Category Archives: Technology

Technology

Hiqy Launches as a Transformative Social Media and Marketplace in India, Connecting Businesses and Individuals

In a monumental move within the expansive digital landscape of India, Hiqy has officially launched its social media platform, aiming to redefine the way individuals and businesses connect and thrive. With a rapidly growing community of 10 million members, Hiqy stands as a powerful catalyst for meaningful relationships and successful business collaborations.

Elevating Businesses to New Heights

Hiqy comes equipped with a myriad of features tailored to empower businesses and individuals across the country. Here’s a glimpse into the transformative power of Hiqy:

  1. Promote Your Products and Services: Showcase your offerings to a vast audience, ensuring your products and services reach the right customers.
  2. Business Networking: Forge valuable connections within the business community, expanding your reach and collaborations.
  3. Create Business Pages and Blogs: Establish a digital presence with customizable business pages and blogs, enabling you to express your brand’s unique identity.
  4. Sales Optimization: Boost your sales by effectively marketing your products and services, utilizing Hiqy’s tailored advertising tools.
  5. Monetize Your Blog: Share your expertise and earn from your blogs, transforming your passion into a lucrative venture.
  6. Boost Your Business: Amplify your shop, store, company, or institution’s visibility, attracting potential customers and partners.
  7. Portfolio Showcase: Display your work portfolio, highlighting your skills and expertise to attract clients and business opportunities.
  8. Stay Updated: Stay informed with the latest industry trends and business news through Hiqy’s dynamic newsfeed.
  9. Interactive Marketplace: Engage in a vibrant marketplace, exploring products, services, and business opportunities.
  10. Community Engagement: Participate in forums, connect with like-minded individuals, and share insights, fostering a sense of community.
  11. Event Listings: Stay informed about local business events, enhancing your networking opportunities.
  12. Multimedia Sharing: Share photos, videos, text posts, sound clips, and files, ensuring your content is diverse and engaging.
  13. Location-Based Interactions: Connect with businesses and individuals in your vicinity, fostering local business growth and collaborations.
  14. Integrate with Your Website: Seamlessly integrate your Hiqy profile into your website’s “About Us” section using iFrame, enhancing your brand’s online presence.

Beyond Business: A Comprehensive Ecosystem

Hiqy doesn’t just focus on promoting businesses; it provides a holistic experience for its users:

  1. Secure Transactions: Safely send and receive money, manage your business wallet, and track account balances with ease.
  2. Personalized Experience: Customize your profile, manage your business reach, and control your interactions, ensuring a tailored experience.
  3. Interactive Communication: Engage in real-time conversations with business friends, create groups, and receive notifications for updates, ensuring you never miss an opportunity.
  4. Referral Benefits: Refer Hiqy to others and earn rewards, fostering a growing community of entrepreneurs and professionals.
  5. Enhanced Security: Protect your account with two-factor authentication, ensuring the utmost security for your business transactions and data.

Hiqy is more than just a platform; it’s a dynamic ecosystem where businesses flourish, connections deepen, and opportunities abound. Join Hiqy today and embark on a journey of business growth, collaboration, and success in the digital landscape of Bharat.

Technology

Which companies can you rely on for graphic designing in Houston?

Change is always good – as it compels us forward to do something new and exciting. Yes, change can be intimidating, especially when people are set in their ways. However, the way things change in this age of rapid digitization and technology has forced us to hop on the bandwagon of change and accept it. 

Hopping on to this trend of rising technological changes has benefited individuals, companies, and businesses. It became more evident in the aftermath of the global pandemic when the companies that did not board this revolutionary trend fell far behind their counterparts. If digitization was a choice in the past decades, it is necessary for running any small or big business. 

Evolution of Digital Marketing and Graphic Design 

Evolution of Digital Marketing and Graphic Design 

Source 

One aspect of businesses that have gained tremendous benefits from digitization and technological advancements is marketing. If you are still indecisive about adopting technological tools to better shape and direct your marketing, these top ten tips for thriving in the digital era are for you. 

Graphic design has changed how businesses run marketing or promotional campaigns. The advent of creative tools that can bring a billboard alive has beaten every old marketing tactic. Also, with the digitization of businesses, one cannot ignore the online presence of companies and businesses. Thus, graphic design helps make the business website stand out and lure potential customers. 

Top Graphic Designing Companies in Houston 

About 50% of the companies included in a survey reported increasing their annual budget to accommodate more graphic design projects in 2021, as it is a time requirement. If you are looking for reliable graphic designing companies in Houston, you have landed at the right place. This article lists the top reliable companies that provide excellent graphic designing services in Houston. Let us take a look without further ado. 

  1. Fair Marketing 

Fair Marketing is among the top digital marketing firms in the state, with its headquarters in Houston. It was founded in 2005 and is currently the fastest expanding company in the country. This firm mainly works with clients in lawmaking, business, e-commerce, finance, food or beverages, and healthcare industries. 

It is one of the top reliable digital marketing firms, as it offers a wide variety of services ranging from PPC, email marketing, content marketing, reputation management, mobile application development, social media marketing, graphic designing, and much more. For their highly unique and compelling graphic designs, FM uses state-of-the-art technologies, including Adobe Business Catalyst and Adobe Creative Suite. 

Fair Marketing is also credited for building the innovative tool Rank Hacker – used by other agencies in the industry for building out SEO content and link strategies in the most effective ways. This tool helps forecast leads, ROI projections, and sales.  

  1. Artisticore – Graphic Designs 

Artisticore – Graphic Designs is another top graphic design company in Houston known for its unmatched visual storytelling. It is a digital art agency that presents the best narrative image of your brand. Believing in visuals conveying or expressing more powerfully than words, Artisticore offers unmatched services for icon and label design website pages, including landing pages, logos, print design, postcards, template design, etc. 

Their website contains positive reviews and testimonials from small and big businesses. It also offers content that attracts potential customers to engage effectively with your company. 

  1. Marion 

It is another top digital marketing company in Houston, providing an excellent full-service design department. You can either hire their professionals to work in-house supplementing your marketing and design department or outsource your projects to them. It is a small enterprise with about a $1,000 minimum cost for a project. It deals with B2B and is relatively local to Houston only. 

Suppose you are looking for a visual for your company or business that speaks volumes to your targeted segment and conveys all you want to say to attract your potential customers. In that case, Marion should be your perfect choice. They use Adobe Creative Suite and other top-of-the-tier design tools to create the best graphic design. 

Marion has consecutively won several awards, including the Local Excellence Award in 2021 and 2022. They have worked with notable clients such as Beetnik Foods, Karamay Stone, Kuraray America, Inc., Oxiteno, etc. 

  1. Thrive Internet Marketing Agency 

It is also one of Houston’s award-winning digital marketing agencies– associated with Google Premier Partner, Bing Ads Accredited Professional, Google Analytics Technology, Shopify Partner, and Yext Certified Partner. It also derives its name from one of its core business values related to making its customers thrive in their respective fields. 

Some of their notable clients include Restoration, HomeFirst, Peterson Games, Image 3D, etc. Thrive Internet Marketing Agency has won several national and local awards in the past years. If you want a graphic design company that caters to your every need and understands your projects as you do, then Thrive marketing agency is the one for you. 

  1. Brands Design 

It is a local-based design agency famous for its consults for all types of businesses and organizations in Houston. This firm provides the best logo design services and other marketing collateral, such as brochures, banners, leaflets, business cards, etc. 

The best part about this design agency is that they have different packages according to the customers’ various design needs. They have separate packages for video designing and production, package designing, website layouts, print images, etc. They have worked with MyLavi and Bomb Plant Brewing in the past. 

  1. Culture Pilot 

Founded in 20003, this Houston-based digital branding, designing, and strategy firm have helped numerous small businesses reach their goals with the best on-point designs. Culture Pilot has some of the best graphic designers for campaign creation, catchy content, attractive and meaningful visuals, and other services for their clients.

Culture Pilot is the best if you need the best reliable design companies for creating your business logos, designing websites, photography, illustrations, animations, and unique content. 

  1. Logovent 

Logovent is another reliable graphic digital agency in Houston specializing in digital marketing and design services. Logovent mainly focuses on creating eye-catching logos for various brands and organizations. However, it also offers mobile app development, content creation, SEO, and web design and development packages. 

With the best customer services 24/7, Logovent is indeed clients’ top choice. It has affordable packages for all, including startups and established businesses. 

