients. For instance, make a note of what kind of coffee or tea people like and have it on hand when you meet with them or examine which types of products customers buy and let them know when you have something similar available.

Add Value

Another way to show clients you appreciate them is to add value to them. For example, if there’s an extra job you can do for someone that won’t take you long because of your experience, but that will save your client a whole lot of time, make the extra effort.

You can also introduce customers to other business contacts who might provide the additional services they require or who can otherwise help them achieve their goals. Plus, look for ways to help educate your customers, such as by sending out helpful updates or information about industry trends, new technologies or tools, upcoming events, or keyways clients might be able to save time or money.

Give People as Much Personal Attention as Possible

As a busy entrepreneur, your time is limited. However, to show your clients you appreciate them, do what you can to give them personal attention on a regular basis. This is particularly essential for your top clients who spend the most money with you each year and who have been the most loyal.

Make people feel safe knowing that they can reach you for information, advice, or other support when they really need it, rather than always being transferred to someone who is lower in rank and perhaps not as familiar with their purchase history, business setup, or needs.

Be a Good Communicator

Similarly, be a good communicator. Your clients won’t feel appreciated or happy if you take forever to respond to their questions or requests, hurry them off the phone or out the door, or say you’ll ring them back but don’t. It’s not nice for people to feel that they’re less important than other things on your list. They don’t want to have to chase you to get assistance, either.

Also, make an effort to get in touch with clients on a regular basis. Send an email or pick up the phone every few months to see how they are and if they need to buy more stock, hire your services again, or another type of assistance.

When you’re chatting with customers, remember that communication is a two-way street. Don’t just talk; also listen. Notice people’s body language and display active listening, repeating things back to people to be sure you truly understand what point they’re making or the information they need. This reduces the likelihood of miscommunication and makes people feel properly heard and appreciated.

To make your customers feel special, you’ll need to invest some time, energy, and possibly funds. However, doing this will reward you in spades in both the short and long term.

Legal Branding Personal Branding

Why Branding Doesn’t Cost as Much as You Think

Steven on October 15, 2019

Branding is one of the most essential components of a successful advertising strategy. While it’s vital to get the word out about the goods and services your business offers, it’s all for nothing if you can’t communicate why customers should work with you. You need to emphasize the special qualities that make your business stand out in a crowded market.

Good branding doesn’t have to be fancy. Like all the essential components of a quality marketing strategy, a little branding goes a long way. There are ways to establish your brand identity even when you don’t have a big budget.

Here are seven ways you can create an effective branding strategy for your company while spending much less than you’d expect.

1. Build Your Identity

Your branding should communicate the core elements of your business’s identity, as well as what services you provide and what industry you work in. You don’t have to hew to industry trends, but your branding should give customers an idea of what your company does with just a glance.

You can start with in-house graphic design if you’re not ready to outsource. Free design and branding tools like Canva or Looka can help you develop logos, graphics and promotional material for your company.

When your business expands and you want to invest more in branding, you’ll also have a good starting point for the designers you work with. Even if not professional, your homemade branding will show others what you consider to be your business’s values and major appeal.

2. Know Your Audience

Market research can take many forms, but it has to get done somehow. Surveys and test ad campaigns are some good ways to gather information.

Once you have a healthy amount of data or a good feeling about your lay of the land, you can start building customer or audience personas. Personas — archetypes of the people you want to sell to — will help you structure your branding strategy by clearly outlining what you think your audience is after.

One example of a persona you might use could be a DIY enthusiast who is after supplies and information. They want knowledge that is reliable, straight-to-the-point and a little rough around the edges. You can then use this simplified version of your audience to inform your branding.

3. Establish Your USP

Your unique selling proposition (USP) is what makes you different from the competition. Identify your USP, then use it to guide your brand voice and demonstrate why customers should choose your company.

“High-quality” and “customer-focused” are phrases that every business wants to use to describe itself. You’ll need to be more specific, and really dig into why your company does what it does.

How many years have you provided top-tier customer service? What kinds of projects have you worked on? How have you overcome challenges? Do you offer something with unique features that no other business can compete with?

Eventually, you may loop back around to describing your business as customer-focused and one that delivers high-quality products. It’s not the best place to start, though. People have heard it before, and they want something a little more substantial.