Wrapping Up 

What do we do when we know about a business or company we have to work with? We instantly Google it and visit their website. An exciting logo, an eye-catching web page, and easy website navigation are the first few things that help us decide whether we want to work with them. 

You can gauge the importance of graphic designing by this example and know how indispensable digital marketing tools are. Thus, let this article help you find the top companies you can rely on for graphic design.

Technology

Top 10 Tips to Thrive in a Digital Era

“Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” — John F. Kennedy

The Age of the Internet and Digitization has made digital transformation an absolute must for businesses. In the wake of the pandemic, companies that were yet to board the digital revolution train failed to survive. Just a few years ago, digitization was a choice, but today it is the solid foundation on which businesses are being reinvented. 

It’s still not late. Non-digitized businesses can still attempt digital transformation by experimenting with the latest trends and strategies   This article discusses the top 10 tips that can help businesses not just survive but thrive in the digital era. 

Understanding Technology – A Friend not a Foe

Businesses need to understand that technology is here to stay, and their stubbornness against going digital can cause many disadvantages. Companies that don’t modernize lose out on many benefits that digitization offers businesses. 

Understanding technology means embracing the fact that by integrating technology into your business model, you can actually go head to head with your competitors and improve communication with your customers and employees.

You need to recognize the areas in which you can substantially improve productivity and lower operational costs such as using tools like Microsoft Teams as a platform for instant communication within your organization. 

Cultivate a Digital Culture – Appoint Tech Savvy Leaders

The culture of an organization directly influences the productivity of the workforce. Leaders and managers play a crucial role in developing the organizational culture, and by placing tech-savvy personnel in leadership roles, you can cultivate a digital culture in your organization. 

Modernizing your company doesn’t just include automating functions and using tech tools but it is also about improving your work culture, business processes, and strategies to match the current trends. Having tech-savvy leaders will ease the change process in the organization as they can skillfully guide the employees into a new, more automated working process.

Conduct A Digital Audit – Recognise Key Areas Of Change  

Conducting a digital audit will help companies recognize areas where they can significantly improve by using digital tools. The audit will help companies gain better clarity on their digital requirements before directly making heavy investment decisions. 

By auditing your company processes you can also plan out a much needed revamping strategy that many organizations forgo and stay stuck in decades of old operational processes that have turned inefficient in this day and age. You can hire experts from an IT solutions company that can help you recognize the right tools to optimize your business operations.

Create A Digital Plan – A Roadmap For Modernization 

The next step in the digital transformation of your organization should be creating a digital plan for various departments and functions of your company. Since you have already conducted a digital audit and done your research on the tools required to optimize your operational processes, you can now plan your budget and find a starting point for this digital transition.

Modernization doesn’t occur overnight. You need to find a starting point and focus your energy on executing that one thing before the motivation to change fizzles out. 

Build A Website – Start From The Basics

Building a website for your physical business is one of the most basic steps of digital transformation. The catch is to build it according to the needs and preferences of the customers today. You need to work on the content and quality of the website, so it can be mobile-friendly as people today majorly use smartphones for all their curiosities. 

You can hire an IT firm that will provide you with a team of experts such as web designers and website developers, SEO experts and content creators for customizing your website. They can also help you maintain the website so it is user-friendly and free of any bugs or glitches. A high ranking website with a strong SEO strategy will bring more business and benefits to the company than one made just for formality. 

Stay Mobile Friendly – Socialize On Social Media Platforms 

The majority of the public is all over different social media platforms these days; therefore, to catch the attention of your target market, you need to establish a strong social media presence. Digital marketing is the most prominent form of marketing these days as it reaches over to a large audience across the globe and can be customized to reach the most relevant type of audience for the business.

Create your business account on multiple platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, which are flooded with audiences from around the globe. Keep posting updates and fresh content about your business and products to keep high audience engagement, and you will notice a boost in your business sales. 

Create a Mobile App – Invest In The Right Tech

Mobile apps are the most convenient form of online shopping these days. You can hire the most trusted app development companies in your locality and create a customized mobile app for your business. An app is also a form of digital marketing as it represents and markets your brand to customers. 

Making a smart and secure app integrated with AI will help you get accurate information regarding the likes and dislikes of your customers. Investing in creating a mobile app is a step in the right direction of modernizing your business and thriving in the digital era. 

 Use Data Analytics – Understand Your Customers Better With AI

Companies need to invest in data infrastructure that will allow them to gain better insights into the minds of their customers and the overall market. Businesses must understand that data analytics is the key to success in the digital era with the unbound information it provides. AI has the ability to crunch large sets of data and give out core information that will help businesses make better and faster strategic decisions. 

A latest study by Genpact reveals that only 8% of companies worldwide have fully modernized. Due to this divide, companies who can quickly adapt to AI technology are far more likely to get great opportunities and advantages in the future compared to those who don’t. 

Adopt an Agile Mindset –  Embrace Change 

“In today’s era of volatility, there is no other way but to re-invent. The only sustainable advantage you can have over others is agility, that’s it. Because nothing else is sustainable, everything else you create, somebody else will replicate.” —   Jeff Bezos, Founder, Amazon

An essential aspect of growth and a thriving business is being able to adapt to the changing trends and walking hand in hand with the technology that is driving those trends. Being open to change and willing to learn, unlearn, and re-learn is the most significant initiative in digitally transforming your company. The transformation must take place on both ends, internally (within the organization) and externally (for the convenience of the customers). 

Keep A Steady Pace Of Change – Don’t Take on More Than You Can Chew 

Modernization is an ongoing process that can’t be accomplished all at once. As an enterprise, you need to keep a steady pace of change not to disrupt your business practices and overload your employees with too many changes. Taking on more than you can handle at a time will be inefficient.

You can start at the basics and slowly grow from there. Sometimes you just need to monitor the implemented changes and how they work for your business and your customers. If you don’t get desired output, then you need to change course and adjust your digitization strategy. 

The Way Forward

When in Rome, Do As The Romans Do. Therefore to thrive in the Digital Era, you need to undergo digital transformation and embrace the new changes that the technology brings about. The primary learning in this process of change and acceptance is that digital transformation can’t be accomplished overnight and is a continuous process of new discoveries. You need to be careful and invest in the correct type of technology for your business that doesn’t put a strain on your finances and boosts your productivity. 

With the right strategy, technology, and leaders, your business can effectively modernize and thrive in the digital era. 

Author Bio

Erik Watson, a content crafter at GoodFirms who intends to share his outlook on the fast-paced tech industry and all the new and exciting global trends with the audience through his writing. A writer by the day, and an avid reader by the night, Erik enjoys exploring different genres that help him grow as a writer and individual. 

Technology

Data Security Trends in 2022: How to Ensure Enhanced Security?

Data breaches are not new, but of late, they have increased due to several reasons, including remote work, lack of secure systems, and lower cybersecurity planning. For example, the Identity Theft Research Center (ITRC) report indicated a 17% increase in data breaches for 2021. 

These data breaches can not only tarnish the reputation of your business but also increase the cost of data recovery. According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach for any organization has risen to $4 million. In addition, such data breaches can lead to the exposure of sensitive information used as a ransom to extract money. 

A survey indicates that, on average, a ransomware payment for US companies is $6 million. The best way to avoid such data breaches is to have proper security measures. It would help keep up with the data security trends to ensure that your systems are ready for any malicious injection or cyber-attacks. 

So, here we are with a comprehensive guide on different data security trends and how you can leverage them for your business. But, first, let’s understand the basics of data security briefly. 

What is Data Security?

Data security is a practice of using different security standards, policies, and tools to reduce,

  • Unauthorized data access
  • Accidental data loss
  • Data thefts

It includes engaging trending technologies and executing administrative controls to ensure data protection. The process of data security can even involve limiting access to information, manipulation, and sensitive data disclosure as per security policies. 

Formulating such security policies needs proper analysis of the organization’s structure, operations, and systems. Based on the analysis, you can develop critical access controls for data security across the organization with three fundamental aspects.

Data confidentiality

Ensure that the sensitive data stays confidential and only a specific set of employees or people access such information. There are two ways to achieve that one is by restricting the access, and the other is by using encryption technology and authentication of the person before they can access the information. 

Take an example of any eCommerce platform that saves a user’s credit card information. If credit card credentials are exposed to hackers, users can face financial fraud, and as a business, your reputation will take a hit. 