4. Care About the Consumer

Value your customer’s time. Bad business writing costs smaller companies an average of $420,000 every year. That’s because when you ask customers to slog through marketing-speak without speaking directly to them, they tune out.

There are many different tips and tricks you can use to grab a potential customer’s attention in both branding and writing. However, one of the most effective philosophies to have — which will help make your overall strategy more successful, no matter what you do — is to care about the customer. Treat their time as more valuable than your own. Good branding earns every second it spends in front of a customer’s eyes.

This can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. Start with your research, put yourself in your customer’s position and build on your USPs.

5. Be Part of Your Community

You can create better branding by making your business a part of your community. Better local contacts will help you stay on top of the latest developments and also build a network that will help you know what people need. You’ll also be building relationships with local personalities or industry influencers that you can leverage or build into powerful marketing partnerships.

6. Go Big on Visuals

When designing any part of your branding or marketing strategy, you have an opportunity to use visual design to underline and strengthen your message.

Follow the basic visual design principles that professional graphic designers use. These guidelines will help you reduce clutter, strengthen your message and be clearer in your branding. All this will help your marketing do a better job of communicating what your business offers to customers.

7. Remain Consistent

Especially at first, keep your branding consistent. Repetition is how customers become aware of your company. If you are cycling between logos and branding you don’t have faith in, it’s less likely for you to become familiar and recognizable. You should avoid iterating on your strategy too often. Slowing down will help your message stick in customers’ heads and also give yourself a chance to collect data on what works — or doesn’t — in your current branding strategy.

This also means establishing a consistent web presence, like a blog or set of social media accounts. It will communicate to customers your company’s core mission and beliefs, as well as what your business can do for them. Blogs, interestingly enough, are one of the most trusted forms of information on the internet. A professional-looking blog with some informative, relevant content can help you explain how your business stands out from the competition.

There are other practical reasons for being consistent in your online presence. If you haven’t posted in several months, it can leave potential customers with a bad impression of your brand — or worse, lead them to believe you’re no longer in business.

Why Branding Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive

Branding is one of the most important parts of any marketing strategy — and it’s worth the investment. However, good branding doesn’t have to be expensive. A solid plan does not require glossy graphics and fancy web design to work. Instead, good branding is about knowing your audience and communicating with them in a way they’re receptive to.

Any company can benefit from basic design and branding principles. While bringing in a professional agency can be a good idea in the long term, smaller businesses with less to spare for marketing don’t need to wait — branding doesn’t always need a big budget.

For the end, here is the research about brands with strong personalities and how it influences their purchasing decisions.

Source: Adzooma

About the author

Lexie is a branding enthusiast and web designer. She loves checking out local flea markets and taking her Goldendoodle on hikes. Follow her on Twitter @lexieludesigner and check out her design blog, Design Roast.

Legal Branding

A Business Database Is the Key to Better Business Performance

Steven on October 15, 2019

There was a time when data was as an ancillary to business and was in no way related to the core business goals. People used to gather data with the purpose of performing other business tasks with ease. Sales data was mainly for accounting purposes, and manufacturing data helped to ascertain quality and output. Data used to have only one dimension and meaning, and it did not add any value to the business.

With time, all that has changed drastically and data has now acquired multiple dimensions. Data has transformed into one of the most valuable resources for business. By its ability to add value to the firm, data is now as relevant to business as any other asset. Every aspect of the company from supply chain operation to manufacturing, marketing, and customer relations are now heavily dependent on databases that capture all business activities and point towards business performance.

Need for managing data

Databases are storehouses of data and preserve and process data generated from various business processes. Data is made from all activities of business at all levels and by using suitable technology the data is driven to the database first and then extracted, manipulated and analyzed according to the firm needs. Proper analysis of data provides valuable insights for business. Hence, the demand for DBA consultants is growing. They are responsible for managing databases of all types and help businesses to organize data for meaningful consumption.

The value-adding aspect

The real value of data lies in the manner of using it. The capability of the DBA consultant helps to unearth the hidden value of data and pass it on to the business process. The consultant must have good knowledge about the business process so that he or she can understand the relevance of data in the proper context of business and present it to the user in the most appropriate manner. Since all business aims to satisfy customers, data analysis reveals consumer behavior that provides direction to the business. Any changes in consumer behavior are captured through data collected from the field and business owners can decide on what actions must be taken to adapt to change for business gains.