This is why there is a security standard that every eCommerce company needs to follow known as PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard). However, you need to have advanced data protection measures at an organizational level. 

Data integrity

Data integrity deals with an aspect of maintaining information in its purest form. Your data needs to be secure and not tampered with in layman terms. Irrespective of how the data is written, exchanged, or processed, it remains untampered. 

Higher availability

When we talk about data, it’s not just statistics or financial numbers; it can be an image, text, or video file. Imagine how lower data availability will impact a streaming business? Every business needs higher data availability, which can be achieved through enhanced database systems with optimal security.

However, investing in data security can be a massive decision, and here is why you need it more than you think of it. 

Why is Data Security Important?

Data is the new currency, and keeping it secure means saving gold from pirates! Modern businesses are moving to digital platforms, and most transactions occur with one or the other type of data. So, ignoring data security is not an option anymore. Let’s understand it through some numbers,

  • 97% of businesses have suffered due to supply chain cybersecurity breaches(Venturebeat)
  • More than 52% of employees have been affected by security blunders due to stress(TechRepublic)
  • The Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack was one of the biggest in 2021, which was settled in 75 bitcoin of $4 million in value(Wired)
  • There were 1,862 data breaches in 2021, which was the highest in comparison to 1,108 for 2020 and 1,507 for 2017(ITRC)
  • More than 40,099,751 healthcare-related information of patients were exposed to hackers in 2021(Healthcareitnews)

So, as you can see, whether you are building a giant cruise ship or delivering healthcare services, data security has become vital. With data breaches, not only does your business suffer as a brand, but the cost of system repairs, data recovery, and legal obligations make it a necessity. 

Now that you know why it’s essential, let’s discuss some critical technologies and data security trends.

Different Data Security Technologies

When considering a data security technology, you need to analyze your systems and organizational structure for enhanced integration. Once you have analyzed your system and critical requirements, the data security technologies that you can consider are, 

  • Data loss prevention technologies are effective means to monitor outgoing data from an organization to check whether there is no leakage of sensitive information.
  • Intrusion Detection System(IDS) monitors all the traffic that any organization receives and filters out malicious data for enhanced security.
  • Intrusion Prevention System(IPS) blocks the malicious traffic identified by IDS by removing the network packet, which is declared untrusted.
  • Security Incident and Event Management(SIEM) checks every event and reposts any malicious activity in real-time while maintaining proper documentation.
  • Firewalls help with port filtration and block malicious traffic-based security policies.
  • Data masking technology makes the information anonymous and hard for hackers to crack. 

Now that we know some of the data security technologies you can use for your businesses, upgrading them and keeping up with trends becomes vital. So, here are some key data security trends that every company needs to practice. 

Data Security Trends Every Modern Company Should Practice

Data encryption

Encryption technologies allow you to keep the data anonymous to hackers while exchanging between the user’s device and your system or a browser. There are two types of encryptions-” asymmetric and symmetric encryption.” 

While asymmetric encryptions have two different security keys ”public” and “private” for the encryption and decryption process, symmetric encryptions use the same key. However, the best approach is always to use them together, and SSL certificates cab the ideal choice. 

However, the usage of asymmetric cryptography is increased and to prevent cyber-attacks like data spying; a lengthy key is required. You can find 2048-bit equipped SSL certificate from branded SSL certificate authorities like Comodo SSL Certificate, GlobalSign SSL, RapidSSL Certificate etc. These certificates provide higher standards of encryption along with data integrity and privacy.

SSL certificates help establish HTTPS protocol and prevent data breaches through man-in-the-middle attacks. However, while SSL certification is a great way to ensure in-transit data protection, another critical data security trend is using multi-factor authentication. 

Multi-factor authentication

Multi-factor authentication helps add an extra layer of security by validating user credentials. It can be in the form of a passcode, text message, and even a link that helps users authenticate the identity.  

Ensuring data security is vital, especially for cloud-based applications and shared databases. This is the reason why cloud services giants like Google and others are now using two-factor authentications or 2FA for user access to data. 

While authenticating your users is an excellent way to ensure data protection, the modern era of smart devices is challenging to have a secure experience.

IoT-based vulnerability

Over the years, smart devices have increased, leading to a new type of vulnerability, which hackers expose through malicious code injection in the APIs. Internet of Things devices uses APIs to exchange data with external machines or software. 

So IoT-based data security trend is essential for every business now as users access data from desktops and different intelligent devices these days. However, there is an advantage to intelligent technologies that can help data security through Artificial Intelligence(AI).

AI-based data security

AI-based cybersecurity systems are not new, but AI can be beneficial when you think about data security, monitoring networks, data behaviors, detecting anomalies, and finding key failure points in the system. You can find any irregularity in real-time and rectify systems to enhance data security with machine learning algorithms.

AI-based analytics also has a fundamental data security trend that has been popular due to insights that make information safety and protection easier. 

Understanding the trend is different, and implementing it to your business needs a reliable strategy. 

How to Implement a Data Security Strategy?

From identifying sensitive information to deciding the data policy, implementing a data security trend for your business needs proper strategy implementation. 

Identify sensitive data and classify it.

The first part of your data security strategy is analyzing the systems and finding sensitive data. Once you find all the sensitive data, it is important to classify them and further categorize the access levels through a data policy. 

Data Policy

Data policy is a set of rules or guidelines that the entire organization follows for permissions, access, and exchange of information. Once you have identified the sensitive data, forming a data policy becomes vital to ensure data protection.

Data Access

Further data access is a set of permission that allows users, employees, or third parties to access information. Who will access the data? These are vital questions answered through the data policy. Access depends on your security policies.

Safeguard your data

Safeguarding your data will take more than just deploying a security system; you will have to constantly measure network behavior, detect any unauthorized access and immediately act on it. For such a detailed monitoring practice, you will have to define every endpoint of the security system.

Use endpoint security systems.

Endpoint security systems help protect the entry points of users’ devices like smartphones, desktops, tablets, and more from malicious injections in the network. Here, you can use encryption-based security systems, WAFs, authentication, etc., to ensure no data breaches. However, you will need a risk-based approach for better overall security.

A risk-based approach to security

With a risk-based approach, you will have to, 

  • Prioritize information assets and processes
  • Identify risks and prioritize them.
  • Implement foundational security policies across assets
  • Build a targeted model of security for analysis
  • Develop a roadmap according to the analytical results
  • Ensure governance and organization engagement

The last part of the risk-based approach in governance, where employee training can do wonders!

Train your employees

Due to the pandemic, we have seen a shift towards the remorse working culture even before that. However, such a shift from a governance and security perspective without proper employee training. So, generate programs targeted towards employees for awareness on,

  • Security policies
  • Data access guidelines
  • Integrity maintenance
  • Critical security endpoints
  • Ways to improve compliance

Conclusion 

In the end, implementing a data security trend takes a lot of planning, analysis, execution, and monitoring across the organization. So, suppose you are looking to upgrade your security systems by integrating any trending technologies we discussed here. In that case, it is essential first to prioritize your assets, identify sensitive information, and have a proper backup to avoid any data loss. 

Technology

5 Factors To Consider Before Website Redesigning

Website redesign is the process of revising the design and layout of a website. This can involve changing the overall look and feel of a website, as well as modifying the navigation and structure. A website redesign can also involve updating the content and images on a website.

There are several reasons why you might want to redesign your website. Maybe your website looks outdated or doesn’t reflect your company’s branding anymore. Or maybe you’re having trouble keeping up with the latest web design trends. Whatever the reason, a website redesign can help you improve your website’s usability and appeal to potential customers.

Tips To Redesign Your Website

If you’re thinking about redesigning your website, here are some tips to help you get started:

1. Define your goals

Before you start redesigning your website, you need to define your goals. What do you want your website to achieve? Are you looking to increase sales or leads? Or are you hoping to improve your brand image or website usability? Once you know what you’re aiming for, you can design a website that’s more effective in reaching those goals.

2. Don’t lose sight of your brand

Even though it’s important to design a site that is effective and attractive, you don’t want to lose track of your own website’s personality. If you need help figuring out who your business is and what sort of content will appeal to them, the best thing you can do is stay in touch with current customers and ask for feedback on areas where they feel like the site could improve. While brainstorming possible changes, keep an eye out for new opportunities or things you might be missing out on.

3. Use data from your old website

If you’ve been tracking analytics data from your old site, consider how visitors were finding their way it before. This information can help you better understand how people interact with your website content and what pages are the most popular. It can also help you determine which keywords are bringing in traffic so that you can focus on optimizing your new website around those same phrases.

4. Plan for a phased rollout

Launching a new website is always exciting, but it’s important to remember that not everyone will be able to see it right away. Depending on the size and complexity of your site, it might take some time for all of the pages to be indexed by search engines. In order to avoid any confusion or disruption in service, plan for a phased rollout where certain sections of the website are made available to users over time. This will also give you an opportunity to test different aspects of the redesign and make sure everything is working properly before opening it up to the public.

5. Have a clear goal in mind

When starting a website redesign, it’s important to have a clear goal in mind. Whether you’re looking to increase conversions, improve the user experience, or simply update the look and feel of your site, having a specific target will help you stay focused throughout the process.

Things to Consider Before Redesigning a Website

1. Examine Your Current Website

The first step in website redesigning is to examine your current website. This will help you to determine what works and what doesn’t work on your website. It will also help you to identify any problems with your website that need to be fixed.

When examining your current site for potential issues it’s important not to use rose-colored glasses, there may be some truths you don’t want to face because things aren’t as good as you had remembered them being. Keeping an objective point of view will allow for more accurate determinations and solutions moving forward. Some common problems with websites (that should be examined) include: 

 There are many reasons one may choose to redesign their website. Factors can include anything from an increase in site traffic, an old or outdated design, or simply wanting to improve the overall user experience.

Before embarking on a journey of website redevelopment it is important that business owners have several key items well thought out before moving forward.

2. Analyze Your Competition

The second step is to analyze your competition. This will help you to see what features and designs are popular among websites in your industry. It will also help you to identify any features or designs that you should avoid copying.

When redesigning your website it’s important to have a clear understanding of what your competitors are doing. This can be done by thoroughly researching their websites as well as taking note of any changes they’ve made over time.

  • Is their website responsive?
  • How mobile-optimized is it?
  • What types of images are used throughout the website?
  • Are forms easy to fill out? Are they integrated into other parts of the site (i.e name, phone number, address)?

3. Maintain Your Brand

The third step is to maintain your brand. This means that you should keep the same colors, fonts, and branding elements on your new website that you have on your old one. Maintaining your brand is important because it will help keep your company image consistent across all of your marketing materials.

It’s important that a redesign doesn’t change your brand image or voice in any way. Updating things like your logo and color scheme will help ensure that your company is still easily identifiable but other elements should be left alone if possible. In addition, you don’t want to alienate existing customers by changing how you work either so be sure to consider what changes will have the least impact on them when making changes.

4. Update Irrelevant Content

The fourth step is to update irrelevant content on your website so that users can find what they are looking for more easily. For example, if you’ve closed a location, you should remove this address from the “Store Finder” section of your website.

Sometimes sites end up with outdated content that needs to be removed or updated. Before starting on any type of migration process over to a new site, go through all of your pages and posts and remove URLs that are no longer valid, images that aren’t optimized, product descriptions that are no longer relevant, etc. This will help to make the transition process smoother and keep your website looking clean and professional.

5. Web Redesign Checklist Is Required

The fifth and final step is to create a web redesign checklist in order to make sure that nothing gets forgotten when migrating information to the new site. A web redesign checklist will ensure that even small details, such as favicon images, are not overlooked.

Depending on how you handle the development of your site, deciding to redesign your website may require a couple of different steps. They include:

  • Inspecting existing content
  • Researching competitors and trends
  • Planning a strategy or process for what will be changed and why it will be improved
  • Weighing the pros and cons of changing from your original plan
  • Considering timeline & budget constraints – if any – that exist for the web project. 

Conclusion

Web design is an important aspect of your company’s branding strategy. A website with outdated content may lead to a negative brand image for your business. redesigning a site can be a frustrating and time-consuming project but if you have the right team in place it doesn’t have to be. By considering all of the above factors going into your website redesign, you set yourself up for a better outcome.

When it comes to a web design agency that can properly help with both mobile and desktop site optimization. Contact Pixel Street- A Web Design Company in Kolkata today!

Technology

The best UI designing tools updated for 2022

Most often, you come across tools in the market that has a bit of both and all of these tools have just one aim- to create incredibly lucid and user-friendly apps.User test, wireframe, create prototypes, visual design, optimize, and hands-off are the aspects that are regularly handled by the designer. It is noteworthy that while creating visually appealing designs, designers often take the help of different icons like thefree vector icons and even many paid ones in the process.

A UI design aims to improve the user experience and, in this process, uses different typographical patterns, images, visual design elements like premium and free vector icons. The aim of all these activities is just one- to give your user, an experience worth having.UI designing intends to increase the aesthetics of your product thereby creating a mass appeal in the process.

When you have to choose a UI/UX designing tool, you must remember to answer a few questions before choosing one.

  • Can your organization afford the tool?
  • Does the tool increase collaboration with other team members?
  • How well they use different icons (like appropriate use of the free vector icons) and images to amplify your user experience.
  • Which OS (operating system) will the tool incorporate and operate on?

Based on how well the tools answer these questions, we have brought here a few UI tools and their details for your consideration and reference. Of course, you can always search for the right tools in different places using them in the right way like your Hiqy Marketplace, or Amazon, eBay, and Facebook for a start.

Most innovative UI designing tools for 2022

Sketch

You find an entire package of website design tools with Sketch starting from creating a rough sketch to creating pixel-perfect art. Playing around with prototypes and acquiring developer handoff features, you get almost everything within Sketch.

With Sketch you will not need to focus on the tiring part of using UI designing tools, instead, you can straightaway jump in and start creating. Theyhave an innumerable collection of different symbol libraries, various layering, and text styling features, and also different resizing and alignment features.

With Sketch, you can achieve the following easily-

  • Sync and save all your documents here
  • Share libraries with your contacts
  • Collaborate real-time with your Workspace documents that greatly brings down the trouble of pinging documents back and forth.
  • Run mock tests to create complete prototypes within minutes.
  • Use different plugins, smart distributes and layouts, processes multiple formatting and scaling easily.

Oh yes! They also use loads of allfree vector icons and that is the best part of it all.

Axure

With Axure handling prototypes and maintaining a workflow,the track becomes extremely cheesy. It is one of the best tools of 2021 and will remain to be one of the most outstanding tools even in 2022.

With Axure, you can easily create UX prototypes that come in unlimited combinations with different event triggers, combinations, and conditions.

Apart from all of the ones mentioned above, you also have the following advantages from using Axure;

  • Use radio buttons, text fields, and even droplists to create workable forms.
  • Utilize multi-state dynamic panels that can come in handy for everything including pop-ups, mobile screens, and also make your designs easily swipeable.
  • Using of repeater widget can help sort and filter off different tables and grids according to your convenience.
  • You can keep your designs for tablets, desktops, and phones together on a single page and automatically produce an appropriate view.
  • Visually appealing designs can be made through the use of appropriate paid or free vector icons and other images and symbols.

Make your prototype more interactive and add as many conditions as required to develop your prototype taking it to the newest levels.

Use different powerful widgets alongwith the free vector icons to create a design base that is formidable, interactive, and efficient in satisfying the users on the other end.

Figma

The best attribute of Figma is its ability to connect the entire team so that everyone can work on the same platform at the same time. With Figma, exploring, and designing ideas together is easy.

Use smart animations and interactive prototypes with iterative designs to make designs more appealing and fulfilling.

It is a free tool for building prototypes and handoff. With Figma online UI tool one can create and promote collaboration and creative efficiency easily.

  • You also get access to multiplayer editing.
  • Providing contextual feedback for designs and prototypes with comments is possible using the tool.
  • People using Figma can avail themselves of the Cloud benefits. It works on Windows, Linux, Mac, and even Chrome.
  • The tool is in itself light and extremely fast and it can work without being installed

Using Figma is easy and for designing there are several wonderful features that you can use through Figma easily.

  • There is a modern pen tool that comes in handy when drawing.
  • With the arc tool feature, create any design clocks, pie charts, and also watch screens.
  • Expressive brand font features can be implemented easily through Figma.
  • Manual resizing, stretch the auto layout components to both your left and right to create more commendable and responsive layouts.
  • Figma gives you a plugin for everything and helps you access their stock imagery, flow diagrams, charts and icons (including their all free vector icon stores), and a lot of other icons.
  • With Figma, you can even build your plugin and also create private plugins.