Database management services

Database management is a highly technical job, and as it does not relate to the core business functions, business owners rely on outsourcing the service. There are many professional service providers offering database administration services across all platforms. Different technologies provide the framework for databases that suit business, but they all have a common goal of creating a robust data system. By outsourcing the service, you have the peace of mind that the database is in safe hands and you can make proper use of data for making the right business decisions.

Depending on the scale of operations and the demands of business, you can opt for remote DBA services that provide comprehensive database management services 24×7. Such provider might also offer data entry services when required, and with your data entry outsourced you would be able to focus more at your core competencies to increase your business efficiency.

Finally, the services empower entrepreneurs with the expertise of managing data efficiently so that the powers of data enhance the business prospects.

Centralized systems

On the off chance that your business is developing and you have the staff to enable you to run it, monitoring the expanding measure of information can be precarious. Great database frameworks can enable you to deal with all your business-basic information midway, securely and safely – at whatever point you need it – to help your odds of accomplishment.

Managing customer data and relationships

In the event that clients are the soul of your business, at that point, a decent customer relationship management (CRM) database ought to be at the core of your development plans. Full-highlighted CRM databases are normally amazing enough to store and process everything, from client contact subtleties, collaboration history, and records, to new prospects, leads and business openings. Some CRM frameworks can even enable you to run and track promoting efforts, for example, email bulletins. See more on client relationships with the board.

Efficient inventory tracking

Dealing with your stock well can at times feel like an exercise in careful control. It’s anything but difficult to have excessively – sitting on a rack gambling wastage, or excessively little – frustrating your clients and harming your notoriety. In case you’re following your stock physically, it’s additionally simple to miscalculate, make information section blunders or lose spreadsheets and notes. By utilizing a stock following database, particularly close by electronic information trade and standardized identification checking, you can maintain a strategic distance from those dangers and limit lost deals while expanding your chances for development.

Planning for growth

Most business databases have some type of announcing capacities – from examining input information and profitability following to envisioning future patterns and clients’ needs. In case you’re arranging a technique for development, a hearty database framework can be your business’ most significant asset.

Improved customer visibility

So as to give your customers the degree of individual consideration that they ache for, you should have the option to rapidly access accounts, contacts, errands, occasions, and any important individual information. Salesforce gives an advantageous stage in dealing with the majority of your client-related data, making it feasible for you to regard each client just as the person in question was your solitary client. Furthermore, by better understanding your clients, you’ll be in a situation to more readily conjecture their future activities ‘ Salesforce CRM improves figure precision by as much as 42%.

Better Support

A device is just on a par with it useful. Salesforce gives unrivaled help, so on the occasion that issues emerge, steps are promptly taken to guarantee that everything gets too rapidly back to full usefulness. Maybe the best part is that with the whole stage situated in the cloud, support should be possible without carrying specialists into the workplace, and without paying costly upkeep costs.

Expanded effectiveness and efficiency

Between computerizing tedious errands, rousing better cooperation, and dispensing with the requirement for administrative micromanagement, Salesforce trims away at inefficient procedures and repetitive exertion, leaving a hyper-proficient framework that will give your association and your client’s genuine incentive for each move made. Subsequently, organization efficiency increments. Truth be told, the selection of Salesforce has been appeared to build deals efficiency by as much as 34%.

Digital Branding

How Web Push Notifications Provide An Edge to Ed-Tech Industry?

Steven on October 14, 2019

Marketers from the education industry face huge challenges and immense setbacks while communicating with their target audience; hence, they are constantly on the lookout for a solution. Web push notifications, the latest marketing innovation is the answer to their problems!

Web push notifications, be it browser or app have been brilliant in reaching out to prospects in a timely manner alongside encouraging them to register or perform the desired course of action. With its customization and personalized features, it helps segment the user groups conveniently hence, it is one such channel that can help marketers of the online education industry. Let’s have a look at how!

Meanwhile, you can refer the elearning browser push notifications guide to be well-acquainted about what exactly push notifications are, how to use them, browsers which support push notifications, their impact on different industries and others such.

Retargeting

This is one of the most significant ways which helps the ed-tech industry reach out to their customers. Upon successful completion of a particular course, users may not come to your website. So, it is the right time for you to target them with push notifications about other highly demanded courses they would like to take up. Make them realize the true potential of the course and how it can help them enhance their skills, which in turn, gives with an edge over others in their domain.

Content Marketing

Polish your audience’s knowledge by regularly delivering interesting facts and information like key strategies, difficult problems, interviews with industry experts and other such relevant details about your courses. Moreover, you must encourage them to visit your website and also take up a quiz or a mock test.

Course Updates

Reach and re-engage online learners by providing them valuable course information and its related updates. Make sure to keep them informed regarding course timings, concepts in brief, and other such information. All of this information is imparted to users in no time through web push notifications.

Discount offers

Sending across discount offers’ information as a part of push notifications is one of the preferred ways to attract the audience’s attention as these prove to be a win-win situation. Offers such as ‘sign up for a free course’, ‘get a free trial today’ and the like, grab numerous eyeballs and the audience is tempted to click on the link, thereby maximizing profits.

Cross-sell and Upsell

With cross-sell, the idea is to sell more by leveraging less effort. So, while you promote your new course to your prospects, try and sell a guide along with it. Because clearly, a person who is interested to take up a new course would also want some guidance to refer to, increasing the chances of a transaction. This not only increases the chances of larger revenue but also improves customer satisfaction which is, in fact, higher when users receive these kinds of notifications.

On the other hand with upselling, as soon as you see that a user is almost done with a course, you need to make sure that you don’t lose them. So, provide them with information about the advanced level of that course or something that is related to it. Moreover, you can offer to give them a one on one interaction with one of the lecturers to clear their doubts and so on.

Web push notifications are being used by various tech companies as a part of upscaling their marketing efforts which helps them generate more leads and increase user engagement. Now that we’ve mentioned how the education industry can reap the benefits via leveraging this latest tool which reaches users in no time, marketers must not wait to put it in use to replicate the tech giants’ results.

Local Branding

Picking the Right Office Furniture: Tips and Tricks

Steven on October 13, 2019

It doesn’t really matter if you spend your working days in a home office, a cubicle, or a huge corner office – your working space needs to be properly designed, decorated, furnished, and organized. After all, this is where you spend eight or nine hours a day, and doing that in an office that’s motivating, productive, and inspiring is always better. Besides that, this is where you’ll welcome your guests and have meetings with your colleagues, business partners, clients, and potential investors. That’s why every piece of furniture in your office has to be absolutely perfect, so here’s a quick guide that should help you pick the right office furniture and make the most of it.

Find the right chair

This is the most important piece in your entire office, precisely because you’ll spend the biggest portion of your time sitting in your chair. Different people prefer different types of chairs, and it all comes down to comfort, coziness, practicality, and size. Your chair has to be comfortable, but not too big, especially if you’re stuck with a tiny office. On the other hand, it needs to be visually appealing and memorable, particularly for people on higher positions who need to make the best first impression possible.

The right office chair should be perfect on more levels than one, and when looking for it, you need to pay attention to a number of details. First of all, your chair has to be height-adjustable and it needs an adjustable backrest. These things will help you prevent back pain and other health issues, which is crucial no matter what you do and how old you are. You also need to look for lumbar support and proper armrests. That way, your back, neck, and torso will be relaxed and you’ll be able to sit without feeling pain. Finally, look for chairs that are made of breathable material that turns a simple office chair into an amazing piece of furniture everyone will love.

Get the right desk

The moment you find the right office chair, you need to start looking for an equally good desk. It needs to be spacious and give you enough room for all your necessities, but also sturdy enough to endure pressure. Still, take the measurements of your office into consideration and don’t buy a desk that takes up too much space. If you do that, you’ll end up feeling claustrophobic and unproductive, and that’s never a good idea.

However, the biggest problem with office desks isn’t their size, but their practicality. Most people don’t clean them often enough, which is why their desk is always full of clutter and things they don’t really need. That’s why you might consider getting a desk with lots of drawers and use these as storage areas for all your office essentials.