Visual Sitemaps

Visual sitemaps are for all those people who work on UI/UX or serve the role of web designers. High-resolution screenshots for any public or private website are easy with Visual Sitemaps and help you create fast and easy audits for your site making SEO, UI, UX, and marketing research easier.

  • Use 100% cloud automation for your designs while using the Visual Sitemaps.
  • Sitemap Editing and annotating pages is easy with this tool.
  • Automatic tracking of visual changes and maintaining consistency within the designs.
  • Encrypted credentials can be used to crawl even password-protected sites.
  • GA data integration with Visual Sitemaps and respective health stats is easy.

With Visual Sitemaps, running full-scale visual audits and duplication and re-editing a sitemap is easy for creating an optimal map.

Crawl schedulers and +1M page site crawl, threaded annotations, interactive mapping, and sitemap exporting as PDF, CSV, or JSON file formats are easily possible.

Do not forget to explore their free vector icons and their integration for creating better designs and efficient apps.

Treejack

With the use of Treejack, making topics more findable is easy within your website.

Whether you are creating a new website or making improvements to your existing sites, Treejack gives you access to the perfect tools you will need to make your website.

With Treejack, you can always find out where and what to rectify to prevent people from getting lost on your site.

  • With Treejack, insights come faster to you and provide you with an option to conduct unmoderated tests. This way saving excessive use of resources, time, and money can be prevented easily.
  • Insights come fast and can be used efficiently and sharing insights come easy.
  • Benchmarking and testing also become easy with Treejack.
  • The swift design makes it easy with the tool.
  • It also helps you create designs of websites and apps easily by allowing you to research while keeping the analysis alive with the tool.

With Treejack, create content to support your visual appeal. Testing tree structures is easier and it allows the use of a lot of free vector iconsto enhance the visual appeal of your website or app.

Craft

Craft is a plugin from InVision and works on Sketch and Photoshop. It is different from other UI/UX tools due to its procurator content. Craft is also useful to designers in a lot many different ways.

  • It is capable of syncing the content you are working on with Sketch and Photoshop thus saving time for you.
  • Craft provides you everything you need for prototyping designs to collaborating them on the same platform.
  • It helps in creating different styles, helps with edits and various other tweaks to update the board.
  • With it, you can access all Getty and iStock images and also allow you to fill and recreate layouts using better visual options.
  • Mockups can be filled with more useful content over time.

With Craft, your prototypes can be interactive and collaborative. With Craft, you also come across the creation, maintenance, and evolution of different design systems.

You also get an API to access different colors, text styles, and also different icons including the freedom to use free vector icons.

InVision Studios

InVision is just not the maker of craft but comes with an entire UI application suite that can be of immense value to UI designers worldwide. It brings up easy-to-design tools, and helps in making to-and-fro communications easy. Collaborators can not only share their work but can easily receive feedbacks and document alterations well with this tool kit.

  • With InVision Studios, you get access to a digital whiteboard that easily allows you to brainstorm your ideas giving a chance to everyone to voice out their opinion.
  • Use the Freehand option to navigate your team members through your designs.
  • Get access to rich customer insights to innovate, redesign and rebuild in better ways.
  • DSM allows you to make your designs scale on the creative and consistency measures.
  • With InVision, you can create a design or an experience that can feel real without even using coding as an option.
  • A handoff that is completely pixel perfect and that helps you promote transformative collaboration.
  • InVision allows you to use free vector icons for better product designing purposes.

With the use of free vector iconsavailable in all file formats, you can just not save your time but add to the vector flavor easily within your website.

Proto.io

Proto.io is one of those UI design platforms where you can create real looking prototypes. Testing, integrating, organizing, and creating accurate mockups can save a great deal of time in the next processes.

With Proto.io you can access 250+ UI components and tools, 1000+ templates, and 6000+ digital assets.

With Proto.io micro animations are always possible within your designs. It offers you 18 different and unique transition features, timeline animations, and advanced animations with different filters and shadows. With it, you can change the color, opacity, font, rotation, resizing, and even scaling properties easily.

They support video, audio, gif, and Lotti support. Customized easing, masking, and implementing reusable components is amazingly simple with Proto.io.

Within its 6000+ digital assets, you get to find static and animated icons (including the feature of implementing free vector icons into your designs) and also provide ample stock images and sound effects to choose from.

Wrap up lines

These eight suggested tools can provide you with the best technicalities and can make your life as a designer more thrilling. They will be the best UI tools in the market this year and the most wonderful aspect of these tools are that most of them are renovating them every day with latest techniques.

Starting from adding new features, images, icons including new additions of free vector icons and other functional availabilities makes these the best in the market. If you start using one, chances are that you will grow immeasurably with the growth of these tools.

The world of UI and UX is always evolving and if you want to stay ahead you will need to go with more dynamic platforms compared to the static ones. Our suggestions are a go-to list you can follow in the year 2022 for your needs. Whether a designer or a user looking for the UI experience, do consider using tools that can provide you a wholesome experience and provide support on multiple aspects of your needs.

After all, your user experience must be well served in the end.

Technology

Key Reasons Why On-demand Service App Is Trending Right Now

The idea of on-demand services has completely changed the way people think about accessing things. The number one thing that everyone is worried about these days is how to balance their personal and work lives – sometimes they don’t have enough time for both! On-demand apps bridge this gap, as well by making it possible for customers to find what they need when needed without having to make a trip inside or download an app first. These types of mobile applications should be high on every company’s list in order to promote efficiency within any industry.

Businesses are growing increasingly competitive and the thought of staying put in one place and watching the business grow is no longer the case. Organizations are actively fighting to put forth their products and services in front of potentially paying customers as much as possible. One way to make that happen is by targeting millions of mobile users already using mobile applications.

Yes, businesses are already using web and mobile applications to better facilitate their customers. But that is still not enough convenience as per the expectation and requirements of the customer. Instead of connecting the customer to the business, businesses are now reaching the customers through on-demand services applications.

As the demand for applications that connect customers to services grows, custom on demand app development services are gaining immense popularity in the industry. In order to understand why on-demand service apps are gaining such global acceptance, we’ll look into some of the key factors in depth. 

What is an On Demand Services Application?

An on-demand services application is a mobile app that provides access to various types of service providers from around the world. These apps can be used for tasks such as finding an electrician, booking a flight or even hiring childcare professionals. A user searching for someone who does drywall installation would type in their search into their phone and get results with prices and reviews all at once.

What are the Benefits of On-Demand Application Development?

A few benefits of an on-demand application are that it is personalized, the experience is all at once and each user can customize their own app.

Some things to consider when creating a service provider directory:

  • Consider what features you want your users to be able to do (saving favorite providers? Reviewing them?)
  • What types of services should you list?
  • Are there any specific requirements for your company such as a certain look or branding style?
  • How long does this feature take? How much time will I need? Make sure not to include these questions in your content.

What are On-Demand Services Solutions?

On demand services and solutions are any such web or mobile-based software applications that are used to cater to the needs of the customers at any particular moment in time. These on-demand services can be specific to a niche or generalized for a larger industry-based use case.

On-demand services can be used to hire very specific services for domestic purposes or even services that have become part of the sharing economy on their own.  Uber and Careem are great examples of on demand ride sharing services and others of the like used specifically in the food delivery category.

The primary purpose of on-demand applications is to connect consumers to business/service in minimum time as possible, minimizing any intermediaries in between, all at the convenience of when a customer wants it.

Types of On-Demand Services?

On-demand applications find use in a range of industries with new use-cases springing up every now and then. However, these are the most widely used areas where on-demand applications are being used:  

  • Food and Delivery
  • Home and Domestic Services
  • Retail Delivery
  • Professional Services
  • On-demand Ecommerce
  • Cosmetics and Beauty Service
  • Commute and Travel
  • Healthcare and Telemedicine
  • Logistics

How Custom on Demand App Development Fits Into 2021

Most of the year 2020 went in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, where no country, economy, and or industry was left unaffected by its direct and indirect after effects. Every form of industry whether industrial, manufacturing, and services came to a grinding halt due to the overwhelming uncertainty and mystery that surrounded covid-19 at the time. With fears of massive outbreaks and the loss of life, business slowly started shutting down. However, three to six months into the global pandemic, it became clear that life and business needed to work alongside the Covid-19 social distancing guidelines and the minimum use of contact services among many guidelines.