Invest in the right sitting furniture

In case your office isn’t just a place where you work, but also where you welcome other people, you should incorporate some proper sitting furniture as well. You don’t need too many pieces, though, so you have to insist on comfort and practicality more than anything else. Less is definitely more, in this case, so stick to just a handful of things: a sofa, a few armchairs, and a small coffee table.

The best way to do that is by sticking to furniture that’s both visually appealing and practical. Those amazing pieces from King Living, for instance, will give you all the comfort in the world while still looking wonderful, which is why they’re a win-win solution you could take into consideration. Keep in mind that your sitting furniture should help you wow your visitors, so investing in high-quality pieces really goes a long way.

Look into the right storage options

We all have storage problems at home and are always looking for new ways to solve them, and the same goes for our office too. That’s why you should look into different solutions and try to keep your office decluttered and clean at all times. Luckily, there are lots of ideas you can look into – from those massive wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves to smaller shelves and cabinets – and you’ll surely be able to find something that will work for you.

If you find the right ideas and turn them into practice, you can add tons of storage potential to even the tiniest office in the world. You just need to make sure you’ve used every inch of space there is, which means every single corner needs to serve a specific purpose and give you different storage options.

Investing in your office furniture might not be the easiest and most affordable thing in the world, but it’s something you just have to do. This is particularly true for people who have small offices or work from home, so finding unusual and practical ideas is a must.

Legal Branding

How to Utilise Accounting and Marketing to Get the Best Possible Results for Your Business

Steven on October 13, 2019

Accounting and marketing make up some of the key components of every business. However, most of the time, people tend to forget the crucial role they can play and the benefit they can bring if they are utilized in concert with each other. In fact, it’s absolutely imperative to do everything within your power to maximize the cooperation between these two departments as it will give you the ability to grow and develop your business in a healthy and organic way. So, in order to help you out, today we are going to take a look at how to utilize accounting and marketing together to get the best possible results for your business.

The basic connection

First off, it’s important to understand the basics of both of these departments and how they are connected. Namely, the marketing department comes up with sales and awareness strategies with the goal of increasing the overall sales of a business’s product or service and the profit they will receive. On the other hand, the accounting department keeps a constant track of the business’s financial condition and thus directly determines how much money can be spent on marketing.

This whole process has become extremely quick and efficient with the use of modern technologies which means you can instantly use the information you get from accounting in order to maximize your marketing department’s efficiency. While this move towards digitalization is slowly taking place all over the world, places such as Singapore have recently launched plans to help the entire accountancy sector make a more determined move towards digitalization. In fact, there are many tools such as Xero accounting from Singapore that can allow you to have a constant real-time view of your finances and any changes that are occurring which can allow your marketing department to use that information to come up and determine the success of their strategies.

Determining success and measuring results

The best way for a marketing department to know if their campaign is a success is to look at the results which they will receive from nowhere else but the accounting department. This is a crucial part of every marketing campaign, not only because its goal was to have good results in the first place but because the results will show you if you are taking the right approach or if you need to switch things up in order to start seeing the results you want. Having a constant reference point of how a certain strategy is doing will also help when it comes to the realization of that strategy and give you the relevant information to help you guide it towards success.

Creating realistic projections

When coming up with a marketing strategy, the marketing department can often overestimate the results it will have, which could negatively impact the business as a whole. This is where the accounting department steps in to determine just how accurate those projections are based on past experience and concrete data. This process of making projections that are as realistic as possible is crucial when making both current and future financial decisions and won’t only impact these two aspects of your business but your business as a whole as well.

Price assessment

Price assessment is one of the most important aspects of a marketing campaign as it will determine the marketing goals that will be set. Finding the optimal pricing will also ensure your business can make a profit. With that in mind, the only way to correctly assess the prices of your products is to closely work with the accounting department which has all of the relevant information when it comes to the costs of the product and will ultimately give you the most realistic price which will highly impact the marketing departments whole strategy.

Making long term plans

If you are able to utilize both marketing and accounting to work together in your business you won’t only be able to create accurate projections of your future but you will also be able to use that information to create concrete long-term plans for your business. Marketing departments can give accounting departments business forecasts, which assist accounting in allocating resources effectively. Marketing may also provide accounting with information regarding which products or services are best sellers. If all of the information is shared between these two departments, you will be able to use it to decide on which aspects of the business to focus on.