Due to stringent guidelines regarding the unnecessary movement of people and the prohibition of the use of public contact devices. The need to explore alternate solutions became the need of the hour, not only should the solutions address the social distancing factor but also be easily integra table with existing industries. This led to the advancements and development in on-demand services via custom development channels. By connecting businesses/service to the customer directly, customers became well facilitated and could request services at their will. This trend continued to follow from the Q2 2020 till present and sees no end as of yet. As consumers become more accustomed to on-demand ecommerce and other delivery channels that provide them convenience and comfort from the palm of their hands through mobile apps, custom on demand app development services will always be required.

Reasons Why On-Demand Service Apps are Gaining Popularity

Increased Business Opportunities

By using on-demand mobile applications, industries and businesses can multiply their business opportunities. Mobile applications provide greater coverage and increase the chance of reaching out to new and existing users, introducing the business and services to previously unreachable consumers.

Provides Customer-Centric Services

One of the reasons for their growing popularity is the special type of connection between business and customer that an on-demand application is able to make. Not only are both parties connected more deeply but the consumers are also able to find personalized services at their designated time and requirement.  

Strengthens Brand Value

Since consumer expectations are changing with the passage of time, they expect more from businesses that meet their convenience and comfort. The business with an on-demand mobile application is considered more value providing than the one with just a basic mobile application. When a customer feels satisfied with a certain product or service, it automatically reflects positively on the brand’s identity and value. The same is the case with customer experience when trying to either acquire and use a specific product or service.

Provides Security

Performing any form of transaction online involves dealing with some sort of personal information of customers. By using an on-demand mobile application, the chances of that personal information becoming secure increases, making sure customer confidentiality is never compromised.  

Increased ROI

One of the core reasons for their fame is the ROI boost on-demand applications provide to businesses.

By providing personalized services and providing greater value to customers, customers end up becoming more loyal to their brands and continue to be long-term paying customers. For new consumers that use on-demand applications, they are more likely to convert and further contribute to the revenue generation all together.

How On-Demand App Development Helps Small Businesses in 2021?

The growth in digital technology has led to the development of new technologies and businesses models, for example mobile technology and on demand services. As businesses scrambled to find potentially new ways to reach out millions of users. New concepts were explored that would position businesses with a strategic edge.

Combining mobile application technology and the aim of personalized services, saw the introduction of ‘on demand services’ to the world. The popularity of on-demand applications made it a great contender to be used in a range of industries. Now, there is a growing trend towards on demand service app development, as small businesses aim to share a piece of the pie, by satisfying customer expectations at all costs.

To shed lighter as to how on demand app development is bolstering smaller businesses in 2021. We compiled a brief yet information article for your reading.     

What is On Demand Service App Development?

To simplify understanding, let’s break it down into two parts – ‘On demand service’ and ‘App Development’. On-demand service means that a consumer can request to receive a certain service of some sorts. Which does not involve any intermediaries in the form of administrators or support staff to put the request in effect manually. This process to request and its enactment is all carried out automatically. 

On demand service app development refers to the production of such applications that fulfil the requirements as mentioned above. On demand service applications are considered to be a bridge layer between consumer and business. Basically, linking potential consumers to businesses that are providing a range of services, immediately and anywhere.

A Pandemic and the Growth of On-Demand Services

Consumers today are equally focused on the ease and flexibility of purchasing as they are with the quality of the final product or service they intend to acquire. Bring in an unseen pandemic with global consequences into the equation. A large number of consumers were bound to their homes, limited in mobility to only the essentials of places or supply rendezvous.

Due to strict government regulations regarding Covid-19, a range of businesses, including some digital and most brick-and-mortar ones were greatly affected. Not to mention the people across the world, left to adjust to a new limited way of living. With the added health risks of getting infected with a virus that is highly communicable through the air. People were even more hesitant to leave the security and comfort of their homes.

Limited consumer to business interaction did not stop people from digitally searching for essential services and household goods. Spending and buying increased over ecommerce platforms and skyrocketed the growth of on demand services. Allowing users to purchase products directly from their mobile devices, anytime and anywhere and have it delivered to their doorstep. Services like grocery delivery, taxi and ride sharing, accommodation and rentals can now easily be booked through an on demand mobile app. 

Multiple industries are making use of some sort of an on-demand service app. The growing fame and popularity of on demand service app development that can satisfy user interest for prompt delivery are in development. Becoming one of the top priorities for newer businesses that are centered around the concept of on demand services

How On Demand Services Affect Businesses for Good?

Improved Business Opportunities

Despite the growing competition, the on-demand service app market is a playground of opportunities. The thought of creating an idea into reality is highly possible for most day to day of jobs. Businesses can quickly use services of an on-demand app development company to bring their ideas into reality.

Suitable for Multiple Industries

On demand applications have a special advantage to be used in a range of businesses from different industries. All thanks to the on-demand service model, where businesses from every industry are aiming to directly connect themselves to potential consumers to increase visibility and drive business growth.   

The Mobility Factor

The consumer of today is more mobile than ever. Not only that, they are increasing at an exponential rate. Businesses want to take advantage of the 4+ billion mobile users. The customer base of most industries prefers to avail their services online, and are now increasingly moving towards on-demand services.

Location Tracking

Incorporating location tracking as part of on-demand service app features, helps both businesses and consumers alike. For businesses it can be in the form of fleet management, by maintaining an effective geographic spread. Whereas for consumers, expected delivery times can be shown, based on the GPS location of the Driver/rider. All of this information is viewed back by the consumer, at their side of the on demand mobile app.

Conclusion

The primary goal of on-demand applications is to provide effective and quick services to potential consumers without intermediaries. As smaller businesses become further aware of the potential benefits of this service model, more on demand service app development will take place. On-demand services simplify the seller-consumer journey, allowing businesses to satisfy customers requirements as they particularly require.

Instagram, Social Media Marketing

Top 7 Instagram marketing tips you must follow

4 Comments

The days when brands distributed flyers or seminars for advertisings are long gone! Ever since social media marketing’s popularity rose to the skies, businesses have been hopping on the trend rapidly. It is popular, helps you reach audiences far and wide, increases your overall traffic, and budget-friendly! 

Instagram is one of the precious gems in the world of social media. It used to be a site where people postered pictures of aesthetically pleasing food and fancy travel destinations, but now it has become much more than that! With over 800 million monthly users and new features being added every other month, Instagram has turned into a worldwide business platform! 

According to stats, 90% of Instagram users follow at least one business account. And the remaining 10% must have come across at least two to three ads while scrolling through their feed in leisure! This site also carries a mind-blowing number of influencers who have a massive fanbase.  

There are plenty of marketing opportunities on Instagram, and if you adopt the right methods, you can watch your business grow in no time! In this article, you will come across seven must-follow Instagram marketing tips! Read further and learn more! 

1. Use a Business Profile 

Before you begin strategizing and plotting your yearly marketing plan, make sure your Insta profile is switched to the business format. The several benefits that come along with using a business account.  

Your Instagram account turns into a business website, and followers can contact you by pressing the message button in your profile. Like Facebook’s advertising tools, you can access and publish the Instagram Ads feature. 

It is also super handy, as you can keep track of your analytics and insights and gain information about your impression statistics and audience reach. All these free perks must not be let free, so switch to a business account now! Here’s how you can do it. 

Sign up for an Instagram account and search for the hamburger icon on your profile. Click on it and choose the Account option from your settings. Then tap “Switch to a professional account,” and you are done! 

If you already have a general account, head to your settings, and switch to a business account from there! 

2. Make visually pleasing content  

Instagram is all about the eye candy; if your content visually captures, you are in for more than a handful of perks! Leave behind the straightforward, informative content and try some photography! However, you don’t have to use the best DSLR out there necessarily! Grab your smartphone and use it to capture your products or service options and edit to make them sharp, crisp, and straightforward. Instagram has a bunch of eye-catchy filters so that you can incorporate them too! 

If your post is animation-based or uses video-style infographics, make sure to use bold captions. The message in your video should stand out, and you can complement it with music! 

To make your brand or business seem more loyal and user-friendly, you can post some behind the scenes videos or pictures. These include the manufacturing process or some story-telling sessions. You can also implement authentic user-generated content or programs. 

If your videos are longer than 60 seconds, use the IGTV feature to share your content.  