Conclusion

Finally, it’s important to understand that having marketing and accounting work together will ultimately help you form an understanding of the bigger picture behind your business’ success or failure and will deepen the knowledge you have of your own business. That is why accounting and marketing are both integral parts of a business and having them work together will help you run your business more efficiently and successfully.

Digital Branding

Virtual Reality in Shopping Experience – eCommerce Future

Steven on October 8, 2019

Cutting-edge technology revolution would be impossible without businesses’ natural pursuit of competitive advantage via new ways to maximize customers experience. Virtual reality (VR) comes as one of the fascinating technologies to deliver an exceptional customer experience by providing users the concept where real and simulated worlds collide. This technology is now considered as a game-changer in the hyper-competitive marketplace. Understanding this matter from the perspective of an entrepreneur, we want to share with you the useful information with the hope that it can be applied effectively to your business strategy. Now, Let’ dive in!

What is Virtual reality?

General knowledge

Virtual reality is an artificial environment that is created and displayed to the user in such a way that they suspend belief and assume it as a real environment. Virtual reality has come a long way in a short period, and it continues to develop at a rapid rate. VR widens a nearly infinite potential, with applications in education, medicine, Ecommerce retail, and numerous other domains.

This shinning electronic technology has made a quantum leap over the past few years, with an ambition to revolutionize mainstream markets. In 2017, virtual reality became affordable and available to the masses, rather than just the gaming elite. According to CCS Insight, by 2018, it’s estimated that 24 million VR devices were sold globally. 2019 is shaping the big year for VR, providing a solid base for the growth VR market. Its volume is expected to reach 98.4 million sales by 2023.

What is a virtual reality in Ecommerce?

Today there are more and more online merchants using VR due to its unique tangibility hallmarks and mind-blowing emotional footprint in advancing customer experience. Suppose that you run an e-commerce business in which your client can discover, choose, pay for inventory, and you can also interface to your buyer in that virtual store. Let’s say, and it is the general picture of virtual reality technology in the business world. Take a closer look in the following examples to see in details.

Yamaha clients can use a special headset to scrutinize the mechanics of their motorbike and see virtual renders of the bike’ engine status, the fuel mixture, parameters coming from sensors. Thanks to VR, the Customer’s interaction with the high-tech product are emotionalized, and machine components are presented vividly to customers or otherwise, they would never see.

Consumers can preview the menu in sit-down restaurants or when ordering food online when they use Kabaq app. The true-to-life 3D models are presented under multiple angles and zoom levels as if the offerings were on a plate in front of you. This app gives the customer a better idea of the portion size and ingredients.

What are the advantages of VR in the online shopping experience

Consumers are excited about shopping’s tech-enabled future. According to research by GfK, 38 percent of U.S. consumers hope to see improved improved experience in stores, while 35 percent want improved customer service based on individual needs, and another 35 percent seek enhanced ways to find and compare different products. With their ability to replace the parts shoppers dislike about shopping, VR in retail holds promise to create the differentiated brand experiences that drive conversions, repeat visits, and higher revenue.

Improve customer’ s online shopping experience

Because VR provides a three-dimension angle of the object, users can virtually visualize the products they want to purchase online. A mocked-up version for testing is a new way of approaching product before making to last decision of buying. That is because sometimes simple product’s description can not speak for all product’s functions and customers want to know the product from inside out. You know, 58% more likely to purchase a product after they have an opportunity to test it first.

Furthermore, thanks to the broad flexibility of VR, clients can also explore many virtual showrooms in a short time, which makes the experience more appealing to consumers. Consequently, thanks to new levels of in-store engagement, you can give customers the intrigue to visit your store, not the other one. In summary, VR technology will be the future of Ecommerce as it helps establish positive emotional connections before the deal and evokes an immediate sense of ownership.

Engage and generate buzz

It is undenied that new technologies bring about a new trend in our modern life and it is true for the online business world, where everything changes up to a minute. VR can also generate a buzz and direct the way the marketplace leans towards.

For example, In 2016, NARS Cosmetics cooperated with Facebook 360 Video to create a VR makeup tutorial that helps viewers to control which specific portions of the video to focus on. So instead of skipping to the part of the video, they want to see (or watching through the whole thing), users can look around or “drag” the video to find the part they want to watch. After that, a massive wave of making VR video like this massively pops up for product of different kinds such as real estate, motorbike, etc.