3. Write well-thought, fun captions 

Instagram is a visual medium, but astonishingly, people pay attention to the post captions too! The caption is where you get to show the people your brand’s voice and visions. You can talk about the post and also give the audience an insight into what your business does. If your caption and post are interesting enough, they might head to your profile page, and you can earn a follow! 

If humour or creative thought is your strength, don’t be afraid to incorporate some of it in your post captions. Your tone affects the brand’s image so, make sure it is positive and compelling. 

Instagram captions can include up to 2,200 characters, so use the space! Write to them according to your target audience’s style and pay attention to the grammar. If possible, add in some information about your other products and services similar to the one in your post! 

4. Use accurate hashtags 

Hashtags are one of the best ways to increase your reach and get exposure from new audiences. When people type in keywords of what they want on search engines, Instagrammers use tag searches. Consequently, an easy way to get discovered is by followers who are interested in your niche. 

The social media platform allows users to use up to 30 hashtags, but it is ideally not recommended to use all of them. They clog up your caption and make it look irrelevant and bothersome. They make it seem like a spam post, and that may turn off some followers or customers. 

Instead, you can go for seven to nine hashtags for a small and simple outlook. Also, make sure they are entirely relevant to your content or business like escape rooms so that the seekers can find what they are precisely looking for.  

You can also incorporate trending hashtags, as that brings larger audiences to your page or post. If your brand has a good following list already, you can start a trend or hashtag that complies only with your brand. In this way, you can make a statement and earn a steadily growing brand reputation. 

5. Hop on the Reels! 

Ever since the popular video-sharing platform, Tiktok was banned in several countries globally, and Instagram came up with a similar feature called Reels. The tool allowed users to create 15-second video clips with in-built editing, audio tracks, effects, filters, and themes. Ever since the feature made an appearance, it was widely accepted and cherished as much as the starkly similar app, Tiktok. 

A few of the initial brands that hopped on to reels for campaigning and advertising were Louis Vuitton and Sephora.  

Although the video content is as short as 15 seconds, Instagram teams it up with so many tools that make a space to create excellent content. Informative, entertaining, or simple, your videos will shine on reels and attract hundreds of customers! 

Another advantage of this option is that while Instagram posts usually show up on the follower’s feed, reels are displayed to everyone! So, that is a fantastic way to increase your reach and engagement on Instagram! 

The engagement rate is also much higher than Tiktok, and viewers can easily access your profile. 

6. Sponsored Ads 

If you are looking for growing brand exposure, website traffic, generating new leads, and moving current ones done the funnel, you can try sponsored ads through paid advertisings. Put in some money behind your posts, and Instagram will advertise your brand to your target audience. 

With concern to the costs, it is not possible to give you an accurate number, as they are based on various external factors.  

According to Andrew Tate from AdExpresso, these ads’ cost depends on the audience, and the feedback received. He found out that Instagram ads are slightly pricier than Facebook ads, and they may cost around $5 per CPM (cost per click). Fortunately, advertisers have control over their advertising budgets as businesses can choose between a daily budget and a lifetime budget. 

7. Influencer marketing  

As mentioned before, Instagram has a large base of influencers who work as outstanding marketers! Instagram fashion models, lifestyle bloggers, and artists are now a thing, so you can partner with them to introduce your product or service to their follower list. 

If you find an influencer who promotes a similar niche as your brand, they can advertise your product in their content in return for a paid partnership. You can also carry this out by free product compensations or affiliate compensations. 

This strategy builds a persona for your brand, and influencers can use their creative freedom to promote your business. This organic method is also great for getting up and personal with your audience. The reason for their success is the genuine and authentic product endorsement that comes along with it. 

While looking for influencers for your brand, make sure they have clear communication skills and genuinely love your products. If they have these qualities, the advertisement naturally becomes authentic and genuine. 

Conclusion 

On Instagram, millions of likes are being handed out to the other Instagrammers every minute and hour of the day. It is home to 2 million advertisers and 25 million business profiles, and they keep growing with every passing minute! In the last year, the market has increased dramatically by 76 million people! 

The user-friendly tool also has loads of other features like reels, filters, AR effects, and music! The platform has so much to give; all we have to do is receive! So, if you want to see your brand flourish, you will have to make use of this golden opportunity in the best way!  Implement these essential marketing tips in your Insta-business strategy, and with consistency and effort, you will see the results!

Author Bio

Charlotte Lin is a content creator at escaperoom.com. She’s a passionate young woman, mother to an amazing nine-year-old and an avid reader. Over the years, writing has helped her explore and understand the world as well as her own self. She loves to travel, meet new people, and spend quality time with her daughter. You can find her on LinkedIn.

Chatbot, Technology

Understanding Your Users- The Ultimate Logic Behind Building your Chatbot!

Today’s technological advancements have enabled the round-the-clock availability of information and help on-demand to people via chatbots. Chatbots are software programs that can converse with human beings. This software is powered by rules and sometimes AI (Artificial intelligence). They help users find information about brands, services, products, etc. and assist with buying online.

Studies say that AI chatbots (Artificial Intelligence chatbots) enhance conversion rates. This is because they simplify the users’ web page search and scroll processes and give them an instant answer. This saves a lot of time and brings in quicker conversions. Another reason how chatbots improve conversion rates is by being personal and interacting with your users like a salesperson.

Chatbots work by understanding your users. This blog tells you more about how chatbots work, how they improve conversions, how they understand their users, and finally, the basics of building your chatbot.

How Do Chatbots Work?

The chatbot technology functions with the help of natural language processing (NLP). Even if the term NLP may be new to you, the technology is not. For, it is the same technology used in voice recognition systems used by Google Now virtual assistant. Some other common virtual assistants using this technology are Microsoft’s Cortana and Apple’s Siri.

When a user types in a text message, the chatbot reads and processes it. This process is referred to as “parsing.” After this, it attempts to comprehend and interpret the user’s message by employing a complex series of algorithms. It then chooses an appropriate response from a selection of responses and relays it to the user.

Some chatbots offer an exceptional conversational experience, making it difficult to figure out whether it is a Chabot or a real person you are conversing with. Others are much easier to identify. Look at the case given above; if it hadn’t been mentioned who is stating what, it would have been extremely difficult to know whether the conversation was between two humans or a human and a chatbot.

How do chatbots improve conversions?

Humans usually don’t open up freely when talking to a real person online. This is mainly due to stigma, which is completely removed when a bot takes a human’s place on the other side. So, they are more likely to be free when they know that they interact with a chatbot. This is especially true in the case of sensitive stuff like mental health tools.

Further, many people prefer talking with chatbots due to several reasons, says a study. The prime factors that motivate people to use chatbots include-

  1. Productivity:

Chatbots provide quick and effective assistance or access to information. Since there is no waiting time, and since many browsing and searching procedures are eliminated, productivity is extremely improved.

In the above-given example, you can see how the chatbot assists the user in availing of different financial services. This makes the process easy and time-saving for the user.

 2. Social and Relational Factors

Chatbots enhance social experiences through their conversions. Chatting with those helps humans beat away the feeling of loneliness while feeling secure that they are not judged.

Entertainment

Chatbots can be funny too. They can entertain users when they are bored and be useful with their funny tips. This can relax them.

Curiosity

People like to explore the abilities of chatbots or try something new with them. This is because of the curiosity evoked by the relative newness of the chatbot technology.

So, it is the productivity, Social and Relational Factors, entertainment, and curiosity factors that make people interested in chatbots. The ultimate reason behind chatbots increasing conversions is their ability to understand users.Here is detailed information in this regard.

How do chatbots understand their users?

What makes chatbots useful is their understanding of their user’s needs. Users want to get assistance or information as quickly as possible with as little friction as possible. And chatbots deliver this. Unlike apps or websites, they eliminate the signup or sign in processes. And if they gain access to your social profile, they can instantly personalize information.

Based on their complexity, chatbots are classified into two sub-classes: simple chatbots and Smart or Advanced chatbots. The Simple chatbots work based on certain pre-set commands, while the Smart chatbots are intuitive and powered by AI.