Create a live event for marketing

For Ecommerce Retailers, online marketing is never enough if they want to widen potential customers outside the virtual world. The live event may be an excellent solution regarding this issue. However, the biggest problem with this is getting people to attend because of the distance.

With VR technology, distance is no longer a matter as it can bring the event to your audience instead of vice versa. Excitingly, VR lets everyone sit in the front row, so no one is left sitting at the back, trying to make out the way to find details of whatever is being showcased. This way can go a long way to enhance your guests’ experience, make them leave with a more favorable impression of your brand.

Let’s take an example at New York Fashion Week. While the show was held in New York City, guests were allowed to virtually attend a show in Milan a week earlier by using a VR headset. This featured 360-degree videos of exclusive fashion collections and gave users a red carpet experience.

How can you use VR to enhance the shopping experience

So far, we’ve gone through the benefits of virtual reality in ecommerce. Now, we’ll discuss the specific steps to implement VR technology.

Decide your goals and the experience you want to give

Because it takes you a considerable amount of work and investment to have VR technology implemented successfully, having a clear vision of who is our target audience and what type of experience do you want people to have should be prioritized. VR is such a massive experience change for both businesses and customers; if there is not enough preparation, it will be too easy to rat hole on the possibilities.

For example, think about the scenario that your customers can easily add filter product attributes with real-life experience as the most Advanced Layered Navigation Extension can do now by mouse clicks with multiple- filter navigation, price slider, AJAX loading technology. It seems to be promising as you can decide your target customer’s experience to get the technology fit for it.

Decide how you will make it happen

VR technology

VR technology is vital for your entire program, so determine how it will arrive the next step. The experience that you want to provide your clients is the core value deciding what kind of VR technology you will use. For example, if you want your customers to walk around and manipulate different product features, you need to consider to use a VR platform which can support three degrees of freedom (3DoF). And more advanced, six degrees of freedom (6DoF) can help you to support positional tracking.

Developers

Regarding VR technology, things can get technical very quickly, and you need to be assisted by VR expert. Businesses need to look for VR developers who have experience with large, enterprise projects and the skills to make a virtual environment. Not so many out there right now, and most of them know each other. Depended on the goals and scope of the project, you should decide to find the right fit.

Hardware

Remember the hardware, the must-have element for your VR initiative typically hinges on how you’ll want to deliver your experience.

Develop, test, implement and iterate

Depending on your project, these steps will be taken differently.

For developing, this will involve developing a prototype, and then ironing out the kinks before testing the program with a small market. After that, you can further refine the program to improve it for a broader rollout.

The testing process will vary from one program to the others; however, in general, the technical functionality and user experience is what you want to test. Let’ see how your VR program operates on various devices and how your virtual world applied on different platforms. You should keep an eye on these matters: Are all the elements working correctly? Do they coincide with the user’s movements?

Besides usability, you should pay attention to the effects that the program brings to an individual. When installed incorrectly, VR can be uncomfortable or even nauseating. Make sure to monitor VR accurately so that you can minimize motion sickness, fatigue, or discomfort on any form.

Market your VR initiatives

When you already develop and test your VR technology, it is time to get the world know about it. You can consider these ideas.

Encourage people to share their VR experience with your product

Encourage people to talk about your program through the social channel. Make a hashtag for your initiative, and then encourage users to spread the word.

In the eBay virtual store, the e-tailer used the hashtag #ebayVR, which is so direct and straightforward to make people share their experiences on social media.

Do not just market the technology – make it about the experience with your product.

You should remember that the central focus of using VR technology is to provide your clients with real experience with your product, so do not get stuck marketing its cool feature. Some questions you should keep in mind that: What feelings will the initiative evoke in the user? How will your VR solution make shopping more enjoyable or convenient? Do customers get a real sense of your product when they use VR?

Gather data

Gathering data on how users are engaging with your program will give you valuable feedback and the insight recipe to boost your marketing strategy and online sales.

Final words

It is well worth making VR investment if ecommerce is your playfield. When implemented correctly, VR technology can not only provide memorable experiences setting your brand apart from competitors but also bridge the touch-feel gap of online customers.