Simple chatbots

Simple chatbots work by following certain pre-written keywords. Each command is written by the developer using regular expressions or other types of string analysis. In situations where the chatbot doesn’t comprehend what the user is stating, it replies with a statement like “Sorry, I don’t get you.” Below given are a few examples of simple chatbots-

  1. Food chatbots: These chatbots help you find what to eat and where to eat. These are becoming more and more popular among restaurants appearing in local search results. These can suggest a recipe to cook for your meal, a restaurant to dine at, or the ingredients you’ll need to make the dish of your choice.
  2. Weather chatbots: These chatbots give you a quick weather report whenever you ask those for it. People use these to know what kind of weather can be expected in a particular location on that day to make well-informed decisions like carrying an umbrella along, avoiding attending an event held there, etc. 
  3. News chatbots: These chatbots let you know the details of any interesting happening. CNN’s chatbot is one of the best news chatbots out there. You can type in messages like “Politics” or “Medicine” to get the recent stories and info in the concerned field.

Smart chatbots

Smart or advanced chatbots rely on AI to interact with users. So, unlike simple chatbots that present readymade responses, these chatbots respond with adequate recommendations on the topic. Further, it keeps track of all the words stated by the users for processing later. However, artificial intelligence cannot generate amazing user experiences unless a lot of work goes in.

Here are a few examples of common AI chatbots.

Friend chatbots

Despite the increasing conveniences of today, people all over the world experience shallow relationships. This has led them to look for befriending technology, and this is where friend chatbots play their role. Microsoft’s Xiaoice chatbot is used by more than 20 million people in China for a friendly chat.

  1. Appointment scheduling chatbots: These AI chatbots help appointment-heavy industries like dental offices, clinics, salons, etc., schedule their appointments with clients. These bots can also collect feedback/reviews and run “refer a friend” promotions.
  1. Life Advice chatbots: As described earlier, people are free to open up with chatbots. Hence they turn to life advice chatbots to tell them their problems, and it, in turn, helps them think of solutions to those.
  2. Meditate chatbots: These AI chatbots walk users through meditation exercises to help them stay calm. It thus aids users to stay mindful throughout the day, alleviating stress and conflict.
  3. Finance chatbots: People interested in finance in general use these chatbots. These help them to find answers to their finance-related queries securely and conversationally.

The Basics of Building your Chatbot

With chatbots getting popular with each popular day, their potential usage in various fields is continually growing. Every business, ranging from banking to rehabilitation facilities, can benefit from using a chatbot. For, its potential customers are searching online to find the right product or service in the niche.

Launching a chatbot that can answer those customer queries that keep them from converting can increase conversions. For, if your user has already gained value from your chatbot, your salesperson can build on that positive interaction when he comes forward to discuss the sale.

When building your bot, make sure that it can converse with a touch of personality. This can make the conversation more fun and boost user engagement. Incorporate user-friendly language to render the chat more human-like.

Further, back it up with data and results. This will help the AI chatbot to look into previous conversations with users to learn and derive insights. Besides, since you’ll never predict everything your users want, empower users to give feedback directly through the bot. And offer human intervention where your bot cannot handle it further.

Chatbots, though relatively new technology, can be employed by almost any business or brand. These have immense potential in increasing your conversions. For, people like to interact with these than with a real salesperson. The ultimate logic behind its working is getting to understand your users well. So, take advantage of being ahead of the curve and start building your chatbot today!

Author Bio

Shivani is a content writer at NotifyVisitors. She writes SEO articles, blogs, and guest posts for businesses to improve website ranking on SERP. Shivani follows a balanced approach for the quality of content and its marketing. She loves to do creativity, although she had an English major in her graduation.

Instagram

How to Create An Instagram Content Plan For Business: A Complete Guide For Marketers

Are you looking towards organic reach or engagement on Instagram? Then concentrate on content marketing. Spend time to provide engaging and impressive content to your audience.

Well, Instagram is the most fun, overloaded and profit-making social media apps. It has 1 billion monthly users. Instagram attains bags of engagement rate than other social media apps. Instagram provides tons of opportunities to all kinds of businesspeople; it doesn’t matter whether your business is small or big. Due to more competition on all sides, getting organic reach or engagement for your content is quite challenging on this platform. To overcome this problem, I come up with a solution. In this article, you will visit primary but useful guides to create, plan, and optimize your content, especially for your business.

Let’s go,

Set Perfect Content Theme For Your Instagram Profile

Image Credits

Once you created an Instagram profile for your business, decide the theme for your post that is for your content. Relying on your business, you can pick themes for your content. We all know that Instagram is a completely visual platform full of multimedia content so setting separate themes makes your feed attractive and impressive.

For creating a theme for your profile, you need to pay attention to three factors:

  • Color to choose
  • Filters to decide (for pictures)
  • Content-Type

Usually, top brands or companies go with their brand colors; they maintain the same color throughout their Instagram feeds. You can use the Instagram grid by collaging your images and posting one after another. This way of using standard colors or shades for your post indirectly promotes your brands or business. It will create a unique image for your account.

You can choose a color that is mostly associated with or connected with your brand or products. Next, decide what type of content you want to post generally. You can post pictures with videos, or close up faces, and more. Choosing a unique theme is the most incredible way to make people recognize your content always. The theme uses specific filters for your content; it helps your Instagram account stand out from the crowd.

Plan Your Content Marketing On Instagram

Now you have a clear idea about your theme, look at your profile. Next, you have to plan what type of content you want to post. Of Course, you must go with all kinds of content; before that, fix your objective, goals you want to achieve on Instagram.

Image Credits

You have plenty of options for your post, like videos, images, promotional images, and more. Don’t stick with the same kinds of posts and pour some varieties. You can use the publishing calendar to plan your content. It helps to reach your goals quickly; you can save valuable time.

Engagement is everything on Instagram right, so post content that gains more engagement. At the same time,  Impression will boost your engagement rate. You can get more visibility through Snaphappen Instagram Impressions  and it will  help to obtain the audience’s attention. Let’s look after some ideas. You can post funny, hilarious posts, consider your pets, animals shoot their funny activities, and share it with your audience since people love to watch such adorable stuff.

You celebrate national holidays, events by posting pictures related to them. Educational, motivational kinds of videos are quite trending on Instagram; you can try them too. How-to videos or tips, inspirational videos are inexpensive, and you need to spend a lot, but it’s worth it. Instagram is mostly used for showcasing or highlighting the brands or products in front of the people. On Instagram, you can notice many brands trying this method to promote their products/services. For scheduling and planning your content, you can use tools.

Construct Your Content Effectively

If you are a top brand, you can have many employees concentrate on your growth or other social media promotional activities. That is for creating, planning, marketing your content, and moreover, you have any time to focus on social media.

But if you are a startup or small business, only you have to manage all your work. You don’t have much time to prepare, editing the content; you will not be able to post frequently.

Startup’s job is to focus on attracting  their followers and to  maximize engagement levels by posting engaging content. If you have decent followers, your aim  will be to increase your sales rate, drive more traffic to your websites, and promote your brands.

Listen, whether you are a big or small business, your objective is to reach your goals and intention on Instagram, then post regularly, try new ideas. Some tips while creating content on Instagram.

  • Before you plan it, think about the results, analyze if I post this, what type of results, I can make.
  • Whatever content you publish, make sure it is high-quality with a captivating look. Posting fascinating pictures increases people’s attention.
  • Ensure your images or videos have accurate figures that are dimensions and ratios that need to be followed on Instagram. You use editing tools to create content with the correct measurement.

Use Scheduling Methods For Your Instagram Post

Image Credits

Posting at the best times gives you good results for your content. Try to analyze your Instagram insights to find audience timings. Once you identify their timings, then post your content according to that. Consistently is the crucial factor on social media, so post content regularly. Scheduling methods help you to plan and post according to fixed times. Use scheduling tools to schedule your content to post regularly on your feeds.

Optimize Your Content

Optimizing your content is very important to make your content popular. This can be easily achieved on hashtags. Hashtags are one of the essential factors of your content. Make sure you are selecting the right hashtags for your content. Before using hashtags for your content, analyze them. Do some research to find popular and worthy hashtags for your content. Simultaneously, a location tag is also essential to target specific locations in your niche. Don’t come up with too much length caption; keep it short and crispy.

Winding Up

Before posting content, planning is mandatory to make your post a success. Remember to use color, background, and theme for your content. Make sure your post is connected with your business. Most often, analyze and measure your results always. We hope the above guides help you to create content effectively on Instagram.

Author Bio

Mary Kyle is a content developer and marketing manager who works at Snaphappen. She has written more trending articles on social media and has a handful of experience in delivering engaging content