Start with a strong vision. Make clear what you’d like to achieve, recognize the technologies that can turn your idea in reality, then recruit VR experts who can develop this virtual world for you.

Because virtual reality should be more about experiences than technology, make sure it offers value and gives users an experience they won’t find anywhere else.

Author Bio

Daisy is a passionate expert writer from Mageplaza. Throughout many years collaborating with Mageplaza-a Magento Extension Builder, she hopes to give readers the most practical solutions and useful advice on online business issues.

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7 Tips for Building a Business Partnership

Steven on October 8, 2019

Forming a great business partnership is not an easy task. Like in the dating world, when you first meet people, they’re often eager to show themselves in the best light, which means that picking the right person for you becomes a lot harder. Other than picking the right person, you also need to learn how to set boundaries, as well as establish and nurture a healthy professional relationship. With that in mind and without further ado, here are seven tips for building a business partnership that you need to hear as soon as possible.

1. Look for the same vision

The first thing you need in order to build a lasting business partnership is to find someone who shares your vision. A lot of people make the mistake of finding someone who shares their interests; however, interests (in the business world) are universally the same – growth, profit and success. When it comes to the vision, however, this is often more unique, due to the fact that it’s more individual, even intimate. It’s about the journey, rather than the end goal. So, talk to your partners about your aims and aspirations in order to check if you see eye to eye.

2. Exercise transparency

The next thing that’s necessary for a lasting business partnership is trust, and the only way to build trust is through transparency. You see, sharing your piece of mind when it’s pleasant, inoffensive or complacent is a simple thing. What you need to do is learn how to be the bearer of bad news and tell your partner what they don’t want to hear. Still, you don’t have to be blunt, and there’s nothing wrong with being a bit more… well, tactical when it comes to your phrasing. This is also important, seeing as how you need to check whether you’re entering the business world with someone who shoots the messenger or buries their head in the sand when things get ugly. Naturally, it also goes the other way around.

3. Put everything on paper

While trust and verbal agreement may often be romanticized as the cornerstone of the business world, what you need to do is put everything in writing. This means that you need to make a contract by which you determine ownership and clearly define your roles in this enterprise. Lastly, provided that things don’t go as intended, which is something that happens quite often, you need to have a solid and effective dissolution plan. As soon as this is set in order, you can proceed with your partnership.

4. Show your appreciation

One more thing you should keep in mind is the fact that respecting your partner might require you to go beyond mere words. For instance, getting them a birthday gift is something that’s not required from a business partner, but it’s still a nice gesture. Providing them assistance with their professional tasks (without being meddling or doubting their capabilities) is also a great idea. For example, imagine a scenario where your partner is going to Christchurch for a meeting with important clients. Getting them a car rental at Christchurch airport would take a minute of your time, but to them, it would be a major sign of appreciation.

5. Maintain great communication

Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that communication tends to be vital for success in the business world. First of all, you need to have a clear line of communication with your partner. Having each other’s emails is not enough, and you need to communicate via a call or an IM service of your choosing. Having a sit-down at least once per week is also a great idea. Even more importantly, you need to have these talks in private. Even if you have your disagreements, to the outside world, you need to look like a unified front.

6. Strengths and weaknesses

Previously, we’ve discussed the importance of dividing your roles. Well, this thing is a lot simpler to pull off if you and your partner have similar strengths and weaknesses. This will allow you to complement the weaknesses of your partner with your own strengths and have them do the same to you, in return. So, this needs to find its spot on your list of requirements when choosing a business partner.

7. Show some support

One of the things you need to understand about your business partner is the fact that they’re probably the only ones who know exactly what you’re going through at the moment. This is due to the fact that their fate is tied to your enterprise in a similar way and the fact that any success or failure might rub off on them in a similar way that it does to you. This is why some support on your part might mean a world to them, even if you don’t have a well-developed personal relationship. Keep this in mind when going gets tough.

Conclusion

As you can see, a lot of these tips (if not all of them) are applicable to any kind of relationship in your life. When choosing someone who is going to have this kind of impact on your life, you need to be extra careful. Moreover, you need to give them the same kind of respect and attention that you hope to receive in return.